40K - IMPERIAL MEGA-BOLTERS (imagine an A-10 but x2) | Warhammer 40,000 Loregear

[Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] at some point in human history there was someone who had a simple dream a practical methodology of weapon design that persists of the 41st millennium that principle being what if we took a weapon that exists already but like made it really really big thus was born the mega bolters essentially gatling weapons but really big and if this is not one of the purest examples of human vision and ingenuity then i don't know what is the mega bolter also opted for the twinned gatling choice and it makes one wonder imagine if we created a new version of the a10 thunderbolt but this time added two 30 mil canon this is essentially the kind of thinking that brought humanity to where it is now in the 41st millennium mega bolters of either the vulcan or castigator variants are one of the most potent and effective anti-infantry weapons available to the imperium for obvious reasons of thousands of scaled bolt rounds thumping into waves of heretics or xenos the mass reactive shells even carbonized remains in the ground itself scorched few vehicles can support this platform required to enable a mega bolter and any titans or super heavy vehicles can carry the vulcan variant the slightly more reasonable castigator bolt cannon seen on the cirestas castigator knights a far more ancient pattern is essentially a slightly scaled down vulcan cannon both though are truly obscene gatling cannons and the sound line of their weapons being spun up coupled with the subsequent screaming carnage and obliteration upon the enemies of humanity is a terrifying sighting sound to behold in fact the screaming raw of the vulcan while firing has earned it the nickname laughter of the devil amongst titan crews the fire of vulcan megaboltus have been unleashed across war-torn worlds for thousands of years via the god engines of the mechanicus and the super-heavy tanks of the militarum wherever they are deployed they excel in scouring the enemies of humanity from the surface of any world and their torrent of firepower is capable of cutting clean through even the most savage and gigantic of xenos pulping infantry into bloody piles of viscera cutting through waves of charging alien horrors till the air itself is saturated by clouds of churned up blood and chitin just like their ancient ancestors millennia previous humanity in m41 continues to use one of its most tried and tested methods of destruction through sheer volume of firepower such weapons are semi-practical on the move for taking out specific targets or clearing areas in support but they excel as stationary support weapons fed a continuous feed of ammunition for those little that can resist a support battery of stormlords macarius vulcans warhound and river titans throwing down a continuous wall of mass reactive shells an unrelenting tsunami of firepower [Music] no matter that it's mounted on a warhound or river titan stormlord or macarius tank the vulcan mega bolter's unrelenting head of fire will annihilate their formations without mercy clearing the way for the imperium's defenders leaving only their shredded remains behind if that both primary patterns of mega bolter are essentially two paired rotary gatling style cannons and these rotate at an extremely high speed laying down withering fire and as with most imperial specifications it's annoyingly difficult to be sure of precise details in regard to these weapons similarly to say speculations about the height of imperial titans which really should be easy to measure but for some reason remains speculative but seriously can somebody just ask a mechanic as tech to get out a tape measure now speaking of details during my research the only source i could find listing the vulcan megabolters firing rate was in an ancient 4th edition rules for the apocalypse game which seemed a very bizarre location for such specific information not least because i couldn't find it anywhere else the scarcity and the law of some details continues to amusingly mirror that of the 40k verse itself and i like to imagine it's akin to pushing open a dusty door reams of archives and ledges have fallen against the door behind and as you push it open your imperial illuminator casting light across ancient parchments and barely functional data states you somehow find amid the reams of long since irrelevant data that singular detail that was missing or that's my lucid imaginings anyway so what i found was a reference stating quite bluntly that the firing rate for the vulcan mega bolter is a surprisingly slow 30 rounds a second thus putting it obviously at a firing rate of 1800 rpm it's worth considering this is comparable to the gau-12 cannon used in an ac-130 and even an a-10s gau-8 which was originally variable up to 4200 rpm but now fixed at 3900 rpm then you have the m134 minigun capable of firing up to 6 000 rpm which is also now said to have a slower fixed rate of firing at 3 000 rpm anyway discuss among yourselves in the comments about these details and associated history with any kind of weaponry there exists numerous maintenance issues to be considered as well as overall lifetime deterioration for example the gau-8 is judged to have a minimum life of at least 20 000 rounds for each set of its barrels before needing to be replaced now within the 40k verse it's very plausible that materials used to create such weapons would sidestep such considerations or enable weapons to at least operate beyond the range of what we understand in the 21st century one problem which places significant limitations on such weaponry that cannot be easily stepped around is that of ammunition supply which we will speak about more shortly many of you will undoubtedly be glad that unlike in my previous videos about bolt rounds