Heavy Bolter Exotic weapon | |
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| Details | The Astartes Mk IVa Heavy Bolter replicates the staggering firepower of emplaced weapons. The wielder can brace to trade mobility for rate of fire and accuracy. |
The Heavy Bolter is a heavier version of the Bolter, analogous to a machine gun in terms of its role, although proportionally more powerful due to firing explosive bolts.
Description[]
Seen in several locations in the campaign as a stationary weapon emplacement deployed by the Imperial Guard, the heavy bolter is used to lay down staggering firepower as an emplaced heavy weapon for the ordinary human Guardsmen. However, despite its size and weight it is fully portable by a mighty Space Marine. Captain Titus is able to fire these weapons from their mounting or, if needed, to remove the heavy weapon to carry and fire it from the hip while advancing on the enemy.
Heavy bolters are generally used for anti-infantry or fire support roles. It fires a round comparible to the size of a human fist, which is considerably larger than that of the standard bolter shell, with more propellant and longer range, making it capable of destroying light vehicles. Because of its high rate of fire, jamming is often a problem, represented by a bar above the reticle that increases during sustained fire; the weapon becomes temporarily non-functional if the bar completely fills.
The heavy bolter featured in the single-player campaign is the Imperial Guard-issue Solar Pattern Heavy Bolter that features attachment points on the casing, to allow mounting on a tripod or bunker emplacement. Owing to its rate of fire, the weapon goes through rounds very quickly, drawing ammunition from either a disintegrating belt feed, or a box magazine.
Unseen in the campaign, the version of the heavy bolter used by the Space Marines is the Astartes Mk IVc, which unlike the Imperial Guard version is designed to be carried and fired from the hip by a single Space Marine with the linked ammunition drawn from a backpack ammo supply mounted above the armor's power generator. Like all bolt weapons, heavy bolters require regular maintenance and ancient litanies to appease their spirits.
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