Autogun

An Autogun is a chemically powered projectile throwing weapon(a slug thrower), that can be compared to late 20th century fire arms, though it is significantly more powerful, which is why it avoids the title of stubber (which have virtually no improvements on World War II firearms) which are even worse than lasguns (there is not a single part of a suit of flak armor that a rifle sized stubber can pierce at any range). Simply put these weapons use a propellant to accelerate a metal projectile to punch holes in things. It is a significantly older weapon than the Lasgun, and does not see quite as much use due to the Departmento Munitorium - Lasgun Power packs weigh significantly less than autogun magazine and are sustainable (rechargable via heat, light, or wall outlet). Lasguns are also significantly more accurate and require notably less maintenance than Autoguns, and have no recoil, meaning even the 8 year old baby faced kids and 98 year old dusty seniors the Imperial Guard recruits can fire it straight, so a big reason that Autoguns were phased out was a matter of practicality, though /tg/ rather enjoys musing that the main reason was cost (all that spent ammunition came from somewhere, after all).

In spite of this, the Autogun still sees use throughout the Imperium, with the most common variety being an assault-rifle sized version formerly used by Imperial Guard regiments, known as the Armageddon-Pattern Autogun. It can fire on semi-automatic, 5-round bursts, or on full-auto and holds 60 rounds in a triple-stacked magazine. Most versions are modded to fire specifically in 5-round bursts, allowing it to achieve 12 bursts per mag. Whilst the Autogun is not hugely damaging, its fire rate is extremely high, allowing it to quite literally chew through body armor at medium range. Autoguns are commonly employed by pirate and rebel groups, Cultists, and Planetary Defense Forces. There is also a single-handed submachinegun (called the Autopistol) which sees considerable use by the aforementioned groups. It is also frequently used by Chaos heretics (and on occasion, traitor guardsmen) and cultists who don't particularly care about accuracy or expenses and wish to be able to make noise and cause death at a distance (the former is done better by an autogun than a lasgun) as they close in to use their swords.

There are dozens of other Autogun models, including more-advanced versions that use caseless ammunition. There are also versions that see frequent use by the Imperial Guard to this day; Snipers routinely use slugthrower-based sniper rifles in branches of the Imperial Guard - especially Ratlings. Also well-known is the aforementioned Heavy Stubber, a heavy machinegun used as a vehicle mount in the guard because 40000+ years hence, it's still damned hard to find a replacement for Legend Weaponsmith John Browning's 50cal (PBUH). Just ask the goddamned Orks.

An Autogun is as was stated before equally as powerful as a Lasgun, so despite shooting assault-rifle sized rounds, it has the punch of a modern day 30mm high velocity solid armor piercing round, and can thus pop human beings like water balloons. The fact that the number of infantry who can shrug shots from this weapon off would have more digits than there are stars in the sky says more about the overall powerlevel of the setting than anything else.

The Assault cannon is essentially a bunch of autoguns or heavy stubbers stuck together in a rotary pattern(it's hard to tell, but I'd lean towards the latter since I think the AC is more powerful than the Multilaser, which is just a bunch of Lasguns stuck together in a rotary pattern). But fires unique, diamond-hard rounds, at significantly increased velocity, resulting in far greater power and penetration.

Gallery

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  Autoguns - Better Than Your Crap Flashlights!
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  A typical mass produced model.
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  Traitor Guardsmen armed with Armageddon-pattern Autoguns and Autopistols. You know you want 'em.

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