Topic: Why the Lasgun is the coolest weapon, ever.

[Major Arah]

It would emit a sound similar to a lightning bolt as it flash-heated the air around it. Probably not as loud as a slug weapon, but certainly not silent, and it would make the same amount of noise over the length of its range (the laser flash-heats the air the whole way, not just at the start).

As for a good sniper weapon, it would pretty quickly reveal your position, what with the bright lines of light coming from wherever you are shooting.

1. indeed lasguns are said to emit a characteristic crack sound when fired.

2. They are still used as sniper weapons though. The thing is that a high powered lasgun shot will not disapate in power over distance and will be insanely accurate (unless you have a miniature black hole somewhere) compared to traditional slug weaponary. Also in the gaunt's ghosts books the sniper varients are said to have flash suppressors... dunno how much that helps when you are firing light though.

[Awfully Dandy]

As for a good sniper weapon, it would pretty quickly reveal your position, what with the bright lines of light coming from wherever you are shooting.

Well it just really needs one shot. But yean with the noise I would agree with you.

[Commisar Vlanse]

Don't forget about the recharable clips. Most battlezones have fire and light which=never running out of ammo. (theoretically) But according to fluff you could just have lasgun packs on a belt exposed to sunlight.

[Calamity]

I hear the lasgun's reliability comes from the fact that it has virtually no moving parts, other than the trigger mechanism.  Is there any truth in that?

Also, the lasgun does rule.    

[Guildmage Aech]

2. They are still used as sniper weapons though. The thing is that a high powered lasgun shot will not disapate in power over distance and will be insanely accurate (unless you have a miniature black hole somewhere) compared to traditional slug weaponary. Also in the gaunt's ghosts books the sniper varients are said to have flash suppressors... dunno how much that helps when you are firing light though.

I always figured that such a device would alter the wavelength of the light so its outside the visible spectrum, making it infrared or ultraviolet.

Don't forget about the recharable clips. Most battlezones have fire and light which=never running out of ammo. (theoretically) But according to fluff you could just have lasgun packs on a belt exposed to sunlight.

As far as I know you can't recharge packs mid battle, you'd have to leave them charging for a considerable period of time like you do with current recharable batteries - fire and light are pretty much considered back up options to recharge with, the power socket in the chimera is probably a better option...
Not to say that it might not help, but having a pocket full of charged up powerpacks isn't much consolodation if you've been hit in the chest with a plasmablast!

Lasguns are a good weapon to have, in games where you look at reliability and ammunition supplies like in Necromunda or Dark Heresy they're the weapon of choice, at least in my opinon!

[shibbyx1]

As for recoil i think it all depends on how the Laser is created. If its just the electricity and gas combo, then i don't think it will make hardly any recoil at all.

However the only big lasers i have seen were a prototype for stripping paint off aircraft, but the massive power supply weighed so much i think any recoil was stopped >.<

On the positive side, LasPacks are also really small in the fluff pictures, and you can take many packs (Most pics i see have Six! or more) and thats just on standard personal (Lets not forget ammunition carriers and such if they have them)

[Major Arah]

Lasguns are a good weapon to have, in games where you look at reliability and ammunition supplies like in Necromunda or Dark Heresy they're the weapon of choice, at least in my opinon!

indeed those games to accurately depict the lasgun with its reliability and lethality.

[Cpt. Cool]

Remember throwing the las pack in the fire reduces its life and # of times you can recharge it

so the only thing you need to have is two belts and the weapon

1 belt full of charged, one full of charging

[Major Arah]

indeed. that gives you say about 2000 shots? if each pack gives say 200 shots and you have 10 packs. it wouldnt weigh 2000 shots of solid slug ammunition either which is an added plus

[Cpt. Cool]

Thats saying the gaurdsmen lives long enough to use them all!

and recharging packs mid battle is possible, not including length, but if you had to I'm sure by the time your all out the orginal will have what 20 more shots to say your still alive to use them

[Major Arah]

this may sound pretty wrong but dont take it the wrong way.

As Cpt. Cool says you could recharge in the heat of battle... literally. just tape or use some sort of restraining device. Think those old iPod straps that runners used to hold the iPod to their arm.

That way you keep the laspack close to your body. and the heat you generate as your run around dodging bullets could potentially recharge the packs just that you would have to put packs everywhere....

[The GrimSqueaker]

Just how much heat do you think a human body radiates? The lasgun is a high power weapon and is not going to be recharged to any useful level by body heat alone. The fire method should not work either unless they're given an extended time frame to recharge. Face it, you're going to fire off more shots in the time frame that they're recharging than you're going to get back from any such primitive method.

[Major Arah]

fine i concede the point. My idea may have been completely stupid. But i can see some desperate guardsmen doing that just in case.

[The GrimSqueaker]

As extra armour perhaps.     The more recent Ghosts novel has Guardsmen using firepits to recharge magazines over an extended period of time. Still bullamphetamine parrot though as this is another of example of GW not doing the research.

[Major Arah]

As extra armour perhaps.     The more recent Ghosts novel has Guardsmen using firepits to recharge magazines over an extended period of time. Still bullamphetamine parrot though as this is another of example of GW not doing the research.

indeed extra armor could work too. The thing is that we dont know what the technology is like for the laspacks. so we cant say how efficient it is to recharge them using the different methods.

[The GrimSqueaker]

No more than what's been put into them I would hope. At 100% efficiency a fire is still bog all compared to what's coming out the dangerous end.

[Major Arah]

No more than what's been put into them I would hope. At 100% efficiency a fire is still bog all compared to what's coming out the dangerous end.

[sarcasm]The glorious adeptus mechanicus have developed a method to make energy from matter. All you need to do is pile dead bodies here and presto energy![/sarcasm]

I see what you mean but the stories make it seem that they can somehow amplify incoming energy to charge the cell.

[The GrimSqueaker]

Still bullamphetamine parrot though as this is another of example of GW not doing the research.

[Cpt. Cool]

Its like a solar cell man, or a thermal cell, probably the second, think about it, its possible, and in the pyhsics bending furture they probably have found ways to make it more energy efficient, espeacially if they didn't kill all the hippies

also

Still bullamphetamine parrot though as this is another of example of GW not doing the research.

[The GrimSqueaker]

The lasgun is said to have solar recharge capabilities beyond those of the power cell. Which still doesn't work the way they think it does but it is a nice touch in a long term logistics sense.

The Imperium has energy cells with beyond 100% efficiency when it comes to recharging them? That means firing a lasgun at its own energy cells should be able to recharge the cells of an entire unit in one shot. Brilliant! Who even needs a fire?