Lasgun
The humble (and we mean humble) Lasgun is the standard-issue armament of the average Imperial Guardsman in the Warhammer 40,000 setting. Given the incalculable number of Guardsmen under arms and the sheer scale of the Imperium itself, it is safe to say that the lasgun is probably the most common weapon in the entire galaxy that isn't some underhive piece of junk like stub guns, knives or other miscellaneous weapon.
The name is rather obviously a portmanteau of "laser" and "gun", but argument rages over how the word is meant to be pronounced. Many claim that the "las" should be pronounced "layz" (or in other words say that it's pronounced with a long "a", as the first part of "laser"), but others contend that this sounds retarded, and "lazz-gun" (or a short "a" sound, as in "glass") is a better pronunciation. According to Games Workshop, its name is pronounced "Laze-gun", however, Jeremy Vetock and Duncan Rhodes both say "Lazzguns," so it really is a toss up. (And unimportant). Although given the diversity of cultures in the Imperium, it should likely have many pronunciations (although one would hope those two are the main ones). Furthermore the overwhelming majority of the Imperium speaks in Low Gothic, which sounds nothing like English.
It is almost universally described in the fluff as discharging with a sharp crack (caused by the beam ionizing the air it travels through), but some authors describe the lasround as either a "bolt" as in Star Wars or as a "beam" as in Dawn of War. Other features of the weapon have greater variation - some Black Library works and items such as the Imperial Infantryman's Uplifting Primer describe the weapon as possessing a fully automatic firing setting, this feature is represented by Rapid Fire rule on the tabletop, but not represented in Dark Heresy - this can be explained away by virtue of the fact that there are many different patterns of Lasgun produced throughout the Imperium.
There is also some dispute as to the color of the "beam". Some fluff claims it to be blue, while games like Dawn of War portray it as red or something of a reddish-yellow. The popular Gaunt's Ghosts series of novels by Dan Abnett say that the Imperial weapons fire blue "beams", while the Chaos weapons fire red ones. In order to fix this mess, we have proposed a Scientific fact on the issue...
- The Fact: the energy of each individual photon is determined by the frequency (i.e. colour), the power output is therefore 'photons per second'. This means the colour comes from frequency, not power output. So the colour is the laser beam scattering off bits of stuff in the air. If the beam is too high a frequency to be seen, then it could ionize the air, creating a beam of light as the electrons return to their atoms. The colour of light produced depends on the gasses that make up the atmosphere so the laser would be different colours on different planets! Or they could be infrared in which case they can't be seen no matter what. On the other hand, it is possible that they might fire a tight, lower-energy beam nearly concurrently with the actual damaging beam as a sort of "tracer round". This could be adjusted to certain wavelengths to produce specific colors, which might serve friend-or-foe identification purposes, to tell from which side the shots are coming from. Well, even if it is infrared, if the beam is condensed enough, ambient photons will be deflected off of the stream of photons being projected, making the beam visible. Besides, it's DAoT, ain't gotta explain.
Why the Lasgun sucks
IT'S NOT A LASER! IT'S A LITTLE LIGHT BULB THAT BLINKS! - Guardsman Woody.
The lasgun is rather pathetic compared to the mainline arms and armour of most of the other armies of the setting, useful only by virtue of the fact that Guardsmen come in ridiculous numbers (except in comparison to Tyranids or Orks) and the application of statistical probability. The weapons are often derisively referred to as "flashlights", based on their individual usefulness, although this is arguably more of an example of how ridiculously tough everything else is in the setting.
The 6th Edition rulebook describes the lasgun as severing limbs at close range but further away it only goes about as deep as the liver, explosively flash-boiling said liver and all other squishy bits in the laser's path. They are on the same level of effectiveness as autoguns (which are basically AK-47s IN SPACE), except lasguns are even more durable, reliable, accurate (due to low to no recoil and the fact that the beam is not affected by gravity or wind, though shooting though a dust cloud or fog on the other hand is more problematic, so a B over all for atmospheric effects) and less dependent on massive ammo supply (a single battery can afford up to 100 shots, while an autogun magazine is usually 20-30 bullets), and of course you can recharge their batteries from Chimera generators, sunlight or even fire, while an autogun is useless once out of ammo, (and given the general competence of Munitorum depots, you'd probably end up with ration packs instead of ammunition, though this of course applies to lasgun power packs, as well).
