As a cavalry mage, my character would be issued some sort of .38 Revolver.
Most likely a Colt M1894...
Or an M1892 upgraded to M1894 standards.
Those are the most common, issue, sidearms in 1899.
.38 Long Colt fired from one of these does 2d-1 pi to ranges of 110/1,200 and weighs 2.5/0.2; RoF is 3 and 6 shots take 2i to reload.
Knowing about reports from The Philippines and the presence of megafauna on the other side of a spookhole...
What if he wants something heavier duty?
There are sufficient quantities of M1873 revolvers and stocks of .45 S&W to be issued this instead.
The normal 7" cavalry model does 2d-1 pi+ to ranges of 120/1,300 and weighs 2.8/0.3; RoF is 1 and six shots take 3i to reload. Loading real .45 Colt ups the damage to 3d-2 pi+, but he'd have to come up with that out of pocket.
If he has to buy ammo out of pocket, why not the whole gun?
The Colt New Service is available in .45 Colt. It does 3d-2 pi+ to ranges of 120/1,300 and weighs 2.8/0.3; RoF is 3 and six shots take 2i to reload.
I doubt that an andrewsarchus is going to be much intimidated by any of the three above choices.
A big one will have 27 hit points with DR of 2. 2,500 pounds of screaming carnivore, the largest meat eating mammal to walk the earth.
Max damage, hit to the vitals with .38 Long Colt... 27 points. A major wound, to be sure, but hardly fatal.
Full load .45 Colt? 42 points! At least a death roll and a consciousness roll. With a HT of 13, don't count on this dropping it.
Might be better off with the carbine.
An average hit to the vitals will deal 57 points of damage, and a max roll 102.
The carbine also has a fair chance to get past the 4 DR of the skull for a brain hit, with an average damage of 68. A max damage roll from .38 Long Colt to the brain is a mere 28, .45 Colt getting 48.
Hmmmmm, I wonder what a 37mm Hotchkiss does...
Solid does 5dx2 pi++. Average to the BODY does 66. Vitals would be 99. Brain would be 124.
One of my great-grandfathers was a Marine in Cuba during the Span-Ami War. He had his issue weapons, but also, like your character, carried 2 .45LC revolvers, paid out of his own pocket. Would not be surprised if this up-arming went up and down the structure. Interestingly, he carried the same get-up when bashing the Boxers during said Rebellion.
ReplyDeleteSo you arming your man with self-purchased items would not be out of order.
If I remember correctly, one could also accept the issue sabre or buy a 'custom' one, as long as at the end of your tour you turned in your issue one.
Kind of like optics, certain ammo and body armor during the beginning of the Global War on Terror, purchased by the troops or provided by citizens buying them for the troops.