Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Would it be possible for a guardsman to carry an autocannon, like the model i'm working on in the pic bellow, seeing as it's disassembled a bit? If not, what if it was supposedly made of a lighter metal, to make it easier to move around a battlefield?

Guardsmen have to carry the autocannon around, how else is it going to move? Theoretically 1 guardsman can move it, but the team has 2 members.

ph34r wrote:Guardsmen have to carry the autocannon around, how else is it going to move? Theoretically 1 guardsman can move it, but the team has 2 members.

I'm going to have the other model carrying the tripod and ammo

"Try Again" Bragg carried and fired an auto cannon by himself. But he was a real beast of a man.

Carrying is one thing, shooting while standing is another.

The Elysian drop troopers would be your best example. They pack around lighter versions of heavy weapons and only really need another member to carry extra ammo and be there spotter.

Nah. Guard heavy weapons aren't meant to be one-man-portable. Heck, they're even bigger now than they used to be, and back in the day they came on wheeled chassis.

If you REALLY want some sort of cool way of having them carry it around, I'd make it a "takedown" autocannon, with one guy holding the barrel, tripod, and ammunition, while the other guy holds the other part.

Look for the old RT guard heavy weapons guys.
ALL of the heavy weapons were shoulder mounts, and guard used the same weapons as marines.

I still have a guard autocannon carrier in my army. He's got an anti-materiel rifle (it's a small autocannon).

If you have Dawn of War 2, it illustrates well how one guardsman might hold it.

basically, i assume the IG moves their heavy weapons like out modern army does.

there are 2-3 guys.

someone carries the ammo, someone carries the tripod, someone carries the gun itself.


DOW2 retribution has the whole gun breaking down into a backpack mount. the 2nd guy is just a spotter/extra meatbag.

gpfunk wrote:"Try Again" Bragg carried and fired an auto cannon by himself. But he was a real beast of a man.

Hell, in one story he..

gpfunk wrote:"Try Again" Bragg carried and fired an auto cannon by himself. But he was a real beast of a man.

Yeah, he could probably be the first in 40k to dual wield heavy bolters.

What is this Bragg guy from?

Gaunt's ghosts, from memory.

He's from the school of "spray and pray" firepower. Hence the "try again" nickname.

We called the gunner in my unit "lumberjack" because of the number of trees he killed during "contact!" moments.

Ork lootas carry and fire autocannon equiv. all the time.

I'd say go with it

Going to parrot it would be carried like modern heavy weapons, some poor bastard gets the gun, the other poor bastard gets the tripod, ammo is normally split between em.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
And I thought Bragg carried a heavy bolter?

And in DoW II you can see Sargent Merrick caring Autocannon, Lascannor or Heavy Bolter on his back. And after he deploys it he shots from it.

That's the perfect example for this fluff.

The Carl-Gustav 84mm, and USA M67 90mm, are both combat proven recoilless rifles which are fired from the shoulder.

wizard12 wrote:

gpfunk wrote:"Try Again" Bragg carried and fired an auto cannon by himself. But he was a real beast of a man.

Hell, in one story he..

Spoiler:

Ties two autocannons together and fires them at the same time... one the move (IIRC)

Gaunt's Ghosts autocannons aren't 40k autocannons. They're basically modern machine guns, which makes that feat impressive but not unheard of.

Fetterkey wrote:

wizard12 wrote:

gpfunk wrote:"Try Again" Bragg carried and fired an auto cannon by himself. But he was a real beast of a man.

Hell, in one story he..

Spoiler:

Ties two autocannons together and fires them at the same time... one the move (IIRC)

Gaunt's Ghosts autocannons aren't 40k autocannons. They're basically modern machine guns, which makes that feat impressive but not unheard of.

Correct, they are called autoguns.

wizard12 wrote:

gpfunk wrote:"Try Again" Bragg carried and fired an auto cannon by himself. But he was a real beast of a man.

Hell, in one story he..

Spoiler:

Ties two autocannons together and fires them at the same time... one the move (IIRC)

Actually, two heavy bolters and he fires them from the top of a truck cabin.

Sckitzo wrote:Going to parrot it would be carried like modern heavy weapons, some poor bastard gets the gun, the other poor bastard gets the tripod, ammo is normally split between em.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
And I thought Bragg carried a heavy bolter?

It changes.
His main thing is an autocannon but he has used heavy bolters, rocket launchers, twin linked storm bolters and even an assault cannon.

Necanor wrote:

Fetterkey wrote:

wizard12 wrote:

gpfunk wrote:"Try Again" Bragg carried and fired an auto cannon by himself. But he was a real beast of a man.