Why the Lasgun is still being used
Although better known as a "flashlight", some players also call it "The AK-47 of the 41st Millennium", albeit ironically. Instead of being reliable, tough, relatively inaccurate and having a tendency to show up in the hands of just about everyone, it's reliable, common as fuck (like 100 for every human in the galaxy common), pretty damned tough, and accurate but that is only by 40k standards. ...So, yeah, I guess it is the AK of the 41st Millennium.
The lasgun has very low recoil, especially in comparison to a bolter or even an autogun. More like a jolt than a kick, probably, due to sudden change in air pressure. The powerpack that the weapon uses can fire about a hundred shots before running empty and can be easily recharged through any standard Imperial power supply, direct sunlight, and even heat. A relatively common practice of Imperial Guard units cut off from supplies is to place their lasgun power packs in open fires, although this does lower the pack's lifespan considerably and is frowned upon.
The weapons are rather more useful in Dark Heresy than they are in the tabletop wargame, as their reliability, availability and plentiful ammunition become real considerations and they are rather more useful against the human foes that an agent of the Inquisition is likely to face.
The las guns power can be changed, the Death Korps of Kreig guardsmen usually use more powerful bursts than say Cadians do, this gives the weapon more killing power at the expense of ammunition and a higher chance of the gun being damaged. Considering that everything in Imperium is made out of at least some ceramite (which varies between being "slightly resistant to heat" to "near immune to heat" depending on the quality of the ceramite) makes the lasgun appear weak. This is sometimes used as an excuse to explain the variation of damage that the las gun does in varying stories.
One last thing about Lasguns is that they can be used as last-ditch grenades by basically making the entire power pack empty into the gun without ever actually firing it. It turns the Lasgun into an explosive comparable in power to a Melta charge. It can really fuck up the shit of even a Chaos Dreadnought who thought he was going to make some Guardsmen go squish, and instead finds that their face gets blown off.
One must wonder, considering how ass-cheap powerpacks and the part of the lasgun this power dumps everything into to make it go "boom" are, why doesn't the Imperium make standard-issue grenades like that? Seriously, imagine guard squads with grenades comparable to melta charges (miniature nukes) and remember that squads can get multiple assault grenade launchers. The answer is probably that the Techpriests would go completely apeshit for desecrating holy technology and try to secede. Again.
Three counter-arguments to the lasgun-power-pack-grenade come readily to mind. Firstly, the power pack's detonation timing is highly unpredictable, and as we all know, anything that endangers an imperial infantryman will absolutely not be considered only the most fanatical (or stupid) Guardsmen would be willing to use it regularly. Secondly, while a lasgun is pretty inexpensive in comparison to, say, a bolter, its power packs are not that cheap to produce (they make up for it by being so easily recharged). Only veteran soldiers tend to carry more than a small handful of clips. Thirdly, the blast yield from a power pack is never described as being particularly strong. In the aforementioned example the soldier managed to open a dreadnought's faceplate just enough for the local flora to kill it, which sounds commensurate to a glancing hit, estimating the explosion closer to that of a krak grenade (S6) which, while powerful, is nothing like the famous melta bomb.
In all seriousness, the lasgun is very deadly when used in the hands of someone competent, and as being an effective combat weapon goes, anything not too heavily armored, like Traitor Cultists, Eldar Guardians, Ork Boyz and Tyranid Gaunts, are bound to be ridden with Laser holes. The Vostroyan Firstborn, for example, are renown for their precision with their lasguns and rewarded with high kill counts against everything from Orks to traitors. For who knows what idiotic reason, instead of capitalizing on the instant hit and perfect precision of the lasgun to strike at vulnerable points on enemies (thereby crippling most foes quickly and easily to be mopped-up later), the vast majority of the Guard is trained to shoot at the center of mass (there by doing nothing and dying in droves). This works fine if your weapon is actually capable of doing jack to the target's armor (like a bolter or autogun). Which a lasgun is not. However if you pray to the Emperor and get really lucky (given the Guard's numbers, they will get lucky, a lot), you might be able to take down a Chaos Space Marine (or equivalent) with it anyway - though Space Marines are also known to die to pointy sticks on occasion. Also, a point-blank shot at maximum power from a lasgun can penetrate a Space Marine's helmet and blow his brains out.
A quote from Black Crusade (RPG) sums up the las gun perfectly: "The Legionnaire that scoffs at a lasgun has not charged across an open field against a hundred of them."
