Stubber: Difference between revisions
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[[File:Sniper_Rifle.jpg|200px|right|thumb|The Exitus Sniper Rifle. Scoring more headshots then the entire Tau Empire combined.]] | [[File:Sniper_Rifle.jpg|200px|right|thumb|The Exitus Sniper Rifle. Scoring more headshots then the entire Tau Empire combined.]] | ||
While the Imperial sniper rifles are generally a rather broad class of weapons, including, for example, the Long-las sniper [[lasgun]]s used by the | While the Imperial sniper rifles are generally a rather broad class of weapons, including, for example, the Long-las sniper [[lasgun]]s used by the Imperial Guard, at least some of the sniper rifles, utlised in the Imperium are actually solid-slug ballistic weaponry, firing high-caliber powerful rounds to achieve maximum range and precision of their shots. | ||
Arguably the most iconic (and dreaded) of such Imperial "solid-slug" sniper rifles are the Exitus rifles, employed by field agents of [[Officio Assassinorum]]'s [[Vindicare]] temple. Each of these rifles is a one-of-a-kind "work of art", being painstakingly hand-crafted by Adeptus Mechanicus artisans to match the particular specs of each individual assassin. It's exceptional range and power also imply that the rifle uses something far more advanced than mere chemical gunpowder combustion to accelerate its bullets (however, the exact mechanics of its action is highly classified by Adeptus Mechanicus top brass). | Arguably the most iconic (and dreaded) of such Imperial "solid-slug" sniper rifles are the Exitus rifles, employed by field agents of [[Officio Assassinorum]]'s [[Vindicare]] temple. Each of these rifles is a one-of-a-kind "work of art", being painstakingly hand-crafted by Adeptus Mechanicus artisans to match the particular specs of each individual assassin. It's exceptional range and power also imply that the rifle uses something far more advanced than mere chemical gunpowder combustion to accelerate its bullets (however, the exact mechanics of its action is highly classified by Adeptus Mechanicus top brass). | ||
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[[File:Stubcarbine.jpg|200px|right|thumb|A Stubcarbine. You would be fooled to think this was an Autogun.]] | [[File:Stubcarbine.jpg|200px|right|thumb|A Stubcarbine. You would be fooled to think this was an Autogun.]] | ||
''Another'' AdMech weapon exclusive to the [[Skitarii]]. The stubcarbine, though small, has the stopping power of the heavy stubbers mounted on the vehicles of the | ''Another'' AdMech weapon exclusive to the [[Skitarii]]. The stubcarbine, though small, has the stopping power of the heavy stubbers mounted on the vehicles of the Imperial Guard. When a squad of Sicarian Infiltrators opens fire with these weapons, the air fills with a avalanche of solid shot that chews their victims to shreds. It can be assumed to have a shorter range to compensate for their high rate of fire. | ||
In general, stubcarbines, judging from how they are described in fluff, seem to be a lightened variant of heavy-stubbers, outfitted with some kind of recoil supression system to allow them being fired as a hand-held weapons by the Skitarii. However, with shorter range due to this weapon sporting much shorter barrell than the actual heavy stubber. | In general, stubcarbines, judging from how they are described in fluff, seem to be a lightened variant of heavy-stubbers, outfitted with some kind of recoil supression system to allow them being fired as a hand-held weapons by the Skitarii. However, with shorter range due to this weapon sporting much shorter barrell than the actual heavy stubber. | ||
Revision as of 17:08, 15 October 2017
Stubbers, or stub guns, are weapons from as early as M2, but mostly 20th century guns (our times) in the 41st millennium. Needless to say, most haven't aged very well when you consider how powerful everything else is. The only thing that they have going for them is they are cheap, they can still kill an unarmored humanoid target, and are durable as hell and depending on its mechanics and care, can be and have been in use SINCE M2. They are incredibly weak against much of the universe's people - in fact, they are the only thing that a Guardsman's paper armor will reliably stop. This should give you an indication of exactly how weak they are. Of course this is for anything below the Stub Rifle, anything above it can guarantee to fuck up your Space Marine quite well. But just remember - every dog has their day. Stub guns are actually capable of downing Terminators if the unlucky marine rolls a 1.
