[AtE] Wasteland vehicle improvised weaponry
 

Went and rewatched Mad Max II aka The Road Warrior and one thing struck me; the lack of pintel or turret mounted automatic firearms.

If the setting doesn't have a glut of automatic weaponry and ammunition conveniently lying about, what other options does an aspiring warrior of the wasteland have for arming his minion's vehicles? Arbalests (possibly with a Polybolos type repeating action), pneumatically* powered harpoon guns and multi barrel dart guns? Could a black powder shaped charge be used as a warhead, rendering the above as a TL2-3 equivalent to the RPG?

What other options could there be?

Should I be delving into my back issues of the Pyramid?


*An air compressor, a tank that can still cope with high pressure, and Bob's your uncle...

Re: [AtE] Wasteland vehicle improvised weaponry
 

Pretty sure you've got to have a high explosive to get the Monroe effect. Black powder can't produce a true shock wave.

Re: [AtE] Wasteland vehicle improvised weaponry
 

<Australian swearing> I had this naive hope for javelins with shaped charge warheads, sort of a Tiki torch, but with added BOOM.

Re: [AtE] Wasteland vehicle improvised weaponry
 

I'm not sure if post-apocalyptic vehicles will have thick enough armor to require shaped charge warheads.

Re: [AtE] Wasteland vehicle improvised weaponry
 

Warriors of the wasteland can aspire... But yeah, you're probably right.

Re: [AtE] Wasteland vehicle improvised weaponry
 

You can use a small engine to spin a small wheel at very high RPM just above a second, freely rotating wheel. Then you can feed projectiles like bolts between the two wheels, and they get accelerated to the wheel's effective linear velocity. It's basically a baseball pitching machine, but it's sufficient to get crossbow bolts up to a couple hundred miles per hour, and it's almost an automatic weapon.

Re: [AtE] Wasteland vehicle improvised weaponry
 

Hmmm
-Flamethrowers (don't use in a head wind)
-Hydraulic claws and arms (great for walls, defences and spectacular crashes if used at speed)
-Blackpowder cannons (who doesn't want a battle truck that can fire broadside)
-Compressed air (spud gun 'o death, ammunition limited only by barrel dimensions)
-Home made rocket (of dubious accuracy)
-oxy acetylene powered vortex cannon (big, loud, short range dubious effect)
-Water cannon (the unwashed masses may have spare water)

Re: [AtE] Wasteland vehicle improvised weaponry
 

If the bad guys have flamethrowers available, and don't mount at least one to an electric guitar, they deserve to lose wasteland cred for Doing It Wrong!

Re: [AtE] Wasteland vehicle improvised weaponry
 

Some time during the late 70s / early 80s, the Australian industrial punk band SPK got a support gig for the Dead Kennedys somewhere in San Francisco. As they were going through their set, a bunch of skinheads started hurling abuse etc at the Australians. One of them, put down his angle grinder, and picked up a homemade flamethrower, and sent a burst of over the heads of the audience (specifically the skinheads). Fortunately the roof etc didn't catch light. The vocalist leaned into the microphone, and just said "...next time he'll aim lower".

Gig proceeded without any additional unwarranted audience participation.

Re: [AtE] Wasteland vehicle improvised weaponry
 

Which, for me, then begs the question "How thick should the armour be?

Common cartridges in the setting are 22LR, .223R, and .308/7.62x51mm.
So... what would be the thickest armour an aspiring road warrior would require to protect themselves against 7d pi?