Bolter
The preferred weapon of the Space Marines. (in the grim darkness of the far future.)
The Bolter, along with the Flamer, Lasgun, and chainsword are one of the most famous weapons in the Imperium. It is sometimes called the "holy bolter" because Space Marines have been warrior monks since ever. Meaning after edition 1.
Seriously: What the hell GW?
Contents
How It Works
In all seriousness, the Bolter, frequently called the "Boltgun," is a powerful antipersonnel weapon that fires miniaturized armor-piercing rockets (called "bolts") that have a delayed impact fuse. What this means, in layman's terms, is that the projectiles it fires are designed to punch through armor and then explode, causing considerable, if not immediately fatal damage to whatever the thing hits, since whoever's hit is usually blown the hell apart.
The rocket-propelled projectiles the gun fires are quite large (.75 Caliber, or 19.05mm to use another metric), making the weapon quite effective against most forms of infantry and capable of causing damage to most light vehicles as well; basic Marines firing on a vehicle from behind and disabling or even destroying it (in 4th edition at least) with glancing hits is not entirely unheard of. They are capable of fire either on semi-automatic, and most can also fire in 2- or 4-round bursts.
Humorously, the technology behind bolters comes from gun that actually exists, though a failed design and one that never actually saw much use in spite of considerable potential. Some fa/tg/uys have suggested that this is a humorous analogy for the entire franchise.
It is quite reasonable to assume that as the Bolter exists in a much more advanced universe than ours, it would be much more powerful than a gyrojet gun we could build today even if they were of the exact same size and caliber. The propellant would probably be much more powerful making it go a lot faster; the shell casing and tip are indeed made out of much sterner and rarer stuff than what we can make or would be practical for us to make (there is no way in hell we could afford to give every round a sharpened diamond tip); and the warhead would probably be a lot more potent than a 0.75 caliber RPG we could make with today's technology. On top of that, unlike the gyrojet, people actually give a flying fuck about the Bolter, so it seems reasonable to assume that the problems with the gyrojet design were smoothed out because they have more resources to do that than a tiny company that most weapons enthusiasts haven't heard of.
Thus the Bolter manages to be much more deadly than the Lasgun or Autogun, both of which hit you with more force than a high velocity .50 caliber BMG round and can make a man pop like a overfilled water balloon. If the Lasgun hits you with the force of a high velocity .50 caliber round, then the Bolter will hit you with the force of a high velocity 90mm rocket (IRL terms, about the same force as being directly hit with a rocket shot from a typical shoulder-fired launcher); that's if high velocity 90mm rockets lodged themselves in your chest and then exploded just to make sure that there was no fucking way you would survive. Oh yeah, and they could also be fired at a relatively rapid (and accurate) pace. While this is serious overkill when used against normal humans, let us consider the setting:
The average Ork boy has a very good chance of just walking off direct hits from lasguns and autoguns and probably would find the experience of being shot at by a modern day assault rifle to be about as threatening as venomless bee stings. The average Tyranid Gaunt is also very resilient, though a direct hit from an auto or las gun does indeed have a significantly better chance of killing one than it does an Ork boy. Let us also not forget that most of these enemies are very good at ignoring pain and are very, very difficult to frighten, and you don't have to worry about a single Ork or Tyranid, you have to worry about hundreds of them, rushing at you so they could chop your head off/OM NOM NOM you. This is where the Bolter's extreme firepower comes in handy, as does its normal kill mechanism.
If the Bolter were to just penetrate through, the target would just have a hole in it, a big hole, but most things in WH40k can fight with several organs missing, let alone with a good sized hole. If it just exploded in an airburst, before hitting the target, it would spray shrapnel and a good concussive field, but even Guardsman flak armor can block out shrapnel rather easily. That said, one of the specialist rounds is stated to be airburst. If it exploded on impact it would do quite a lot of tearing and ripping, but you'd still be wasting energy as the explosion goes in all directions outward from the intended target.
Penetrating within the target and THEN exploding ensures the destruction of whatever is inside and does as much damage to the target as possible; thusly, rather than just putting a hole into enemies who would scoff at an M2 Browning .50 cal Machine Gun, it blows them to tiny bits. 40k being 40k, quite frequently a Bolter user will encounter an enemy who is very much capable of surviving a Bolter round. Having armor that is too strong for Bolter rounds to pierce helps quite a bit in the task of surviving a shot, as is simply having so much mass that the Bolter cannot completely blast you apart. Having both ((like in the case of a Carnifex or Plague Marine) helps quite a lot. Occasionally, when you are facing simply massive creatures (especially Nurgle demons), penetrating about an inch before exploding means it's only penetrating an inch into its skin before blasting it off, without getting into the body at all really. Which tells just how stupidly powerful the fighters in 40K are.
