Rifles

The standard infantryman’s bolt-action rifle had changed little between the First and Second World Wars. The level of craftsmanship was still high and most weapons functioned on the same principle mechanisms. The greatest evolution in the inter-war years was the development of semi-automatic rifles. These rifles slowly started to take over the older bolt-action rifles, but manufacturing was never able to supplant the older bolt action. Thus riflemen units were often issued with a measure of each.

Snipers also preferred the bolt-action rifle to the semi-automatic rifles, the noise of the automatic mechanics or the flash of spent cartridges flying into the air could give away a hidden snipers position. Plus the older bolt-action rifles were machined to a higher standard than the mass produced semi-automatic rifles – although the machining quality of late war rifles was also high for certain models.

Slowly throughout the war, taking form in the very late years the rifle was slowly undergoing a metamorphosis in combination with the sub-machine gun to become a hybrid form of weapon – the Assault Rifle.

Required Feat: To use the weapons listed in this category a character will require the Weapon Proficiency (personal firearms) feat, or suffer -4 to attack rolls.

Armor Piercing Ammunition: A range of rifle caliber bullets were created that could penetrate lightly armored vehicles. These bullets made use of a hard Steel or Tungsten core to provide the punch needed to penetrate armor plate. When a character fires an Armor Piercing Bullet the shot gains a penetration value of: Steel Core -1, Tungsten Core: +0. If the weapon already has a penetration listing, the penetration value increases by +2 when using armor piercing ammunition.

As the war progressed Germany's limited supplies of Tungsten were required for the manufacture of War Industry tools, thus Tungsten was diverted away from armaments production. This meant that the production of Tungsten core armor piercing bullets was eventually dropped in 1942, and around 1943 Tungsten core ammunition ceased to be issued to the troops who had to make do with what stocks were still in the supply inventory. Thus after 1943 Tungsten core ammunition became steadily rarer for German troops.