The much Maligned Lasgun

[grimmas]

I've been considering Lasguns of late. I know, l know not the most exciting of topics but I do this to wind down 🙂. This all started after viewing the 173rd comedy cartoon on a Facebook group I frequent about "flashlights" oh the mirth. It's one of those tired old jokes that needs to go, I blame the red period (which is my default option with most things). Popular myth is that this is a nickname that Guardsmen give lasguns. It isn't it's a quip made by Ian Strickland in an article on the Veteran skills in the second edition Imperial Guard Codex. Something about the life expectancy of a human armed with a flashlight in a galaxy full of Orks, space marines and daemons (apologies I can't give a full reference and quote after a regrettable incident with an ex my WD collection is missing a chunk). It's was quite funny at the time but after being endlessly rehashed over the last 20 years it's become a bit tired.

Lasguns far from being a joke are actually superb pieces of military hardware. They are easy to mass produce (once the tech is in place). They are supremely reliable containing very few moving parts, requiring no lubricant and they don't have ejection ports or open barrels that can be fouled or allow dirt in them. Lasers are also very very accurate. They travel at the speed of light for a start that means they will reach the target nearly instantaneously. Light also won't be effected by levels of gravity that a human soldier could tolerate so the the shots won't drop so no parabolic effect. So what the weapons is aimed at it's going to hit. The Lasguns is also individually versatile, add a long barrel and it's a sniper weapon (I'm assuming it increases the lethal range as it won't make any difference to the accuracy ), stick a hotshot power pack in it and it becomes an elephant gun or overload it and it become an explosive.

Their ammunition is a battery that can by mass produced in one piece they don't need for bullets and magazines. The battery contains enough juice for 100 shots and is smaller and lighter than the magazines that appear on auto/bolt weapons while providing a greater capacity. These power packs could also be combined to power the larger Las weapons which would drain them instantly but this may have been altered (annoyingly)bro the larger weapons needing special power packs. However they can be recharged easily either from a power source, left in the sun or popped on the fire. This is amazing. Basically means that Guardsmen are incredibly self sufficient they can resupply themselves with ammo.

It's much maligned stopping power is also very good. Torso shots to humans are considered so likely to be fatal they aren't worth treating. A good hit is also capable of severing limbs. That takes massive energy to achieve. In modern terms you are looking at .50 BMG to achieve that (which I know after doing a ballistic first aid course run by an ex Army medic which left me knowing far too much detail on these things) . Which incidentally is a round considered massive overkill when used on people it's for shooting light armoured vehicles, planes and non hardened buildings. Yes there are things tougher than human beings in the Galaxy but when you consider they are just as likely to be facing off against other people that isn't so much of an issue. In fact the only mention of its lack of firepower is that it isn't the most powerful weapon the imperium possesses but when you think about what it's being compared to that's not a terrible indictment.

The bolt gun is a ludicrous weapon. It fires a .75 (20mm) round, that's massive for anti personnel purposes it's taking the aforementioned .50 (12.7mm) round and adding a 7.62 mm to it. Incidentally a 7.62 round is considered to be the top end of what the military uses for anti personnel use currently. It is also armour piercing and explosive. Not fragmentation mind you, mass reactive so it explodes inside the target. On people it would literally blow them to pieces.

Here's a picture of something from real life that uses a 20mm explosive round.




Yep that's in a turret on a ship.

Bear In mind as well how strong that makes flak armour in comparison with what we have available today. Modern body armour would not stop a .50 cal round.

Of course I am ignoring game rules as they don't really represent he background too well and each increment represents a massive variety. For example S3 represents the whole range of human strength that quite a range.

So TLR Lasguns are great, yes they aren't very powerful I'm comparison to Boltguns but that because boltguns are so rediculously powerful.