The ammunition clips used vary by a fair amount: the most commonly used is a curved 'Sickle' magazine, (one in a normal bolter, 2 in a storm bolter), which judging by their relative size would hold between 20 and 30 bolts each; occasionally used are straight magazines, which only hold between 12 and 20 bolts, but these are easier to reload than the standard sickle design. Employed by more elite forces (Terminators, Sternguard etc.) are box magazines which hold between 40 and 60 bolts. Some Chaos Space Marines, thanks to a shortage of magazines due to them having no manufactorums, simply use several bolts in a belt hanging from the magazine well, obviously for these the capacity varies depending on the personal preferences of the Chaos Marine in question. They also tend to get stuck or blown away, but apparently they can be reloaded rapidly.
Bolters have a spotty history in the games as far as portrayal goes. Fire Warrior got it right, with the weapons firing the miniaturized rockets they're supposed to, but Dawn of War made them into machine guns whilst Dawn of War 2 tried to fix that. Thankfully, the new game Space Marine seems to have gotten it right as well, with some truly bad-ass Bolter effects and impacts. Even if the damage they do is a bit low. The stormbolters are kind of underwhelming, also. However, it looks and feels epic, giving a good impression for what a cool weapon should be like.
Also, regular Bolters are still in service with other adepts of the Imperium, a notable example are the Sisters of Battle and Adeptus Arbites. Both the SoBs and Arbites however, use smaller versions compared to the ones Space Marines used due to their comparatively lower strength (a SoB would struggle to accurately fire a Marine's Bolter while an Arbites would either have his arms ripped off from their sockets or do backflips because of the weapon's very powerful recoil).
The stats for this thing on the tabletop are as follows, as stated by any of the countless free PDF system reference document sheets released by GW:
Strength: 4 AP: 5 Range: 24" Class: Rapid Fire
Variants
Bolters come in a dazzling array of different designs, as the thing has been redesigned repeatedly and re-used continually over its service lives, and is in use with no less than six (or a dizzying eight if you count unused last-gen armies like Kroot and Lost and the Damned) different factions in Warhammer 40k, marking it as the single most ubiquitous weapon in the entire goddamned galaxy of 40K. While most are familiar with the iconic Astartes pattern bolter seen in the picture above, there's also countless variations beyond that.
Bolt Pistol
A scaled-down Bolter that's designed to be used as a sidearm, firing the same high-caliber explosive shells as its big brother. Carried by all space marines but primarily wielded by Sergeants in conjunction with a chainsword - both by the SPESS MEHREENS, Chaos Marines, and even Imperial Guard, it also sees extensive use with higher-ranking units in just about every faction worth a damn in the Imperium. Although Spess Mehrens use notably larger pistols compared to the ones the guard uses, probably because the Marines need larger firepower and your typical human is highly unlikely to be able to effectively fire a Marine-sized Bolt Pistol one handed. Its only drawback is that it has a shorter range than the larger Bolter.
It is quite possible that the Bolt Pistol does in fact use different ammunition than the Bolter, in order to achieve a higher muzzle velocity for close-range kills. This would probably manifest in a different propellant used in the pistol shells, something that has a faster and more explosive burn to it than the typical Bolt shell, leading to the shorter range while maintaining close-quarters deadliness.
A variant of this weapon is the Executioner Pistol used by Eversor assassins. It can fire either standard bolt rounds or poisoned darts. Most Eversors prefer to shoot both at the same time, despite the feasible impossibility of such a maneuver.
The Bolt Pistol is, perhaps, most infamously used by Commissars, who tend to use it in the most direct manner possible:
DRAMATIS PERSONAE:
Commissar: "...The Emperor teaches that only through his glory can we find victory on the battlefield."
Soldier: "Sir Commissar, what does the Emperor teach about the two-headed mutants that roam the frontline?"
Commissar: "Um... er..."
Soldier: "....Well, so much for the entertainment."
