Blunderbuss or handgun?

[MedMos]

Hi guys, I'm planning a pirate themed Marienburger warband. In my bits I've got 4 blunderbuss's and two handguns. Now, blunderbuss's are very piratey, but will I ever need 4? They're fairly easy to convert to handguns, so I could make a few extra handguns, maybe let them double as hunting rifles. What's a good amount of blunderbuss's, since they only fire once per game?

 

[spafe]

Personally I'd say 2 of each is plenty, but if you are getting more of one, I'd say a third handgun and convert one to a hunting rifle.

As a starter, 1 blunderbuss keeps the enemy from grouping up, but more is probably a waste. a handgun or 2 in a starting warband is some serious firepower, but limits your movement a lot.

My middenheimer warband starts with a single handgunnner and a few archers for instants. although I'm not going into the priate theme like you so I get more balck poweder is preferable

 

[Raven Morpheus]

From the rule book, page 32 on my copy from Broheim -

• Blunderbuss - S3 automatic hit on any model in a 16" x 1" corridor, can only be fired once per battle. So, needs a 4+ on average to wound and can only fire once per game. Doesn't say you can't move AND fire...
• Handgun - S4 hit, 24" range, 1 turn to reload,-2 save modifier, can't move AND fire. So, if you hit, needs a 3+ on average to wound, can fire every other turn (i.e. needs a turn to reload), but can't move AND fire other than to pivot or stand up.

Can't seem to find the rules for the Hunting Rifle though (other than it's cost listing in the equipment list(s)), there is an entry for a Hochland Long Rifle which mentions hunting so perhaps it's misnamed? It is the same as a handgun but with 48" range.


So, blunderbusses, whilst perhaps fluffy for pirates, seem to me to be a bit redundant because you can only use them once per game, are less likely to wound than a handgun and are shorter range...

...although there's nothing in the rules that I can see that prevents one single model from taking multiples of a weapon, so, if you want to fire every turn for 4 turns of a game with a blunderbuss, take 4 on the one model. Could be an interesting suppression weapon, seeing as it doesn't state you can't move AND fire, just keep firing and moving forwards...


Personally though I'd go with handguns, I wouldn't even bother upgrading to a Hunting Rifle (Hochland Long Rifle?), at a cost of 200 gold, unless you want a guy to camp and play sniper.

Don't make the mistake I made in my Witch Hunters warband and take pistols (the bog standard pistols), I can't see the point in them, by the time you're in range to fire, you're in charge range, so you'll likely get charged, if you don't damage the opponent and/or he has buddies nearby, and they're not much more useful in melee either!!

 

[spafe]

Don't make the mistake I made in my Witch Hunters warband and take pistols, I can't see the point in them, by the time you're in range to fire, you're in charge range, so you'll likely get charged, if you don't damage the opponent and/or he has buddies nearby, and they're not much more useful in melee either!!

oo. thats an interesting take! I would suggest always going for dueling pistols rather than normal if you can, those 3" of range make all the difference. But I really love pistols. The Str 4 shots, the ability to move in and shoot, then use them for extra attack in CC at str 4... really nice!

Like, sure they arnt a club/axe spam, with slings... but they are certainly not bad options (imo obvs).

 

[Raven Morpheus]

oo. thats an interesting take! I would suggest always going for dueling pistols rather than normal if you can, those 3" of range make all the difference. But I really love pistols. The Str 4 shots, the ability to move in and shoot, then use them for extra attack in CC at str 4... really nice!

Like, sure they arnt a club/axe spam, with slings... but they are certainly not bad options (imo obvs).

Duelling pistols aren't on the Witch Hunters equipment lists. But yeah for human mercenaries I can see their use.

 

[MedMos]

Thanks for the replies, this is a great discussion! Especially as both piratey mercenaries and witch hunters are on the drawing board, and I have to split my black powder between them. And after that, Middenheimers are next, so a little uncanny, really... But they'll be viking themed, so bows for them.

I originally wanted to give the pirates a smattering of pistols, but looking up the range turned me off a little bit. Also, I thought it would be thematic to give a few to the crew, but as only the heroes can get them, it naturally limits those. But a few duelling pistols on the "lieutenants" sounds cool.
I think I'll go with two blunderbusses, despite excellent advice. Another will be converted to hunting rifle (if I can find out how to acquire one) and the last might just stay in the bits box for future use. I might be sacrificing a little efficiency for thematic purposes, but I'm ok with that. At least I'm not doing 4 blunderbusses, as I had first thought to do.
I'll probably mostly be playing against the kids anyway. Thought "pirates vs vikings" was a good way to go... And Witch Hunters just sound cool to me.

 

[spafe]

sorry, for clarification, the hunting rifle is the hochland hunting rifle.

two blunders are fun, nothing wrong with that at all!

I would suggest treating the pistols as cc weapons with a bonus ranged attack.

Also, are you aware of the pirates list? it is available on broheim. It is... a bit odd from memory, but they get funky stuff like swivel guns. If you are going to go through that list route (rather than marienburg rules to get the cash to better afford expensive blackpoweder), then I'll have a reread of it so I can point out the oddities to be aware of if you like (or you can tell me to bugger off lol)

 

[MedMos]

No, I wasn't specifically aware of a pirate list, just that there is a vastly expanded list of warbands. I was thinking, since I never played before, to keep it "vanilla" though thematic. I think I downloaded both the original ruleset and the expanded lists from the vault, so I'll probably read through them at some point, just keeping the oddities yo a minimum for now. I also saw a Norse list with a wulfen in it, so expanding is probably inevitable at some point.