there's no overly specific references to depleted deuterium for use in mega bolters this is such a weird oddity in the original referencing of bolt round composition and we can only presume it was an error meant to be written as depleted uranium but i included it previously anyway because that's what it says although it seems weird to imagine how somebody could really make that error which leads me to personally believe this reference was chosen originally just because it sounded cool and sciency and not for any real world comparisons also a small tangent for any who do not know why depleted uranium is valuable in use for projectile composition it's mainly because of its density and its increased density enables it to have a significantly high pressure at the point of impact making it better for armor penetration so something like depleted uranium would also sit quite readily within the 40k verse where irradiated battlefields and other such horrors are the norm which when you think about it is quite disturbing because yet again 40k overlaps concerningly easily with our own reality regardless by any comparison mega bolters of the imperium are perhaps surprisingly not as extreme as one might imagine of course they're still truly ferocious and is anyone who has heard the fire of a gout 812 or m134 gatling cannon this type of weaponry somehow evokes strong emotions likely this is just the realization of the sheer power being deployed thereby stoking a very rational sense of awe coupled with an appreciation that said firepower is not being directed your way or perhaps it's more of a dark comedic awareness of the sheer human madness that enabled us to end up with such a device wherever we see these kind of canon being implemented they tend to become near legendary in status example aircraft like the a-10 thunderbolt and the ac-130 both infamous for their ability to wreak horrifying damage against their targets so in the same sense the deployment of any piece of hardware within the imperium sporting a twin gatling mega bolter using titanic scale rounds or otherwise paired with the explosive power of their mass reactive shells is going to be something that embiggens the heart of many an imperial guardsmen and makes the enemies of humanity cower at the sight and sound of such a horrific piece of support weaponry [Music] however there is one small problem which is as i've noted before a problem that is often carefully sidestepped around within the 40k verse and that problem being ammunition now for starters let's begin with another real world comparison the a10 aircraft now typically this carries a loadout of 1150 30 millimeter rounds but its fire rate is 3900 rpm so this gives you a sense of how much it can continuously fire before being completely spent with that being about 17 to 20 seconds it's not very long and it's why it's limited to bursts of just a few seconds another example is the ac-130s gow-12 which uses 25 millimeter rounds but obviously has the potential capacity for significantly more ammunition these help to give just an impression of how much ammunition is required for a gatling vehicle mounted weapon to be even minimally operational now despite the limitations for aircraft this is generally fine because in the case of something like an a10 or ac130 they're there to provide fire support to come in strike a specific target at a critical juncture in a mission or deployment not necessarily for continual sustained engagement and if that were the case then a nearby means of resupply would be necessary within the verse of 40k something like a stormlord macarius vulcan castigator knight or warhound titan are not really close support vehicles the only thing that comes close and uses a twin megabolt cannon configuration is the space marine's fire raptor gun ship which wields an avenger bolt cannon essentially what looks to be a twin version of an a10 gau-8 if you can imagine such a thing for the rest though they're primarily used as an active engaging frontline unit on a battlefield potentially for sustained periods of time so how reasonable is this given the limitations interestingly only the castigator knight is seen to have an actual visible ammo supply to its massive castigator bulk cannon whereas the mercurius vulcan and the warhound titans are a little more vague about their capacity and also where the large amounts of ammunition required to make their weapons even plausible are stored however in both situations it is at least somewhat addressed in the case of the macarius vulcan it is actually explained that it only carries enough ammunition for 20 seconds of continuous firing and it allows us to understand that it means if we take this supposed speed of a vulcan megabolt at 30 rounds per second it's therefore only going to be carrying a loadout of something like 600 rounds per cannon roughly 1200 total which is to be honest quite reasonable plus for this reason it's even noted that the crew of a mac vulcan will fill every possible space for ammunition and even bring additional crates or belts presumably it's also explained how sometimes they even carry external support for additional resupply although this obviously can create problems of its own dragging around tons of ammo is not a deal when enemies are actively engaging you with the kind of weapons seen in the 41st millennium however for something like a mac vulcan it may be seen as more of a support weapon to help defend key positions however for something like a mac vulcan it may also additionally be used in the role of a support weapon to help defend key positions now critically support weapon in this sense is not the same as close support you're not necessarily moving into a battle space to engage it's more like defending a line position so essentially an area denial tool for laying down massive amounts of