Commissar: "*BLAM*"
Its stats are as follows:
Strength: 4 AP: 5 Range: 12" Class: Pistol
Storm Bolter
Sometimes, fire rate accounts for a lot. In recognition of this, many units make use of a double-barreled bolter which can spray out considerably more ammo out to max range, effectively making for a more dangerous weapon capable of ladling out more explosive-filled armor-piercing goodness. This is most commonly seen used by officers and Marines in Terminator Armor. It has 2 magazine wells, one for each barrel, usually there will either be a Duplus X magazine (which is 2 sickle/straight clips strapped together), or a single box magazines which connects to both wells at the same time. For arm mounted Storm Bolters (i.e. Grey Knights), the wells are on the side of the weapon. For conventional Storm Bolters, the wells are on the bottom.
Chaos Marines lack access to the Storm Bolter; the weapon was invented after they fled to the Warp. They liked the design a lot, though, and made their own version of the weapon called the Combi-Bolter, sometimes called a Tandem or Twin-Linked Bolter. Basically 2 bolters hooked together and linked to the same trigger mechanism, this offers both an advantage and a drawback; it cannot fire as many rounds and isn't quite as efficient, so it can accurately hit only one target at max range, but unlike the regular Storm Bolter, it counts as twin-linked - meaning it's more likely to hit with that one shot it gets at a distance. Up close, however, the Combi-Bolter can shoot just as often and remains Twin-Linked. Thus, at 12-24", the Combi-Bolter has a greater chance of hitting with any given shot, while a Storm Bolter has more shots to hit with, while in the 1-12" the Combi-Bolter gets just as many shots and counts as Twin-Linked. Chaos Terminators can assault after using it, due to a special rule, though they can't move and shoot beyond 12" (sometimes called "Relent-very-little" since it's almost Relentless). It's mostly used by Chaos Terminators and Commanders, the latter of which are known for raging hard at the fact that Chaos doesn't get better ranged weapon options for its commanders. Unless you're a Tzeentch Commander, or a Sorcerer (or Emperor forbid both). In which case you shouldn't care either way.
The stats are as follows:
Storm Bolter: Strength: 4 AP: 5 Range: 24" Class: Assault 2
Combi-Bolter: Strength: 4 AP: 5 Range: 24" Class: Rapid Fire, Twin-Linked
Godwyn Pattern Bolter
A standard Boltgun in most respects, the Godwyn fires larger caliber bolts: .998 instead of .75. For this reason, Godwyns are significantly rarer than most standard Bolter patterns, for a few reasons. First, the .75 caliber bolts are certainly powerful enough on their own, and do just fine against most enemies of man. Second, the Godwyn wasn't the first STC Bolter Pattern found by the Mechanicus, thus there was already an infrastructure producing for .75 caliber Bolters, and a universal Bolt caliber already existed. Third, putting the materials strain of increased-caliber shell production into mass use could cripple the Imperial explosives industry.
The Godwyn Pattern Bolter is still a scary thing to see, and the Tyranids had better pray that nobody gets the bright idea to make a Godwyn Pattern Storm Bolter.
Heavy Bolter
The heavy machine gun version of the Bolter fires even bigger bolts, is fully-automatic, and with a heavier armor-piercing tip and nearly double the range. Naturally, this advantage means that the weapon can cut through infantry with horrifying ease, and it remains a "must have" weapon when facing mass-based armies like the Imperial Guard, Orks, or Tyranids. Sadly, it's so big that it takes 2 people (or one Marine) to transport and operate, and normally, it cannot be fired on the move - unless you're Imperial Guard Gunnery Sergeant Harker, in which case you can because you're concentrated manliness of such a degree that you make your whole squad fearless in the process.
TL;DR, it's usually seen on vehicles if not in heavy weapon units - either Heavy Weapon Teams for the Imperial Guard, or Heavy Weapon soldiers for the Adeptus Sororitas, Chaos Space Marines, or Space Marines. The Adeptus Mechanicus are known for modding a few of their Servitors for the sole purpose of carrying and firing a Heavy Bolter, presumably so the Techpriest can get some fucking work done while a bunch of Orks are screaming and brandishing pointed sticks in their general direction.
Special recognition goes to the Leman Russ battle tank for mounting three of these fucking things in most configs. If you want to rape an entire squad of infantry, accept no substitutes (except for the Leman Russ Punisher, which renders most of the above a moot point). Or a Baneblade.