Variants
Flintlock Pistol
Wooo boy. If you want to role play as a 18th century Pirate, then the Flintlock Pistol is for you. These simple black powder weapons can take many forms, from finely crafted pistols constructed for the nobles of low-tech worlds to simple pipe and powder affairs used by underhive scum. They are uncommon and are famous for their low battle characteristics but those which do exist are sometimes very heavily ornamented and carried by high ranking officers mainly as decoration.
Of course, whilst you may scoff at the idea of going into battle filled with tanks and space ships with a 18th century gun, do take note that the more master-crafted versions could be quite deceptively deadly by virtue of incorporating some form of advanced tech into, seemingly, primitive and "backward" design. For example, such constructs could be capable of holding plasma-ammunitions that can crack open power armor in a single shot. So laugh at your own peril.
Musket
Muskets are primitive firearms, utilizing explosive powder and a crude firing mechanism to propel a lead ball. Like the Flintlock Pistol, these crude devices can only fire once before reloading and prone to failure. Slow, inaccurate and unreliable, they are only made and used on backwards planets. However, they are extremely easy to construct and maintain even from scrap-parts and with absolute minimum of skill and knowledge about firearm's operation. For this reason they are know to be quite popular among outlaw members of Hive societies such as the Ratskins and Scalies of the Necromundan underhive. The Planetary Defense Forces of Feral and Feudal Worlds also sometimes make use of muskets.
Like the Flintlock Pistols, master-crafted Muskets could be quite deceptively deadly by virtue of incorporating some form of advanced tech into, seemingly, primitive and "backward" design.
Blunderbuss
A primitive shotgun. Also known as a Scatter Gun, the Blunderbuss is an exceedingly simple weapon made out of one or more short barrels strapped to a solid stock. An explosive charge is primed at the bottom of each barrel, then a large amount of metal fragments, stones, pieces of bone or anything else likely to cause harm are packed in on top.
When the weapon is discharged, it belches out this "ammunition" in a vast swath which will hopefully find itself somewhere in the locale of its intended target.
Outside of primitive societies, such a crude, ineffective and dangerous (to its operator) weapon is only used by the poorest or most desperate members of society. Usually it can be found in the use of criminal gangs, for instance the Ratskin Renegades and Scavvies of Necromunda's underhive.
Scatter Cannon
A primitive weapon found on Necromunda and used exclusively by the Scalies. A scatter cannon is simply an enlarged version of a Blunderbuss or scatter gun with a heavy barrel and a fist sized bore. The greater weight of the shrapnel and explosive charge used in a scatter cannon increase its range and make it a lot more deadly in the cofined conditions of the underhive.
Scalies are the only underhive denizens with the massive strength to take the recoil from these powerful primitive weapons.
Stub Gun
God made men, Sam Colt made them equal, and John Browning made them civilized. It's a basic pistol in two variants: the stub automatic which is like a .45 caliber handgun and the stub revolver which is, of course, a generic revolver. If you're in a gang on a hive world, it'll work pretty well because you're probably going to be shooting at other people without armor, or lightly armored local law enforcement. Very reliable, unlikely to jam, manufacture is a breeze, and ammo is plentiful. However, if you're trying to shoot an Ork, even headshots might just bounce off his skull. Though, the same could be said of autoguns and lasguns, minus the actual bouncing of course.
Hand Cannon
Basically a semi-auto stub pistol on steroids, not unlike real-world .50 cal Desert Eagle of .454 Casull pistols in operation (It is worth noting that at least one model of hand cannon have it's caliber listed as being .54 cal, that equals roughly 13.06mm). Hand cannons are almost invariably heavy and cumbersome by pistol-grade weapons standards, in addition to having unforgiving recoil, requiring a degree of training and physical resilience to wield such a firearm.
However, hand cannon do reward their users with the ability to kill even armoured or resilient to damage (like the Ogryns) opponents. Sort of. They are still closer in power to stub pistols than bolt pistols for instance.
Stub Rifle
Generally, a simple medium/high-caliber bolt-action or semi-auto rifle. Also called the Stubber. Existing in many patterns, generally such a rifle is regarded as lowly civilian-grade weapon or tool. However, it often sees action not as just a hunting or farming tool, but as a combat weapon in hand of lowly insurgents, cultists or militia fighters. It's likely that high powered Stub Rifles could also be seen to use the same or similar rounds to a Heavy Stubber, minus the automatic fire. Its rule 63 equivalents are the Las-lock or Autogun.