suppressing firepower at incoming enemy but it just also happens to be mounted on a mobile vehicle so it's more likely it's going to be used as a means to support ground forces in this way and defend bunker positions where it can be readily supplied with ammunition enabling it to fire for extended engagements the mercurius is said to primarily focus on clearing trench lines and suppressing enemy for its weapon while saturating in rounds lacks the punch of heavy weaponry needed in m41 to break heavily armored units or bunker positions now in the case of the stormlord it's simply described as something akin to a mobile fortress it's believed they're able to carry anything up to 4 000 rounds so considerably more ammunition than a mac vulcan although saying that it's designed to have substantial transport capacity being one of the largest transporters of infantry available for the militarum and so it may not be primarily focused on maximizing firepower thus the tank itself is described as taking an infantry support role and has been deployed to great effect against horrors such as the tyranids with guardsmen giving the vehicle the nickname of being safe houses the combination of its impressive defensive capability and significant armament makes it a formidable fighting machine of the imperium that's all fine for these vulcan mega bolter tanks but what about the castigator knight well the castigator clearly carries a significant reserve of ammunition this is visible on it likely this is still only enough for bursts of firepower but at least it's clearly visible an estimation would be that it's carrying potentially something around a thousand rounds it's again at least a plausible quantity of ammunition and enough for me to at least suspend my disbelief and say okay they made a solid effort to demonstrate its theoretical functionality and the same can really be said for the fire raptor gunship whilst its ammunition is not visible necessarily it is plausible that it will be able to maintain that capability but when it comes to warhound titans this is where i think things become somewhat more difficult titan mega bolters appear to have what is essentially a box mag attached below each cannon on the weapon itself these are used presumably to feed what is a very hungry twin cannon and using my half-assed calculations it looks to me like each of the two box mags for the warhound titans can possibly only carry about 50 to 60 rounds perhaps 100 rounds if we were being generous and this is judging by the scale of the barrel itself to estimate the size of the rounds so if we are giving each box generously 100 rounds that's gonna give you about two and a half to three seconds of firepower so you best not miss now there's no specific scale for the rounds used in the vulcan mega bolter of a warhound and so i was left to just judge by the scale of the barrels on the titans themselves there is reference in the law to a vulcan mega bolter on a titan scale using rounds the size of a human skull whatever the hell that means but based on the idea that potentially the rounds could be slightly different size i did also do two other overlays to try and see if adjusting scale helps now in this image the magazine ends up allowing for about 240 rounds so significantly more than the larger rounds in my first example but still the capacity is woefully inadequate then i used a titanicus scale warhound image to overlay interestingly and likely because on this scale the barrels are smaller i thought well what if on the larger miniatures the barrels were just too large or again it's just not quite accurately representing well unfortunately even when accounting for this even when i'm making the rounds potentially smaller you still only end up with about 360 rounds per box magazine for the vulcan mega bolter of a warhound titan now i suppose we could be very generous in both cases and i'd say an extra 100 rounds on top but again this is still only going to enable the weapon to fire for something like 12 to 13 seconds which i think given the impression of how they're supposed to operate is hardly world ending although i suppose that depends if you're actively being targeted by it but in honesty this whole ammunition thing is a wider problem than just for mega bolters because 40k in general suffers from a willfully ignored problem when it comes to the issue of ammunition supply when it comes to the issue of ammunition supply for example have you like me often wondered how is it that terminators rearm themselves whilst in the depths of a space hulk what about dreadnoughts deep into a battlefield and not forgetting of course space marines who seem to carry weapons whose capacity is probably about 10 rounds max yet rarely do they seem to carry ammo and if so it's just one pouch where's the server to battle ammo resupply drones well thankfully it's a good job they all have those very small knives or perhaps a chainsaw because pretty much after their first engagement they're gonna be out of ammo now considering how deep 40k lore goes in other areas in so far that it takes huge efforts via both the miniatures and overall narrative to expand on really specific details yet basic functionality rarely appears to be one of those things and this is in fact one of those things that considerably irks me as i personally significantly enjoy conceptualizing the real world workings of these things you can probably guess that and this is including things like logistics and any concerns related around this so in the midst of a battle of 40k where does each part of the logistical chain fit in why were things decided ahead of time and so forth where are the resupplies coming in are they doing ammo based airdrops this sort of thing i think this is why sometimes battle drama in 40k novels can fall a little flat for me as it often tends to