[(E)]

What about this
The warlord irate Irene has been working on producing weapons for her soldiers.

This has been an ongoing process with iterative improvement as the gunsmiths' skills improve and more resources are acquired.

All the guns use two types of ammunition. Either reloaded old world ammunition or a newly crafted blackpowder cartridge somewhere in the .40 to .50 range. (Pick an early pistol cartridge for an idea on stats). This new cartridge is only made in one caliber and it is rimmed, it's a fairly simple ball of lead.

The lowest level mooks have the earliest of the guns that Irene had made, double barreled pistols that are little more than zip guns, no trigger just pull the hammer back and let it go. Some unscrewing is required to reload. And the mooks have the usual assortment of tetanus inducing melee weapons to rely on.

The next level of mooks have more advanced break action double barreled pistols with triggers. They still rely on melee weapons though some might have more than one pistol.

Specialist mooks have weapons like break action carbines that fire the new round, or multibarreled monstrosities that fire volleys of bullets.

Rebuilt and repurposed firearms are used by senior mooks, and these allow for all sorts of strangeness to be attempted in the pursuit of more firepower. Bent barreled break action bullpup shotguns are a real (if obscure) thing. If it had four barrels it might suit an underling of Irene.

To plug some of the tactical holes that this weapon selection has there are a few power loading crossbows and other esoteric weapons. But also grenades, which serve as a primary weapon when the warlord wants something done NOW!

The key thing is a progression of weapon development. The next level of advancement might be revolvers.

Anyway, just some musings.