The Heavy Armory · Chapter 11
Air Weapons
What an aircraft carries, from 1914 to today.
The pilot fires fixed guns, rockets, and missiles, and adds the aircraft's Handling to the attack. A flexible gun has its own gunner.
Bombs are released over a target on the ground or the water. The range is Engaged: the aircraft must pass over it, within reach of whatever is defending it.
Shooting at aircraft from the ground is covered in Chapter 3.
Aircraft Machine Guns
Synchronised guns, wing guns, flexible mount
10 3 Long —
Gunnery 6000 Military 1915 Ballistic Auto-Fire, Linked 1, Pierce 1, Breach 1, Limited Ammo 6
A pair of rifle-calibre guns firing through the propeller or from the wings, or one on a ring for an observer. Fired by the pilot, they add the aircraft's Handling to the attack.
Aircraft Cannon
Twenty-mil cannon, wing cannon, motor cannon
Light 3 3 Medium —
45000 Military 1936 Ballistic Auto-Fire, Linked 1, Pierce 1, Limited Ammo 8
A pair of automatic cannon in the wings or nose. Two or three hits bring down a fighter of its day.
Rotary Cannon
Gatling cannon, Vulcan, the buzz saw
Light 4 3 Medium —
250000 Military 1959 Ballistic Auto-Fire, Accurate 1, Pierce 1, Limited Ammo 6
A six-barrelled cannon firing a hundred rounds a second. Each trigger pull is a one-second burst, and the magazine holds six of them.
Light Bomb
Hundred-pounder, cooper bomb, fragmentation bomb
Light 5 4 Engaged —
800 Military 1914 Blast Blast 3, Inaccurate 1, Limited Ammo 4
The bomb of the first air war, and of light aircraft ever since. The aircraft must pass over the target, which must be on the ground or the water.
General-Purpose Bomb
Five-hundred-pounder, iron bomb
Standard 9 3 Engaged —
4000 Military 1930 Blast Blast 6, Inaccurate 1, Limited Ammo 4
The standard bomb. A dive bomber, which aims its whole airframe, ignores Inaccurate. A guided kit, from 1968, replaces Inaccurate 1 with Accurate 2 and costs 25,000 a bomb.
Heavy Bomb
Two-thousand-pounder, blockbuster, bunker bomb
Heavy 12 3 Engaged —
16000 Military 1940 Blast Blast 8, Pierce 2, Inaccurate 1, Limited Ammo 2
A bomb for ships, bridges, and bunkers. A penetrating case, from 1944, has Pierce 5 and Blast 4.
Aerial Torpedo
Air-dropped torpedo, the fish
Heavy 12 2 Medium —
50000 Military 1917 Blast Pierce 2, Inaccurate 1, Limited Ammo 1
A torpedo carried under an aircraft and dropped low and slow toward a ship. The aircraft must fly straight and level at Short range of the target's guns on the turn it drops.
Unguided Rockets
Rocket projectiles, rocket pod, sixty-pounders
Light 4 4 Medium —
8000 Military 1943 Blast Blast 2, Pierce 1, Inaccurate 1, Salvo 2, Limited Ammo 8
Rails or pods of rockets under the wings. A full salvo from a fighter-bomber hits like a cruiser's broadside and lands about as precisely.
Air-to-Air Missile
Heat-seeker, radar missile, dogfight missile
Light 5 3 Long —
120000 Military 1956 Blast Lock-On, Tracking, Interceptable, Anti-Air, Limited Ammo 4
A guided missile for shooting down aircraft. Early ones need the attacker behind the target. From 1980 they lock on from any angle. Flares and chaff are the countermeasures of Chapter 3.
Air-to-Ground Missile
Tank-killer missile, stand-off missile
Standard 8 2 Extreme —
100000 Military 1972 Blast Pierce 5, Lock-On, Interceptable, Limited Ammo 4
A guided missile carried by attack helicopters and strike aircraft. It is the Vehicle Missile Launcher with a better view.
Anti-Ship Missile
Sea-skimmer, cruise missile
Heavy 12 2 Extreme —
1200000 Military 1967 Blast Pierce 3, Blast 4, Lock-On, Tracking, Interceptable, Limited Ammo 2
A large missile that flies low over the sea to a ship it finds with its own radar. It is fired from aircraft, ships, trucks, and submarines, from beyond the horizon. One hit cripples a destroyer.