be just pitched battles or individual jewels when they're extended campaigns the focus again generally becomes about battles individuals but less flashing out of these subsidiary details which are quite honestly just as interesting and why well because real world history shows us how often so often wars are won and lost by forces over stretching the limits of their resupply lines and it's often a very specific target of opposing forces to destroy resupply lines to starve their enemy of ammunition and other essential supplies and this rarely is any sort of concern in 40k it tends to be maximum obliteration is the only way which i guess is fitting but not necessarily always the most plausible then again you might be tempted to say lewton this is the 40k verse who the hell cares about plausibility and i'd say fair enough but still for me personally i will say something that i've said before which is that within a verse like 40k while it is entirely true that it is filled with a galaxy of crazy aliens weapons that could turn you inside out and so forth why is something so simple as a weapon having enough ammo so critical why is this the hill to die on sure i know for some people this might seem a very small and minimal thing to get hung up on in the grand scheme of things but as i've explained previously there have to be parameters to the suspension of disbelief in order for any verse to be reasonably entertaining at all think of it like this when something exists outside of our sphere of understanding then we can dismiss its parameters more easily like say demons or cycles or the warp these things are easier for us to suspend disbelief because the actual functionality is so disconnected from our everyday reasoning now also for as crazy as the 40k verses many details are surprisingly logical and reasonable no really so let's take for example the tyranids for as horrifying as the tyranids are they're an alien species who have evolved to this state of nightmare by a weaponry and we can make sense of that in our mind we understand this sort of evolutionary concept the tao they have very advanced tech unlike the imperium they're not limited in expansion of technology so you can believe their technological growth and so forth you can go down the list of other species in the 40k galaxy for as insane as much of the stuff in 40k is it's believable enough that you can suspend disbelief and i think sometimes that's what makes it so compelling and scary it is completely insane very often it is completely over the top very often but it just retains enough plausibility to keep you engaged there are other races like the eldar and the necron and these are more problematic but that's not something to get into today so for me personally what is far more difficult to suspend disbelief over are things that we do actually have logical understandings of but that are subsequently rendered practically impossible by just poor explanations so things like having a weapon that requires definitely thousands of rounds of ammunition to make it even minimally functionally effective and then equipping it with a magazine that would only enable it to fire for two seconds if that so suspension of disbelief only goes so far there has to be real world anchors and limitations in any fictional verse because if the answer to any detail which has no easy answer is just well everything else is crazy so it doesn't matter if that's somebody's position not only does it sound disingenuous and dismissive because it probably is but it also means it's probably never worth having any further discussions about anything from there on because essentially anything goes when it comes to hardware using imperial mega bolters for me personally the mac vulcan the castigator they both get a pass from me they make an effort to rationalize the fact that weapons require a ton of ammunition in order to be feasible both i can see being somewhat practical for different purposes on a 40k battlefield and adaptive at that then you also have the fire raptor gunship with its avenger bolt cannon this also gets a pass it has enough internal space they could fit something similar to what an a10 carries so that's also plausible for me in the sphere of titans the warlord and river now again i could rationalize both of their mega bolters using their decent internal storage space for ammunition but it's the warhound that's the real sticking point for me apparently the way warhound titan vulcan megabolters work is that while a titan is in combat one crew member is also using a magnetic crane in the weapon arm itself to feed chains or i guess belts of ammunition in a constant flow to the weapon these are loaded from massive grav hoppers presumably before the battle and these ammo boxes chains are said to contain enough shells to last over a number of days in the most severe battles meanwhile a second crew member is continually evoking the litany of reloading and redemption sanctioned by the adeptus mechanicus to ensure the smooth release of ammunition and that the plentiful supply of mass reactive shells continues to load properly all the while pouring blessed oils into the warring mechanisms whenever the vulcan megabolter is in danger of overheating not entirely sure that would be enough to stop something like that overheating but at this point never mind now for all the mental gymnastics around this it's something that i can tolerate i think a reasonable rationalization for me would be to say well if only the rounds themselves were significantly more damaging but unfortunately in actuality the rounds are surprisingly weak they're not designed really for armor penetration but for suppression and area denial to mass waves of enemy infantry which again it really only makes things worse because likely just as you would open fire it would all be over so the two