Shotgun
Imperial shotguns, in fact, changed little over millenia - they are the same smoothbore firearms, principally designed to either fire buckshot at close ranges or slugs to engage targets up to medium ranges. These are generally simple and cheap in construction and exists in different patterns and models throughout the Imperium of Man. They range from archaic over-and-under shotguns and pump-action ones to the full auto combat shotguns, employed as a signature weapons of Adeptus Arbitres, to models specifically tailored for Space Marine's biology, and thus having great mass and recoil, but also vastly greater stopping power.
Also worth noting is that along with simple buckshot or slug shells, Imperial shotguns can also fire specialised rounds, produced usually by the Adeptus Mechanicus, including the dreaded Executioner-pattern sniper slugs, having the ability to change their trajectory mid-flight and home in on their target thanks to miniature on-board cogitator.
Ogryn Ripper
The Ogryn Ripper Gun is a large, brutal, and simple weapon designed for use by Imperial Guard Ogryns. It is a heavy automatic shotgun, built as simply and solidly as possible in order to survive being used by the Ogryns who use it as much as a club as a firearm. It can fire either a heavy shell or a hail of shot. By design, the Ripper Gun does not have a long range, because the Ogryn's instincts are for close combat.
Ripper Guns are intended to be fired to soften up the enemy before the Ogryns charge into close combat, and are built particularly robustly so that they can stand up to the Ogryn use of them as clubs in melee. Ripper Guns can also be fitted with Ripper Saws. A Ripper Saw is, as the name implies, a saw blade that is attached to the end of a Ripper Gun which is intended to provide the Ogryn with an effective close combat melee weapon once they close with the enemy. The Ripper Gun is one of the few Imperial weapons that is intentionally crafted for use by Ogryns, and its design is intended to be much more durable and larger than a standard Imperial weapon, to compensate for the Ogryns' extreme clumsiness and intellectual deficits.
Heavy Stubber
Well-known is the Heavy Stubber, a machine gun used as a vehicle mount in the Imperial Guard, because in 40,000+ years, humanity has still been unable to top the genius of Weaponsmith John Browning's legendary M2 (who's surprised?). Just ask the goddamned Orks.
It is basically a direct equivalent of Browning M2 .50 cal Heavy Machine Gun (It's worthy of note that some patterns of heavy stubbers actually resemble ones, except for the Vraks pattern Heavy Stubber, which looks more like an MG42). Unlike the smaller Stub guns, Heavy Stubbers actually contain enough mass to do similar damage to a Bolter round at a much higher rate, and will reliably blow people's limbs off now as easy as they did then. Unlike the others which have been phased out, these are still in the mainline army arsenals, and are often pintle-mounted on vehicles or used in Heavy Weapon Squads in the Imperial Guard. Especially so for vehicles produced from worlds that do not have the resources to produce Heavy Bolters, or those who just find it more economical to push out a hundred Heavy Stubbers with the man-hours it would take to make a single Heavy Bolter and rounds for it. Obviously, they are not as strong as the Heavy Bolter they replace, which is several times more powerful than a regular Bolter, but they are stilled damned powerful enough, and they DO GET SHIT DONE. Besides, if you're just trying to gun down enemy infantry, you don't strictly need a Heavy Bolter, or even a Storm Bolter, when a Heavy Stubber is just as capable of turning a human or human-equivalent into so much jelly. Then there are the different types of ammo, such as ones that break apart in the target and the pieces explode. A laser weapon version of this weapon is known as multilaser.
Sniper Rifle
While the Imperial sniper rifles are generally a rather broad class of weapons, including, for example, the Long-las sniper lasguns used by the Imperial Guard, at least some of the sniper rifles, utlised in the Imperium are actually solid-slug ballistic weaponry, firing high-caliber powerful rounds to achieve maximum range and precision of their shots.