Uses for the Lasgun
- Warming soup
- Cigarette lighter
- Changing TV channels
- Selling to buy a new weapon
- Pissing off Thunderhawk pilots
- Shining in enemies' eyes
- Throwing at people (may cause more damage than shooting it at them)
- Burning ants
- Paperweight
- Laser sight for a boltgun
- Light shows
- Laser tag for kids (who are probably more dangerous than the gun itself)
- Lighting candles on birthday cakes
- Fighting anything that doesn't happen to be the equivalent of a Space Marine or larger.
Other laser weapons
The lasgun also comes in carbine, pistol, and sniper ("long-las") varieties, and the Imperium fields many other weapons based on the same technology, such as the hellgun (a powerful lasgun powered by a backpack power pack), the mighty lascannon, the even bigger volcano cannon and turbo-laser, the even bigger Defense Laser, and the bigger still laser weapons mounted on starships. Must be a different type, though, because a broadside from a Retribution class battleship can devastate half a continent depending on the calcs. A single barrage from an Imperator class Titan can devestate an entire city with weapons as strong as modern day nukes. Keep in mind how large an Imperial city is.
Hot-Shot Weapons
A variant of the Lasgun, and unrelated to the Hellgun despite conflicting canon and similar usage, the Hot-Shot Lasgun and Hot-Shot Laspistol are weapons used primarily by the Imperial Guard (and presumably other arms of the Imperial war machine). These are juiced-up versions of the Lasgun charge pack inside a normal Lasgun. They are designed to be used by elite troops or officers, who are generally better shots. Instead of the Hellgun's tactic of using lots of batteries to shoot several times per second, Hot-Shots use a super-concentrated laser blast to achieve the same kind of armor-penetrating power.
Sniper Rifle
In the good old days the 41st millenniums sniper rifle was the poorly named 'needle rifle' which was in fact a kind of laser weapon. Well, partly. It had two parts to each shot. It fired a narrow beam laser to burn through armor, and then it fired a 'needle' bullet; a spike of some kind of metal filled with horribly poisonous toxins. With the armor removed first, the spiky bit all but ensured a kill if you hit, spurting deadly death juice into your unfortunate body. Sadly they weren't especially well conceived weapons (hitting the same spot with two different weapons, one that responds to wind and gravity, and the other that doesn't is something of a challenge) so they've pretty much been written out of the setting these days. Now the term "sniper rifle" is used fairly loosely in the Imperium; many sniper rifles are simply over-powered lasguns called long-las rifles, while many others (such as those used by Space Marine Scouts) are high-velocity slug-throwers which have more in common with autoguns than they do with energy weapons. Then there are other more exotic variants firing poisoned darts or even stranger payloads. All of these variants have pretty much the same effect on the target, unless you play older editions or use special characters who have rules that say otherwise. Or play Dark Heresy.
Effect of being hit with a lasgun
It's easy to imagine being hit with a lasgun would be like having a hole burned into you like an ant being burned by a magnifying glass. That, of course, is not nearly grimdark enough to be the truth.
A military DEW (or Directed Energy Weapon since military forces love acronyms) comes in several different types, from microwave weapons which are mostly used to short out electronics, to Electrolasers which use lasers to ionize the air enough to allow an electrical current to be projected. A lasgun however is most like to be a pulsed energy laser. A pulsed laser works by imparting so much energy to an area so fast, that it turns into plasma and explodes. Modern versions create a pressure wave strong enough stun and knock a person out (termed "Pulsed Energy Projectile), but they are less-lethal weapons while the lasgun is not.
Being hit with a lasgun would look and feel more like you were hit by a concussion grenade held up to your chest. You would see a bright light as your skin or clothing vaporized into plasma. Higher-power laser weapons might cause enough of an explosion to blow you back and maybe knock you unconscious. The explosion would create enough hydrostatic pressure to likely scramble your internal organs and maybe snapping your bones in parts of your body distant from the explosion. However, if the lasgun hit something like armor, or even clothing it would induce an explosion only on the surface of the armor leaving the rest of you safe, though most assuredly stunned and dazzled from the plasma explosion. This explains why the Lasgun has a AP of only -. A Bolter's bolts on the other hand explode inside the target, meaning it can deal with armor and tough alien targets like Orks much easier. The lasgun is clearly nothing to sneeze at; it's just that the vast majority of the Imperium's enemies are capable of taking that kind of punishment most of the time and still keep on fighting.
TL, DR: It's not fun.
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