things don't pair they don't really sit together like i said if you're gonna shoot with this weapon you better be damn sure to hit your target because you only get one chance is this the most implausible thing in 40k definitely not is it something i can live with albeit with a burning irritation in the back of my mind yes does it make me want to remodel all of my titanicus warhand mega bolters with double the size ammo boxes also yes [Music] vulcan mega bolters castigator bolt cannons avengerbot cannons evoke a terrifying display of firepower that originates deep in humanity's long history of warfare not entirely dissimilarly to those ancient darkest of times the imperium of the 41st millennium relies on horrifying wars of attrition to survive in the galaxy of the dark future thus making megabot weapons absolutely suited to the environments they're deployed in a screaming raging torrent of ammunition that decimates any who wander into the field of fire while such tools have their impracticalities humanity remains nothing if not ingenious enough to ensure that the maximum levels of decimation can be maintained within the fire raptor for example much like the a10 of the 20th century it is configured to maximize ammo storage sacrificing any transport capacity to enable its devastating suite of weaponry most fearsome of course being its twin avenger bulk cannons similarly the castigator knight and mac vulcan enable the maximum ammo capacity available for their vehicle to maintain devastation and then lastly the vulcan mega bolters on titans while ammunition is an issue the most effective use for such a weapon is as a fortification defense or the hold line against the enemy or in the case of titan's breaking void shields many zenos encountered by humanity assault in waves numbering hundreds of thousands of units and this is where you would want to see entire sections of mach vulcan tanks or titans sitting behind fortifications stormlords being continually fed ammunition from stationary positions servatures and mechanicus teams ensuring that the weapons are kept in optimal firing condition to unleash a devastating and relentless torrent of fire upon the enemy so much so that the sheer level of pressure and kinetic energy will bury any who are not completely disintegrated by the power of the hailstorm raining down upon them it was thanks to the tech priests of forgerod lucius that the imperium has the capability to field such defenses with they having been the first to explore the options of mounting the vulcan megabolter onto these tank variants remembering that this sits within the tolerated adaptions of the adeptus mechanicus adjacent adaptation is not considered tech heresy at least by most and for those long experienced in the arcane construction of god machines the tech priests began attempting to transfer the weapon across to other vehicles in the period of late m33 unfortunately imperial records state that many of the machine spirits reacted badly to their initial efforts and these failed rituals led to the destruction of many tanks before relatively stable patterns were developed and personally i always loved these descriptions of the mechanicus and their machine spirits for any who are unaware machine spirits are generally speaking simplistic ai that are unable to alter or upgrade themselves and so the mechanicas see them as not dangerous the reference to them as machine sports is primarily due to the technology that enables them being so advanced and incomprehensible it's seen more as spiritual than technology itself it's effectively the equivalent of somebody from the bronze age trying to understand siri so suffice to say likely the tech priest just couldn't get the weaponry to sync with the tanks and ended up frying many vehicles before they finally figured it out so thus eventually they were able to appease the mighty machine spirits with no doubt heavy quantities of incense and sacred oils and by finally appeasing the machine spirit into accepting the modifications blessed is the omniscient they were successful for many simple individuals in the imperium of mankind the sight of any machine of war is much more than they can comprehend but most especially the titans that stride across the battlefields in fact for many facing down a titan this is where the description of titan shock occurs to witness such things for many is to truly believe in the god spirits spoken of by the devout followers of the machine court and may well turn many into true believers especially if they're accompanied by skittari on a battlefield for many of course the weaponry of the imperium is all but holy and to witness it in action is a miracle and a blessing to see mega bolter weapons is to understand the imagination and ingenuity of humanity but also to marvel at its horror for those like the sororitas who see divine significance in nearly all things we may wonder what they make of such weapons we can quite easily read into the metaphorical significance of weaponry like the vulcan megabolter an unstoppable irresistible force pulping and disintegrating the enemies of the emperor until all that remains is a cloud of blood from the otherwise vaporized foes and a carbonized pock-marked battlefield for we all walk with the will of the omniscient where he sends us we will go it is ours to trust and to obey [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Luetin09

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Keywords: Gaming, Discuss, Channel, Future, 40K, Warhammer 40K, Imperium, Humanity, Mankind, Doom, Fall, Space Marines, Heretic, Heresy, The Emperor of Man, Lore, History, Guide, Warhammer 40000, Warp, Immaterium, Rift, War, Slaughter, Horror, Nightmare, Tabletop, Inquisition

Id: jr1Q6SH7Ajw

Length: 31min 8sec (1868 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 09 2021