|
01-04-2018, 07:15 AM | #1 |
Join Date: Aug 2015
Location: Kenai, Alaska
|
Logistically Viable Weapons AtE
It's an After the End Falloutisk scenario and I'm a tactically adept warlord trying to arm my conscripts with a cheap to manufacture, reliable, easily maintained weapon as we try and build an Autocratic state out of the ruins of america.
Considering barely trained conscrips armed with this weapon will be the bread and butter combatant my PCs will be facing I'm not looking for a weapon that's "good", ideally it would be reliable and cheap at the expense of other traits like wounding ability, accuracy, and weight. Two ideas I've had so far have been a stripped down basic bolt action rifle, and the TRW low maintenance rifle. Though I want the gun to start off on the low end of effectiveness, I'd also like it have plenty of room to improve through play, either becouse the players have taken a liking to them and want to improve the design or becouse this faction has grown and can now provide a better weapon. |
01-04-2018, 07:23 AM | #2 |
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Maitland, NSW, Australia
|
Re: Logistically Viable Weapons AtE
Training, morale, and logistics will be a lot more important than equipment. If you can put together a small force of highly disciplined pikemen with some cavalry and sniper support, you will roll over most forces that have crude firearms.
__________________
Compact Castles gives the gamer an instant portfolio of genuine, real-world castle floorplans to use in any historical, low-tech, or fantasy game setting. Last edited by DanHoward; 01-04-2018 at 07:29 AM. |
01-04-2018, 07:45 AM | #3 |
Join Date: Jul 2006
|
Re: Logistically Viable Weapons AtE
For Fallout:New Vegas fans that would seem to be part of the doctrine on Caesar's Legion - mostly armed with melee weapons and javelins but have been able to conquer huge areas with superior organisation and aggression.
|
01-04-2018, 02:03 PM | #4 | |
Wielder of Smart Pants
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Ventura CA
|
Re: Logistically Viable Weapons AtE
Quote:
You don't see trained pike being fielded against even green preadolescent children armed with AKMs in the conflicts in central Africa, for example, and the suggestion that you should seems ... unsound. During the 19th century trained spearmen like Zulus and Comanche abandoned spears for firearms all over the world. Presumably they had sound military reasons to do so. Last edited by sir_pudding; 01-04-2018 at 02:09 PM. |
|
01-04-2018, 02:40 PM | #5 | |
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Maitland, NSW, Australia
|
Re: Logistically Viable Weapons AtE
Quote:
__________________
Compact Castles gives the gamer an instant portfolio of genuine, real-world castle floorplans to use in any historical, low-tech, or fantasy game setting. Last edited by DanHoward; 01-04-2018 at 02:48 PM. |
|
01-04-2018, 02:52 PM | #6 | |
Wielder of Smart Pants
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Ventura CA
|
Re: Logistically Viable Weapons AtE
What kinds of weapons does that mean specifically? What firearm is crude enough to qualify but still can use the stockpiles of M855?
Quote:
Tercios seem like a especially bad idea against machine gun emplacements. I don't really see anyway that can possibly work out without unsustainable casualties. Last edited by sir_pudding; 01-04-2018 at 02:57 PM. |
|
01-04-2018, 02:59 PM | #7 |
Join Date: Oct 2004
|
Re: Logistically Viable Weapons AtE
Pyramid 88 has an article on Post-Apocalyptic Guns that will answer this question very thoroughly.
|
01-04-2018, 02:47 PM | #8 |
Hero of Democracy
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: far from the ocean
|
Re: Logistically Viable Weapons AtE
its only during late TL5 that you see the gun achieve true battlefield dominance. As you state DURING the nineteenth century. And at that point in time, you still had cavalry formations that attacked in melee combat and carried the day against fire-arm carrying troops. Massed charges only become infeasible against TL6 machine guns or units of well drilled troops quick firing breech-loaded rounds. Such weapons show up only in the last 10 years of TL5, and the grand majority of TL5 is fought with muzzle loaded fire arms and bayonets.
of course, after the end settings have a weird tech level, and if you've got a factory churning out ammunition back home... you've got a clear advantage on everyone else, who is counting their bullets. As for what ammo you should be churning out, that probably depends on what the most common gun remaining in the area is. I don't know what the most common caliber in the US, but 12 gauge shotgun rounds are a strong contender. Well over half of all shotguns I see seem to use this round. The biggest concern with such a round is range. Of course, that's more than one round: are you making just slugs also buckshot rounds?
__________________
Be helpful, not pedantic Worlds Beyond Earth -- my blog Check out the PbP forum! If you don't see a game you'd like, ask me about making one! |
01-04-2018, 07:58 AM | #9 | |
Join Date: Jun 2006
|
Re: Logistically Viable Weapons AtE
Quote:
Historically the flintlock rifle displaced most everything else because it could be repaired (and copied!) by village blacksmiths, so I think that's the lowest level target - a tolerably accurate firearm that can be manufactured by craftsmen who probably aren't skilled enough to make a sword or other fancy pre-gunpowder weapons. The issue with bolt action rifles isn't so much the gun - they need tighter tolerances than the flintlocks, but if your society has machine shops at all it can make useful numbers of them easily enough - it's the supply of cartridges which are rather intricate chemical and metallurgical machines themselves.
__________________
-- MA Lloyd |
|
01-04-2018, 08:54 AM | #10 | |
Join Date: Dec 2012
|
Re: Logistically Viable Weapons AtE
Quote:
|
|
|
|