Imperial Munitorum Manual - about lasguns and stuff

[Raxmei]

A friend gave me a copy of the Munitorum manual and I thought a few things it had to say about lasguns were potentially interesting.

page 19

The basic load of an Imperial Guardsman includes his lasgun with six power packs[9], close combat weapon[10], Frag grenades and laspistol.
...
[9]Enough to fire a minimum of 2,000 shots, dependent on power setting.

Somewhere in the neighborhood of three hundred shots per power pack is possible. That's more shots in a single pack than modern soldiers carry on their person, and more rounds on the guardsman's person than are contained in a crate of ammunition (1680 rounds, it's a small crate). Later quotes indicate that this number is not typical for common use, perhaps referring to practice conditions.

page 60

Most lasguns operate in the nineteen-megathule range, as this has been proven through live fire testing to provide the optimum balance between lethality and energy efficiency.
...
The lasgun can be fired on two settings, single shot and full auto. Firing single shots is more accurate and provides more shots, but in some cases (for example, during an assault or defensive action against a more numerous foe) full auto may be employed when marksmanship is irrelevent.

Nineteen megathules appears to be the per shot power rating. Applying that number as a per pack figure does not make sense in this context. What exactly a megathule is remains charmingly undefined. Lasguns or their power packs appear to lose energy efficiency when discharged rapidly. That's the only reason that springs to mind why firing on full auto would result in less shots.

61, on power packs

Used conservatively, a power pack will last for many shots (typically around a hundred and fifty)

A contradictory quote regarding ammunition capacity of lasgun power packs. This is complicated by the way that lasgun ammunition is not countable in discrete shots, but rather a pack contains a certain amount of energy which is good for a certain amount of shots in certain conditions. According to this quote 150 is the typical figure. 6x150 is still 900 shots, which becomes 1050 if the load is six packs in the webbing and one in the weapon like some modern armies do. By modern standards 900 shots is a fuckload of ammo for a soldier to be carrying for his basic weapon, like keeping a full ammo can's worth of magazines in your pockets. It's odd that they carry so much considering the Imperium's own estimates regarding the life expectancy of a guardsman in combat.

73

There are two main variants of the meltagun, but both work on broadly the same principle. The Mars pattern meltagun works by submolecular thermal agitation of the target, which literally 'cooks', melts or otherwise vaporises it in spectacular fashion. The Esteban VII pattern works by producing a small-scale fusion reaction using a pyrum/prometheum mix. This is projected as a blast of incredible heat that can burn through almost anything imaginable - though the power of the blast is greater if the firer can close the range to the target.

You've probably noticed that many sources give completely different technobabble regarding how meltas work. This is why. I blame the STC - people on colonies with wildly differing resources asked for plans for a meltagun and got completely different guns that do the exact same thing.

74

Capable of a relatively high rate of fire, these grenade launchers are primarily designed for suppressive fire and to destroy light vehicles and buildings[3]. The standard Cadian pattern grenade launchers are man-portable, drum-fed weapons that fire 40mm grenades that more resemble smaller versions of the ammunition fired by missile launchers. A grenade launcher is capable of firing both krak and frag grenades (though neither are as powerful as the rounds fired by a missile launcher), the firer simply selects which he wishes to fire via a selection switch by the pistol grip handle.

The Cadian pattern grenade launcher can carry a load of twenty grenades and pivots forward to allow reloading. ...
[3]The versatility of the grenade launcher was ably displayed in the Vogen campaign, when soldiers of the Huskovite Grenadiers were able to reach their objective in Angel Square without deviating from straight line marching order, despite the presence of several buildings in their path. Colonel Cox simply ordered his Infantry platoons to launch krak grenades into the supports of each building to create a straight (if rubble-strewn) path to his objective.

Hard to calculate, but that looks pretty impressive. Ammo capacity is much better than modern handheld grenade launchers and has selectable ammo.

Most of the book is about basic unit supply stuff, a little odd that this was published.

[NecronLord]

It's odd that they carry so much considering the Imperium's own estimates regarding the life expectancy of a guardsman in combat.

Combat against what? Against Tyranids this is eminently sensible. Against the likes of necrons they only need one shot to save themselves the trouble, but most enemies the guard encounter are human secessionaries and traitors of far inferior quality.

Most of the book is about basic unit supply stuff, a little odd that this was published.

It sold and made a profit; what's wrong with that?

[Falkenhayn]

What kind of supply stuff? We know that for some reason, the IoM only seems to mobilize a tiny, tiny fraction of its available manpower, and I don't think we've established why this is so on in terms of either the IoM Can't mobilize, or the IoM Won't mobilize.

On a related note, 6 charge packs yield 180-240 shots per Dark Heresy, much closer to modern ammo loads.

[NecronLord]

In many respects, Dark Heresy represents non-military or second line forces as a rule. It could be that those clips are substandard compared to those the Munitorum supply. For example the difference between say the autocannons in DH and the water-cooled crew-served PDF model in Deathwatch is substantial. Similarly, the standard plasma guns are not military grade (Milspec plasma guns from Ryza are featured in Dark Heresy Ascension) in power (as my RT group found out to their woe last week when an NPC used one).

Of course, the shot setting in DH would probably represent an average or maximum (Players will rarely get through all the shots in a clip anyway in my experience) rather than 'used conservatively' which is probably on low-power.

[Raxmei]

What kind of supply stuff? We know that for some reason, the IoM only seems to mobilize a tiny, tiny fraction of its available manpower, and I don't think we've established why this is so on in terms of either the IoM Can't mobilize, or the IoM Won't mobilize.

The supply stuff is organizational structures, requisition procedures and how to do a supply request. Principles of supply day one. Here's a supply form, here's the authorization you need, here's where you have to submit it. They seem to skip over the concept of the TOE, which in real life is pretty important.

The Imperium's bottleneck isn't manpower, but ability to properly equip and resupply its men. The Munitorum manual places great importance on recovering the gear of fallen soldiers, even greater than recovering the man himself, and explicitly states that the men are worth less than the equipment they carry.

Every battle the Imperial Guard fights drains its resources of manpower, but these are losses that the Imperium can sustain, where its enemies may not. At the heart of the Emperor's realm is flesh, bone and blood, commodities in plentiful supply. Thus, while men may be replaced, technology, once lost, me be gone forever and thus it is of the greatest importance that every Guardsman's equipment be maintained and recovered. Some equipment, such as lasguns, may be replaced if lost or damaged, but mmore specialised equipment, such as vox-casters, plasma guns and meltaguns must be recovered from the dead at all costs. Though it is often hard for the average Guardsman to accepts, his life is less important than the technology he carries with him into battle. It is the duty of every officer of the Guard to impress upon his Guardsmen that, when given the choice of saving a comrade or rescuing a piece of fallen equipment, the must choose to save the equipment.

There's a footnote in there about a glorious victory in which the Guard lost hundreds of thousands of men in a matter of days. The Imperium probably could do the Commander Chenkov thing and send in millions of assholes armed with a lasgun and a prayer more often if they thought it were the best way to go about it.

[Imperial Overlord]

Remember that transport is an issue. The IoM can haul a lot of material around at decent speed, but all sorts of bad shit can happen in the warp. Robust logistical support for Imperial Guard units turns up over and over again. Essentially the IoM knows its transport/supply lines are going to get boned sooner or latter and fights its campaigns accordingly. And that's before we get to the quick and dirty recharge method of throwing a power cell into a fire.