The Black Powder Armory · Chapter 8
Deck and Wall Guns
The heaviest weapons one or two people can serve: guns that sit on a ship's rail, a fortress wall, a boat's bow, or a light carriage.
Entries with Emplaced print no Encumbrance. They are mounted, and they cannot be moved and fired in the same round. Crew 2 means two people work the gun; one alone adds a Bane Die and one maneuver to its Prepare.
Carriage guns, from the four-pounder up, are not in this book. They need a crew of four or more, they belong to a ship or a battery, and they are fought with a Universe's ship or siege rules.
Skill: Gunnery. At tables using a single Ranged skill, use Ranged.
Wall Gun
Rampart gun, amusette, jingal, punt gun
10 2 Long 7
Gunnery 700 Military Ballistic Pierce 2, Cumbersome 4, Prepare 3, Unreliable
An oversized musket of an inch or more in the bore, fired from a wall, a gunwale, or a swivel. Damage 10 and Pierce 2 at Long range.
It needs Might 4 fired from the shoulder. On a rest or swivel the requirement is ignored.
Swivel Gun
Patarero, rail gun, half-pounder
10 3 Medium —
Gunnery 800 Military Ballistic Blast 6, Emplaced, Crew 2, Prepare 4, Unreliable, Siege 2
A small cannon on a pivot, mounted on a ship's rail or a boat's bow and loaded with a bag of musket balls. It is the weapon that clears a deck before boarding.
Damage 10 with Blast 6. Crew 2: one alone adds a Bane Die and takes 5 maneuvers to reload. It is the largest gun in this book. Carriage guns belong to a ship.
Breech-Loading Swivel
Murderer, perrier, base, lantaka
9 3 Medium —
Gunnery 1200 Military Ballistic Blast 5, Emplaced, Crew 2, Prepare 2, Unreliable, Siege 2
A swivel gun loaded with a removable chamber shaped like a beer mug. With spare chambers ready it reloads in Prepare 2. The breech leaks gas, which costs it a point of damage and Blast.
Hand Mortar
Grenade gun, grenadier's launcher
8 4 Short 4
Gunnery 400 Rare Blast Blast 5, Prepare 3, Unreliable, Inaccurate 1
A musket stock with a cup-shaped barrel that throws a lit grenado. It reaches farther than an arm.
The type is first found in the 1590s with a wheellock or matchlock, and is made in numbers with a flintlock from the 1670s to about 1740. This entry is the flintlock form. For an earlier lock add Slow Match.
It is dangerous to its owner. When it jams (Unreliable), the grenado is still lit in the barrel: the firer has until the end of the next turn to clear it with an action, or suffers the attack.
War Rocket
Congreve rocket, Hale rocket, Mysorean rocket
10 3 Long 3
Gunnery 150 Military Blast Blast 6, Burn 1, Inaccurate 2, Limited Ammo 1, Prepare 2, Siege 2
An iron-cased rocket on a stick, fired from a trough or a tripod. It flies where it likes: Inaccurate 2. It sets fire to what it lands on, and it terrifies troops and horses that have not met one before.
From 1780. The iron-cased war rocket is a weapon of Mysore, in action against the British from 1780, and copied in England from 1805. The paper and bamboo rockets of earlier centuries are fireworks and signals, not this weapon.
Gatling Gun
Gardner gun, Nordenfelt, mitrailleuse
9 3 Long —
Gunnery 5000 Military Ballistic Auto-Fire, Pierce 1, Emplaced, Crew 2, Unreliable
Six to ten barrels turned by a crank, fed by gravity from a hopper. It is the only Auto-Fire weapon in the book. It rides on a carriage and needs two to work it.
Early models jam on their own cartridges: Unreliable.
