Weapon

Weapons are an extremely important part of Battery Mode, as it is a First Person Shooter.

There are many different kinds of weapons featured in Battery Mode.

## Rifles

Rifles are the most common weapon encountered on the battlefield. Rifles are ideal for engagement at medium- to long-range because of their high powered cartridges with a high muzzle velocity. There are several kinds of Rifles.

### **Repeater Rifles**

Repeater Rifles are one of the oldest weapons still in common use by the armies in Battery Mode. Repeater Rifles manually chamber each successive round in a magazine, which makes for a rather slow rate of fire. However, Repeater Rifles are generally the most accurate weapons available and the fact that each round has to be manually chambered makes them ideal for firing Rifle Grenades. Additionally, the slow rate of fire encourages aiming each shot more precisely, though this has inherent disadvantages at close range. Therefore, Repeater Rifles are best at long-range combat.

Repeater Rifles are split into Bolt and Lever Action Rifles.

#### **Bolt Action Rifles**

Bolt Action Rifles are manually loaded by means of a lever that is pulled and extracts a cartridge, then pushed to load the cartridge. The same method extracts empty shell casings and loads the successive round. This kind or rifle was the universal arm for all armies in the early 20th century, and thus Bolt Action Rifles are some of the most varied weapons in the game, there being dozens of different designs and dozens of variations on many designs. Bolt Action Rifles are therefore quite ubiquitous. Because of their accuracy, these weapons also popular for conversion to Marksman's Rifles.

##### **Pros**

* Extremely accurate, some of the most accurate weapons in the game
* Reliability
* Relatively light weight
* Long barrel lengths on some rifles allow more propellant to be consumed during firing, causing less muzzle flash
* Large size allows for great reach with bayonets
* Ability to manually extract cartridges prevents their extraction from giving away the shooter's position
* Rechambering does not necessitate significant weight increase because of the inherent strength of bolt-action systems
* Only stripper clips have to be carried instead of hefty magazines, allowing for more ammunition to be carried
* Easy to disassemble and clean

##### **Cons**

* Relatively slow rate of fire hampers usefulness at close range
* Large size of some rifles makes them impractical in urban fighting and when dismounting armored vehicles
* Must be reloaded by stripper clips
* Generally lesser ammunition capacity than contemporary Self Loading Rifles (great majority of Bolt Action Rifles have five round magazines) causes reloading more often
* Hampered in the attack by need to manually load each shot and lower ammunition capacity - firing on the move is generally inadvisable

#### **Lever Action Rifles**

Much less popular than their Bolt Action cousins, Lever Action Rifles are manually loaded by a lever which is moved down to extract a cartridge, and up to load it. This Lever is positioned below the rifle along the grip. Because of the location of the lever, these rifles are more difficult to fire in a prone position than Bolt Action Rifles, and few Lever Action Rifles use stripper clips. This makes for a rather lengthy reload. All these disadvantages mean that the Lever Action Rifle is rather rarer than other Repeater Rifles. The advantages of the Lever Action Rifle include its ability to be fired by both left and right handed shooters (unlike most Bolt Action Rifles) and the fact that some Lever Action Rifles are chambered for handgun cartridges (which is necessitated by the fact that tubular magazines - which are most often found on these rifles - cannot hold traditional 'spitzer' cartridges as used by most armies) which allows the economic sharing of ammunition between a handgun and a rifle. Additionally, their generally smaller size and nominally greater rate of fire, as well as generally greater ammunition capacity, make Lever Action Rifles more useful at shorter ranges than their Bolt Action cousins.

##### **Pros**

* Generally smaller than Bolt Action Rifles, making for easier handling in close terrain
* Higher rate of fire than Bolt Action Rifles
* Greater ammunition capacity than Bolt Action Rifles
* Ability to share ammunition between handguns and rifles

##### **Cons**

* Usually not able to chambered for common military rifle cartridges
* Difficult to fire from a prone position
* Generally longer reload than Bolt Action Rifles
* Does not use stripper clips, necessitating the carrying of individual cartridges

## Light Machine Guns

Light Machine Guns provide the largest amount of firepower at section level, and are the smallest machine guns in common use. Despite this, they are still significantly heavier than other infantry small arms.

Light Machine Guns can be split into those fed by Magazines, Belts, or Other systems.

### **Other Feed**

There are a few other types of feeds that are encountered. Each of these feed systems has advantages and disadvantages, and other weapons can often be adapted to use another type of feed system.

#### **Strip Feed**

Metallic strip feed is a conceptual cousin of Belt feed, but, instead of relying on fabric or disintegrating belts, relies on metal strips to feed ammunition into the weapon. These strips usually have a capacity of 24 or 30 rounds depending on the ammunition used.

Metallic strips have a number of advantages and disadvantages in comparison to other types of feed systems. In comparison to magazines, strip feeds are lighter and more portable, allowing for more to be carried. Additionally, strip feeds can potentially be interchanged with other types of Machine Guns (such as Medium Machine Guns) thus simplifying logistics. Furthermore, feeding metallic strips is quicker than replacing a magazine, and strip feeds have an advantage in capacity over some magazine-fed light machine guns. However, strip feeds are less effective at keeping rounds clean and are more prone to damage than magazines. In comparison to belt feeds, strip feeds are unaffected by moisture (which badly affects cloth belts), can be loaded with cartridges more quickly (in the sense that it takes less time to insert 30 rounds into a strip than inserting 250 into a belt) and can be loaded into the weapon more quickly. Furthermore, the ability of one strip to be hooked onto the next allows for continuous fire to be maintained for a potentially longer period of time, though this ability is dubious as it is unlikely that more than 250 rounds of ammunition will be fired in a short time with a light machine gun, even if it has that capability. Additionally, strip feeds do not require the assistant gunner to manually ensure reliable feeding, which allows him time to load more ammunition into the strips. However, belt feeds generally beat out strips in capacity and are more portable to an extent.

## Picked Up Weapons

On the battlefield, it is possible to pick up enemy weapons and use them. This is a very powerful ability as it can allow even a lowly rifle squad to commandeer an enemy Machine Gun and thus reinforce the number of Machine Guns available.