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Light Field Artillery of the Empire . Artillery is the favored tactical solution of the Empire; why shouldn't it be? . Gudday mate, welcome to a brief display of the light artillery favored by the Imperial strike battalions.
First up, let's have a look at the Tacnet controlled units; turrets, deployable autocannons, etc. etc.
AZ-44 Semi-portable Autocannon.
A fixed weapon of not inconsiderable firepower, this baby is a real threat to anything within range. Not really artillery, but it's used by artillery units and it's too big to lug about by a squad, so I suppose it counts.
It doesn't exactly have a large ammunition supply, but the distinctive BOOM-BOOM-BOOM when it goes off is usually enough to send the enemy running. And brother, if I had one of these punching holes through my APC, I'd be running too!
Reloading needs a ladder, though, but the short-term firepower it offers in either full or semi-automatic is well worth the effort.
Starshell rounds make great fireworks, too!
Now this thing is a little strange; it's technically a missile system, but it's guidance is intended to hit stationary targets; buildings, turrets, landed spacecraft, that sort of thing. It's useless against mobile enemies and it hasn't the ammo for a dumbfire rocket artillery role. Really not much use.
This, on the other hand, is really handy. It can blast aircraft out of the sky, it can hunt tanks, smash bunkers, crack open APCs and small bases. All under the control of either the Tacnet AI or a human operator.
Not much to say here; just a standard AA missile system.
The ol' Lucky Seven; it's being phased out of active service, but it's still as (in)famous as ever. For good reason: it's not awfully accurate or powerful, but at least it's reliable and easy to operate.
'course, it's vulnerable as heck, too.
It's not called the Widowmaker for nothing.
A few thousand years ago, it would have been cutting edge. Now, it's just an outmoded fossil.
It has a nasty habit of bouncing about when fired, too.
This is even less advanced: a simple rocket artillery battery called the RA-2. One reload: set it up, take aim, set the timer and run. Ripple fire is a crowd favorite, and it can pound whole companies into dust when in quantity and firing en masse.
It's towable, and its operators call it the 'pig', for good reason too.
The wheels have a tendency to come off when driven at speed, and being packed with explosives and solid fuel rockets as it is, it's not a popular thing to be around.
Every regular infantry platoon in the Empire has a ILM-7 light mortar team with it; they can do a lot of damage, give enough time, but what you see here is two platoons worth of mortars.
That's right, there's only one mortar for every platoon. Plenty of ammo, though. Basically it allows a platoon light artillery support, in the field, and it has very little delay in firing, unlike battalion level heavy howitzers. Also unlike howitzers, it's inaccurate, making up for that with a decently powerful warhead equal to standard issue concussion grenades, with added impact warheads and fragmentation capability.
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