After being ambushed in a previous game, my Rogue Trader is considering making an acquisition role not for better armor, but for a squad of redshirts with heavy weapons to support their captain.
Basing the idea off of an Imperial Guard heavy weapons squadron, which weapon should our redshirts be using:
I assume Autocannons are meant to be Heavy Stubbers? In which case you should be giving them that. I'm assuming that these Redshirts are completely expendable and you have no regard for their lives (because you're playing Rogue Trader). Thus you want something that can Full Auto to force enemies into pinning so that you can cover your retreat, meaning that the Lascannon, Missile Launcher and Mortar are all excluded.
As a choice between Heavy Bolters and Heavy Stubbers, Bolters are expensive and their ammunition is too valuable. Redshirts might start to get ideas above their station, or try to sell off their precious ammunition during shore leave. Given that redshirts are by definition expendable, just give them the weapons you won't mind missing that still allows them to serve a valuable purpose.
Actually, heavy stubbers and autocannons are different weapons. Both are Heavy SP weapons (though autocannons are detailed in Dark Heresy: Inquisitor's Handbook ). The stats of the two are presented below:
Autocannon Heavy 300m S/2/5 4d10+5 I Pen 4 20 2Full ---------- 55kg Scarce
Heavy Stubber Heavy 120m –/–/10 1d10+4 I Pen 3 200 2Full ---------- 35kg Average
Might I suggest a heavy stubber, a lascannon and a mortar?
Each requires a 3 man crew (gunner, loader, ammo bearer) so that's still squad sized and together they can meet most battlefield challenges....
The heavy stubber can pin enemy waves, the lascannon can one-shot tough opponents (master) or vehicles and the mortar can provide indirect fire support or fire interdiction.
Well, as always, the autocannon is far superior to everything else. A couple of motion predictors (and some blackbone bracings if you're feeling wealthy) on top that and boom, you're golden.
My players did that very early in our storyline.
Except they decided to go for poor craftmanship plasguns.
Very portable, very powerful, very expendable.
My players did that very early in our storyline.
Except they decided to go for poor craftmanship plasguns.
Very portable, very powerful, very expendable.
My players opted for 10 guys with full auto capable autoguns, very effective against horde enemies like orks. Even cheaper than plasma although you do see a drop in effectiveness against large armored targets, but hey that's why we have grenades.