cornixt:
A slightly different take on Blunderbusses. I’m not sure if anyone else has proposed something similar before but I haven’t copied it as far as I know. I tried to keep the rules as close to real life as possible while still making the weapon both usuable and unique. While writing the fluff I came up the the idea for the battery.
==Blunderbuss Rules==
Blunderbuss
The blunderbuss is used a little differently to most missile weapons. There is very little aiming required, mostly just pointing it roughly in the direction of the enemy. A blunderbuss fires a scatter of shot which spreads out making it very likely you’ll hit something, although the range is very short. It usually has a funnel shaped barrel to make it easy to load powder and shot. This means that a bunderbuss can be reloaded quickly in all kinds of circumstances, such as while moving, unlike most other black powder weapons. The funnel does not help to scatter the shot, a blunderbuss without the funnel will scatter the shot just as widely. Some Chaos Dwarfs carry blunderbusses with removable funnels so they can adapt it between quick reloading or easy to carry and handle, others choose to do without the funnel altogether.
It has been known for engineers and war machine crew to set up several preloaded blunderbusses, pulling all the triggers at the same time with a rod or some rope, thereby firing them all simultaneously at a charging unit. The resultant shots can reduce the enemy numbers considerably without anyone needing to aim the weapons and only using equipment they would normally have anyway. They can be a little unreliable, some triggers may slip or the blunderbusses fall over, and some armies don’t have the luxury (or have not suffered enough casualties in their blunderbuss units) to have spare blunderbusses for such activities.
Rules
When firing a blunderbuss, roll to hit with each member of the front rank as you do with other missile weapons, like bows. Do not apply any modifiers to the to hit roll. Each hit is base strength 5. Apply the following modifiers to the base strength of the hit:
+1 Large Target
-1 Long range
-1 Skirmishers, single infantry characters
A blunderbuss is a move-and-fire weapon. It has a range of 12".
Summary: Strength 5, Range 12", move and fire, +1S Large Target, -1S Long range, -1S Skirmishers.
[Designer Notes:
Not sure about +1S for Large Targets. Bigger things will take more of the shot but a strength modifier has more effect than a BS modifier. Maybe I should keep that as the only BS modifier.
Most shots will be at long range, so S4, but chargers who aren’t skirmishers will always be hit at full strength.
Should they also have the Penetrating (extra -1AS) modifier?
]
War Machine Upgrade:
Blunderbuss Battery (+15pts)
One Use Only. A war machine may be armed with a Blunderbuss Battery. May be used in the shooting phase or as a shooting response to a declared charge. D6 Blunderbusses are fired with BS3, roll to hit and to wound as normal.
Magic Items:
[Designer Note: Should these be magic weapons or enchanted items? They work a bit like magic arrows for WE which are enchanted items. Don’t want to remove the possibility that a character can’t have a magic weapon and a blunderbuss, maybe we should though.
]
Uberbuss (+15pts)
One Use Only. Works like an ordinary blunderbuss with the following exceptions: Strength 6, Range 16", a hit on unit with US5 or more becomes D3 hits.
Flamberbuss (+25pts)
Works like an ordinary blunderbuss with the following exceptions: Flaming attacks, +1 to hit, causes D3 hits if it hits a unit with US5 or more.
