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I've been playing around with the lore of my own custom IG regiment and I thought it'd be interesting to consider what kind of weapons they'd use if they didn't have access to lasguns, but instead gunpowder based firearms.

I've been leaning towards some style of battle rifle (a rifle sized weapon with single, burst, and automatic firing options using full sized rifle cartridges) but I wanted to get your guys thoughts on the matter. If you had to arm a IG regiment but didn't have access to lasguns, what would you use? Would there be some real life gun you'd think would work?

If you look at “autoguns” they are (game) mechanically identical to lasguns, and are assumed to be roughly equivalent to modern military-grade assault rifles.

I had been wondering about that. Some of the lore seems to conflict when it comes to the "deadliness" of lasguns. I've read in some places that agree with what you say, lasguns being comparable to modern day military grade assault rifles.

But there's also been some that state that a lasgun shot (power setting not clarified so I'm assuming they meant on max power) hit a target with the same amount of "energy" as a .50 cal round.

A .50 cal machine gun is comparable to the “heavy stubber” that is Heavy 3, S4, 36”. One less S and one less AP compared to a heavy bolter.

The two most common places to find heavy stubbers are on Chaos Cultists (that use autoguns) and as add-ons to IG vehicles. Pintle mounted so occupants can fire from the hatch like modern Humvees and the like.

I would use Autoguns because I think they look cooler than Lasguns regardless of the merits.


https://madrobotminiatures.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=9_12

https://victoriaminiatures.com/collections/weapons

Tons of options available.

 Ouze wrote:
I would use Autoguns because I think they look cooler than Lasguns regardless of the merits.


https://madrobotminiatures.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=9_12

https://victoriaminiatures.com/collections/weapons

Tons of options available.

The options is another thing, specifically the ammo. I've heard there's so many different types of ammo in 40K for gunpowder weapons, even some explosive shot that basically turns rifles into small bolters.

 Hedlum wrote:
I had been wondering about that. Some of the lore seems to conflict when it comes to the "deadliness" of lasguns. I've read in some places that agree with what you say, lasguns being comparable to modern day military grade assault rifles.

But there's also been some that state that a lasgun shot (power setting not clarified so I'm assuming they meant on max power) hit a target with the same amount of "energy" as a .50 cal round.

That could also indicate a Long-Las (sniper rifle) which I'd assume is equivilent to a .50, would would like up. I believe it would go as follows


Modern Assault Rifle (AK47, M16, etc) = Regular Lasgun = Regular Autogun
Modern .50 cal MG = Heavy Stubber
Modern .50 cal, semi-auto or bolt action rifle = Lasgun firing max power/Long Las rifle = 40k Auto-Sniper Rifle

A lasgun would be more deadly than a rifle of today. But not by an order of magnitude

It's useful to think of single ticks like S3 to S4 as orders of magnitude.

You’ll have to forgive me for using ft/lbs but that’s how the power is measured for ammunition in the states.

An auto gun would be about 1500 ft/lbs at point blank range
A lasgun maybe 2-3k
Heavy stubber 10-15k
Bolter maybe 5k + explosive effect
Heavy Bolter maybe 10k+ explosive effect

Energy isn’t everything. Because light fast projectiles have a lot of energy compared to heavier slower moving ones but the big heavy bullets stay together better when punching through hard targets.