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Did Imperial Army units during the Late-Great Crusade, Horus Heresy, and Great Scouring have access to las-weapons or did they mostly use auto-guns?

Imperial Army as a rule of thumb was more technologically advanced then the Imperial Guard of the 41st Millennium. Their weaponry would more or less be the same except plasma weapons would likely be safer and there may have been other older tech like Volkite weapons.

Lasgun/Flamers/Meltas/Plasmaguns/Grenade Launchers were still the classic squad weapons though.

They also had access to a lot more vehicles. In 40k Super Heavy Companies are rare. In 30k Super Heavy Regiments were plentiful. IE: There were whole armies of baneblades etc.

I would have thought there would also be a greater degree of variety in the Imperial Armour than Imperial Guard. the Guard has the Departmento Munitorium which ensures the standard of every regiment having a lasgun.

The Imperial Army, in the nascent Imperium didn't have such an organisation. Each regiment would have been differed more than they do in 40k. the 30k Imperium was also a lot more accepting of doctrinal or technological differences, further adding to the variety. New worlds with their own technology and militaries were constantly being discovered and their troops integrated into the Imperial Army.

Actually, the Lasgun was not introduced until the 36th Millennium.

The Imperial Army used whatever weapons and technology were present on the worlds of their origin post-Imperial contact. Since most Imperial tech is STC derived, there's some standardization, but it's largely by chance rather than design or intention.

To be quite frank, the early Imperium wasn't too concerned about the Army, it was a second line force used to hold the line in less-important sectors, with few regiments really achieving any kind of fame or recognition by the wider empire.

Unlike many other things, the Imperial Guard is better than it's crusade-era equivalent. More standardized, better equipped and armed, and recieve more attention and priority from the powers that be, both in the Imperial government but the AdMech as well, as the Imperium has come to rely on the Guard much more than it ever did on the Army. Some tech has been lost, which has hurt the Astartes, but the Guard have got a lot better access to tech over the years.

 MajorStoffer wrote:
Actually, the Lasgun was not introduced until the 36th Millennium.

source?

^thats just wrong. The current pattern of lasgun that's standard among many IG regiments (the m35 galaxy) came out in M35. Lasguns were around long before that, even in the DAOT

the Imperial army had the same weapons the IG has now. just more Plasma perhaps.

The one thing they had more of were Vehicles. They had what they have now, but they also had Land Raiders, Rhinos, and other Space Marine vehicles.

LRBTs weren't used till after the Heresy. Instead they had Malcador heavy tanks IIRC.

 Harriticus wrote:
^thats just wrong. The current pattern of lasgun that's standard among many IG regiments (the m35 galaxy) came out in M35. Lasguns were around long before that, even in the DAOT

Ah, that's where I got confused, though I always understood that autoguns were far more common until the introduction of the contemporary lasgun.

I believe there has been a statement about lasguns not becoming standard armament until after the Heresy, but its buried away deep in something like Collected Visions where Black Library authors would never find it so its been contradicted by the novels.

As for the Guard being better equipped - I'm pretty certain the current or previous IG codex has description of a vid-log of a battle that was descibed as being truly ancient because of the long-lost advanced tech the guard are shown to be using (Land Raiders, Land Speeders, Jetbikes..)

 Grey Templar wrote:


LRBTs weren't used till after the Heresy. Instead they had Malcador heavy tanks IIRC.

The wikis are saying the Malcador heavy tank are post HH. Placed into production sometime after, maybe mass produced at that time but not much after. The two 40k wikis might be a good place to look for such info. Both have loads of details about weapons they use from many sources. Sifting though it all may take a long while however.

The wikis reiterate/copy-paste the fluff from Siege of Vraks part 2 which states that some modern Imperials believe the Malcador to have been put into production after the Heresy, possibly to replace the Land Raider in Guard use.

Horus Heresy: Betrayal shows this belief to be not only wrong but somewhat backwards: It was an Age of Strife design produced in great numbers at the start of the Great Crusade, even serving as the "Main Battle Tank" of the Space Marine Legions before being replaced by the Land Raider. By the time of the Heresy it had been mostly relegated to reserves and 2nd line army units. (Malcador having been one of the Emperors closest adivsors throughout the Great Crusade, he wasn't some nobody who suddenly came the fore in the Heresy)

eh 40k contradicts itself all over the place. I wish GW would just pick an official version and go with it. For myself I would use the HH has canon and ignore any older fluff.

I do share your hatred of contradictions - tho I'd say this isn't a contradiction, stating someone believes something to be true is not the same as stating that it is true.

 Hunterindarkness wrote:
eh 40k contradicts itself all over the place. I wish GW would just pick an official version and go with it. For myself I would use the HH has canon and ignore any older fluff.

The FW Horus Heresy book definitively places the Malcador tank as being around during the Heresy. Yes, lots of contradictions but whatcha gunna do.

There's a template on lexicanum that sums up the full arsenal of Legio Astartes weaponry and infantry derived from said book:

http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Template:SMHeresy#.UNcuL29JNq8

Wacha gonna do is pick one as correct and ignore all the rest. The normal 40k way it seems.

Imperial Army had grav-tanks.
Nuff' said.

The contradictions can easily be explained in that the Imperial Army was such a large organization it is certain that different parts of the army could have had completely different equipment.

Its probably a small miracle that Space Marines had such standardized equipment. When you have an army that is conquoring the Galaxy it stands to reason you would use different equipment depending on what was avaliable.

Plus it could take decades for new equipment to get distributed amoung the armed forces till it was commonplace.

 FearTheHappyChair wrote:
Imperial Army had grav-tanks.
Nuff' said.

They also had flying sentinels:

I would assume most Imperial army regiments used Autoguns or Lasgun variants, just like now. Because things have been so stagnant since the Heresy, the current Imperium is kind of a snapshot of those times, minus the more secular religious beliefs.

 Harriticus wrote:

 FearTheHappyChair wrote:
Imperial Army had grav-tanks.
Nuff' said.

They also had flying sentinels:

That's a Drop Sentinal, which they still have. See Elysian Drop Sentinals.

What is that pic of the drop sentinel from? That thing looks awesome.