Arguably the most iconic (and dreaded) of such Imperial "solid-slug" sniper rifles are the Exitus rifles, employed by field agents of Officio Assassinorum's Vindicare temple. Each of these rifles is a one-of-a-kind "work of art", being painstakingly hand-crafted by Adeptus Mechanicus artisans to match the particular specs of each individual assassin. It's exceptional range and power also imply that the rifle uses something far more advanced than mere chemical gunpowder combustion to accelerate its bullets (however, the exact mechanics of its action is highly classified by Adeptus Mechanicus top brass). With such high velocity, combined with specially made "turbo-penetrator" rounds, designed to make quick work of any armour short of the one, utilised by super-heavy tanks, the Exitus rifle gives the Vindicare assassin a chance to slay practically every conceivable target in just one well placed shot...
Macrostubber
The Macrostubber is the Mechanicum's more advance and powerful variation of a typical solid-slug ballistic weapons (As expected from the AdMech). This type of antique weapon is used by Adeptus Mechanicus Tech-Priests and is able to hurl out a thunderous cloud of specially designed bullets (the exact method of acclerating its projectiles is not disclosed by the Techpriests, however the looks imply something more that just gunpowder is involved). Think of it as a drum-fed light machine gun. Of course, this weapon has proven quite skubby in /tg/ due to the fact that some has taken into calling it an Autogun due to its power and rate of fire despite the name. (Than again, the fluff do not actually draw any consitent fine line between stubbers and auto-weaponry).
Then again, some may have pointed out that it could be just a more portable and lightweight variant of the Heavy Stubber.
Stubcarbine
Another AdMech weapon exclusive to the Skitarii. The stubcarbine, though small, has the stopping power of the heavy stubbers mounted on the vehicles of the Imperial Guard. When a squad of Sicarian Infiltrators opens fire with these weapons, the air fills with a avalanche of solid shot that chews their victims to shreds. It can be assumed to have a shorter range to compensate for their high rate of fire.
In general, stubcarbines, judging from how they are described in fluff, seem to be a lightened variant of heavy-stubbers, outfitted with some kind of recoil supression system to allow them being fired as a hand-held weapons by the Skitarii. However, with shorter range due to this weapon sporting much shorter barrell than the actual heavy stubber.
Disambiguation
One of the pitfalls of Games Workshop is that they really don't have an internal canon police. To wit, the difference between Stub weapons and Auto weapons is rather blurry. Some authors write as though these technologies are one-and-the-same, citing only vernacular differences for the existence of multiple terms for ignited-gas slug-throwers (or sometimes totally writing out one term or the other!). The game itself is not an exemption, as edition-to-edition, codex-to-codex, and supplement-to-official author changes cause a mess of personal opinion writing over personal opinion, and some authors sling both terms with abandon, interchanging one for the other whenever they feel one term is becoming overused.
To clarify, it is generally agreed that there are both Stubbers and Auto-weapons. Stub technology tends to be lower-tech, revolvers-to-WWII style weaponry, with an air towards larger-caliber and higher stopping-power. Auto-weapons tend to be higher-tech, Cold-War-and-on style weaponry, which emphasize accuracy and fire rate. Auto-weapons also cover any large-scale cannon, by virtue of necessitating better technology to fire large shells at a high rate, or colossal explosives at any rate. Bigger caliber and slower rates of fire denote Stub weapons, until you hit the point where infantry can no-longer wield them. Anything with explosive, tracer, frangible, or incendiary rounds are typically Auto-weapons. Muzzle-loaders like muskets or arquebuses are neither Auto nor Stub. Furthermore, autoguns are generally (but not always) described as firing caseless ammunition.
A good example to use would be pistols. A stub pistol would be either a revolver or a semi-auto magazine-fed pistol. An autopistol would be either a handheld automatic pistol or a burst-fire pistol. High-tech, Shadowrun-esque revolvers are still Stub weapons, while Kreig-made automatic slug-throwing cannons are still Auto weapons by default, and hand-crank Gatling guns could go either way. Pepperbox-style breach-loaders would be neither, and futuristic ignited-gas projectile weapons are Auto weapons. Since GW is pathologically incapable of consistency, the Cult Mechanicus Tech-Priest Dominus carries a 5-shot burst pistol called a macrostubber, even though its form factor and performance suggest that it should be called some type of auto pistol. Probably fires similar rounds to a heavy stubber though.