Hell, in one story he..

Spoiler:

Ties two autocannons together and fires them at the same time... one the move (IIRC)

Gaunt's Ghosts autocannons aren't 40k autocannons. They're basically modern machine guns, which makes that feat impressive but not unheard of.

Correct, they are called autoguns.

Autoguns? You mean the 40K version of an assault rifle?


I thought Brag's autocannons were heavy weapons. Maybe you mean that they were heavy stubbers?

Abnett does make clear distinctions about autoguns, stubbers and autocannons. I think it is a genuine autocannon that Bragg uses, which can be moved by a strong individual (see Merrick for example). However, he does occassionally describe their fire as "chattering" or adjectives akin to that, which makes me think of a more lower-calibre faster-firing weapon than that which is seen in DOW1 or 2. Probably just a mistake on Abnett's part but i presume he intends the autocannons in his books to be the same as the tabletop ones.

sphynx wrote:Abnett does make clear distinctions about autoguns, stubbers and autocannons. I think it is a genuine autocannon that Bragg uses, which can be moved by a strong individual (see Merrick for example). However, he does occassionally describe their fire as "chattering" or adjectives akin to that, which makes me think of a more lower-calibre faster-firing weapon than that which is seen in DOW1 or 2. Probably just a mistake on Abnett's part but i presume he intends the autocannons in his books to be the same as the tabletop ones.

Abnett explicitly refers to his "autocannons" as .30 or .50 caliber, which pretty much rules them out as 40k autocannons.

As for the original topic, just look at the IG heavy weapon crews in Dawn of War II for a good example of how this works; one guy takes the gun, while the others carry the ammunition.

.50 Cal is a tank heavy machine gun- ie Heavy Stubber.

Still impressive to be toting a Heavy stubber around and firing it (let alone 2) even for a strong man.

Fetterkey wrote:
Abnett explicitly refers to his "autocannons" as .30 or .50 caliber, which pretty much rules them out as 40k autocannons.

Not necessarily. I agree that the autocannon seems to have a rather large caliber (probably 20 or 30 mm IMO), but the galaxy is wide, and I would perfectly accept an autocannon with a smaller caliber.

Compare the DKoK autocannons to the cadian ones, and you'll notice that the DKoK autocannons have a much smaller caliber than their cadian counterparts, to the point that I sometimes confuse them with heavy stubbers.

Fetterkey wrote:

sphynx wrote:Abnett does make clear distinctions about autoguns, stubbers and autocannons. I think it is a genuine autocannon that Bragg uses, which can be moved by a strong individual (see Merrick for example). However, he does occassionally describe their fire as "chattering" or adjectives akin to that, which makes me think of a more lower-calibre faster-firing weapon than that which is seen in DOW1 or 2. Probably just a mistake on Abnett's part but i presume he intends the autocannons in his books to be the same as the tabletop ones.

Abnett explicitly refers to his "autocannons" as .30 or .50 caliber, which pretty much rules them out as 40k autocannons.

Abnett also "explicitly referred to his autocannons as .30 or .50 caliber" before any real, definitive caliber had been set for autocannons in 40k. At the time that Abnett had set down the caliber, the modeled autocannons were still on little carriage mounts.

The idea that a 40k autocannon could be a .50 caliber machine gun is honestly quite absurd. Not only is the weapon itself substantially larger than such a gun would be (even with the old 2nd ed models), its effects are totally incommensurate with those of a .50 caliber gun, which is more comparable to a heavy stubber. Note further that "autocannon" is a real world weapon classification, and that such weapons are generally 20-40mm calibers; for reference, a .50 cal is 12.7mm.

Fetterkey wrote:The idea that a 40k autocannon could be a .50 caliber machine gun is honestly quite absurd. Not only is the weapon itself substantially larger than such a gun would be (even with the old 2nd ed models), its effects are totally incommensurate with those of a .50 caliber gun, which is more comparable to a heavy stubber. Note further that "autocannon" is a real world weapon classification, and that such weapons are generally 20-40mm calibers; for reference, a .50 cal is 12.7mm.

After digging back through the Gaunt's Ghosts books today(had quite a bit of free time today after finishing some work for college), I couldn't find any real mention of the autocannon; at least of its caliber. The autocannon mentions I could find were pretty consistent with what we have from the rest of the descriptors, where autocannons are tearing through light armored vehicles and infantry.

I could, however, find plenty of mention of heavy stubbers, mentioned as being .30 or .50 caliber,--some firing AP rounds and doing similar damage to the autocannons.

Is it possible you confused the two descriptions?