The Heavy Armory · Chapter 9
The Industrial Battlefield
Between 1860 and 1938 the gun learns to load from the breech, absorb its own recoil, and fire without smoke. The machine gun, the torpedo, and the armoured turret all arrive. So does the war that used them.
The first two entries and the last are personal-scale crew weapons.
From this chapter on, prices are in present-day US dollars.
Tripod Machine Gun
Water-cooled gun, medium machine gun, belt gun
10 3 Extreme 9
Gunnery 4000 Military 1890 Ballistic Auto-Fire, Pierce 2, Vicious 2, Sustained Fire, Emplaced, Crew 3, Prepare 2
A belt-fed gun on a heavy tripod with a water jacket. It fires for as long as it has belts and water. Sustained Fire is the reason it changed warfare. A crew of three carries gun, tripod, and ammunition between them.
Trench Mortar
Light mortar, stovepipe, knee mortar
10 4 Long 5
Gunnery 1500 Military 1915 Blast Indirect, Blast 8, Siege 2, Crew 2, Inaccurate 1
A tube, a baseplate, and a bipod. A bomb dropped down the muzzle fires itself. It cannot attack inside Medium range. One person can fire it alone at Slow-Firing 1.
Quick-Firing Gun
Three-pounder, six-pounder, Hotchkiss
Light 4 3 Long 3
15000 Military 1880 Ballistic Pierce 1, Crew 3
A small breechloader firing fixed ammunition as fast as it can be fed. It was built to stop torpedo boats and ended up on the first tanks and armoured cars.
Pom-Pom
One-pounder automatic, revolving cannon
Light 3 4 Medium 2
18000 Military 1880 Ballistic Auto-Fire, Crew 2, Limited Ammo 25
A machine gun scaled up to fire small explosive shells. It is the ancestor of every automatic cannon in the next chapter.
Field Gun
Seventy-five, eighteen-pounder, quick-firer
Standard 5 3 Extreme 5
60000 Military 1897 Ballistic Blast 3, Pierce 1, Crew 5
A recoil-absorbing field gun that stays laid on its target between shots. A good crew fires fifteen rounds a minute. It may fire shrapnel: Blast 5 and no Pierce.
Heavy Howitzer
Six-inch, 155, heavy field howitzer
Heavy 8 4 Long to Extreme 8
150000 Military 1900 Blast Indirect, Blast 5, Crew 8, Slow-Firing 1
The gun that dominated the trenches. It is still the standard heavy artillery piece a century later, with longer range and better shells.
Siege Howitzer
Super-heavy howitzer, railway gun, the big gun
Capital 14 3 Extreme 20
900000 Rare 1910 Blast Indirect, Blast 8, Pierce 3, Emplaced, Crew 20, Slow-Firing 4, Prepare 20
A gun built to break a fortress. It moves in pieces by rail and takes hours to assemble. Its shell is aimed at a map square, and what is in the square is gone.
Breechloading Naval Gun
Four- to six-inch gun, casemate gun, deck gun
Standard 6 3 Extreme 6
120000 Military 1880 Ballistic Pierce 2, Blast 2, Crew 6, Slow-Firing 1
The secondary gun of a battleship, the main gun of a destroyer or a gunboat, and the deck gun of a submarine or an armed merchantman.
Turret Gun
Eight- to ten-inch gun, monitor gun, cruiser gun
Heavy 10 3 Extreme 12
500000 Military 1862 Ballistic Pierce 3, Blast 3, Crew 12, Slow-Firing 2
A heavy gun in a rotating armoured turret. The first ironclads carried two. A cruiser of 1910 carries eight.
Battleship Gun
Twelve- to sixteen-inch gun, main battery
Capital 16 3 Extreme 30
4000000 Military 1890 Ballistic Pierce 4, Blast 6, Crew 30, Slow-Firing 3
The largest weapon ever put on a ship, mounted two or three to a turret. It throws a shell the weight of a motor car to the horizon. Only another battleship is armoured against it.
Torpedo
Locomotive torpedo, tin fish, tube
Heavy 12 2 Long 3
50000 Military 1870 Blast Pierce 2, Inaccurate 1, Limited Ammo 1, Slow-Firing 3
A self-propelled underwater weapon running straight on a set course. It has no guidance: the attack is the aim. It hits below the armour belt. Against a target that has seen it and can turn, add 1 Bane Die. A homing torpedo, from 1943, has Lock-On and Tracking and loses Inaccurate.
Naval Mine
Contact mine, moored mine, infernal machine
Standard 10 3 Placed 4
8000 Military 1860 Blast Pierce 2, Limited Ammo 1
A moored charge with contact horns. It attacks the first ship of Scale 3 or more to pass within Engaged range, with 3 Ability Dice against Average difficulty. Finding one is a Hard Perception check from the bow and needs daylight.
Depth Charge
Ash can, depth bomb
Standard 8 3 Engaged 3
3000 Military 1916 Blast Blast 4, Inaccurate 2, Limited Ammo 8
A drum of explosive with a pressure fuse, rolled off the stern. It attacks only a submerged target the dropping ship is passing over. Sonar, from 1920, removes one Bane Die.
Flame Projector
Static flamethrower, tank flamethrower
10 4 Short —
Gunnery 6000 Military 1915 Fire Burn 4, Blast 5, Emplaced, Crew 2, Limited Ammo 10
A large flamethrower fixed in a trench wall or the hull of a vehicle. Against a structure or an open-topped vehicle it has Siege 2.