In fluff terms; the Heavy Bolter uses a 1.00 (25.4mm wide) caliber round as opposed to the regular bolter's 0.75 caliber. Not that much bigger than a regular bolter round you say? First off, a .25 inch difference in terms of caliber is pretty enormous. Think about a .25 caliber weapon, a .25 bigger round would be a .50 caliber. It actually means that 1.00 caliber round will have twice the volume (and mass) of 0.75 considering it will have same length. Well you have to remember that diameter is not the only portion of a bolter round's size, there is also length. And of course, mass is also extremely important when it comes to determining the power of a projectile. Also note that compared to your standard bolter which fires only at a semi-automatic pace (unless it's a Locke pattern), the heavy bolter can fire on full auto, allowing it to lay down the hate at a much deadlier rate.
Let's just say that the heavy bolter shell is 1 and 1/3rd times larger dimensions-wise than a normal bolter shell. Assuming the same density, the mass would be multiplied twofold (1&1/3*1&1/3*1&1/3=2 or so), and the added propellant would make the round go quite a lot faster, let's say the speed is multiplied by one and one half. Also, heavy bolters are fired out of much longer guns, giving more time for the initial propellant (the normal charge that shoots the bolt out of the shell before its rockets activate) to accelerate it, so yet more velocity, let's say by another half. So, the velocity is in total, doubled.
Thus we have eight times as much kinetic energy (velocity's contribution is squared in case you fell asleep in 8th grade physical science class drunkass) and this isn't getting into the added explosive charge. Thus the heavy bolter round is far, far more powerful than the Bolter shell; allowing for vastly increased amount of gibs. This has been another science lesson, with me; SG Shockwave. Have fun kiddies! Remember to keep the safeties on at all times when playing with heavy bolters!
Its worth noting that the Bradley Fighting Vehicle of American usage uses a 25x137mm chaingun. So quit complaining about how Chimera's are under-powered. Your hull gun is the Bradley's main gun.
Worthy of special note are the hellfire shells space marine scouts may fire from this weapon, it is a poisoned (2+), blast shell, particularly useful against tyranid biomorphs or just general blob armies.
Stats? Oh, we got 'em:
Strength: 5 AP: 4 Range: 36" Class: Heavy 3
Psycannon
It's a bolter. A really bad-ass bolter that does anything the Heavy Bolter can do, but better. It can also be fired on-the-move or stationary, basically supplanting the role of both the Heavy Bolter and Storm Bolter at the same time. The bolts it fires are powerful bolts loaded with psionically-resonant warheads; TL;DR, this gun will blow through shielded opponents, Daemons, and Officio Assassinorum operatives like they're wet Kleenex. It's only used by the Inquisition and is better than the Heavy Bolter in every way, which explains a lot. In fact, it's closer to freaking assault cannons than heavy bolters in raw power. The Grey Knights' version of the Land Raider Crusader ripped out the twin-linked Assault Cannons in favor of a twin-linked Psycannons, that says a lot!
Due to Matt Ward they are now much better than assault cannons; having a higher strength value and being able to fire more frequently while also possessing Rending. They will absolutely fuck up the shit of a Tyranid or Chaos Daemons army with neither mercy nor pity. They're no longer capable of ignoring shields though which sucks, but hey, balance had to fit in there somewhere. Even frontal tank armour can simply melt away under the onslaught of 4 str7 rending rounds. Of course if it were up to Matt, Psycannon's would probably be some bullshit like S9 AP1 Heavy 6 or assault 4 with rending, gauss, and ion weapon rules. But once again, GW proved to not be totally useless.
It uses a Heavy Bolter as it's basis, but it is NOT a Heavy Bolter firing psybolts, as the mechanisms of the Psycannon allow its user to charge the rounds with their own psychic power instead of that power infused into the bolts from the beginning. They are still usable by non-psychic individuals, though.
Strength: 7 AP: 4 Range: 24" Type: Assault 2, Rending OR Heavy 4, Rending
Kai Gun
Chaos' version of the Psycannon, the Kai Gun was a Daemon Weapon in the Fourth Edition ruleset of Codex: Chaos Space Marines. If you were to bring one to the tabletop now, it would count as a Deathscreamer (Tzeentchian Daemon Weapon). It's current-edition stats makes it one of those weapons that can either be amazingly good or amazingly bad depending on how the dice favor you. Notably, in Dawn of War II, Tarkus will use one in Chaos Rising if he turns.
The Kai Gun was produced by the Machine Smiths of Kai when the Kai system was absorbed into the Eye of Terror by the warp storm Gae-sann in M34. The Smiths realized that they could make weapons that flashed the finger to every known Law of Physics, and maintained Imperial presence on the planet while bartering their services for a measure of protection from the daemons of the Warp and produced hundreds of physics-defying weapons, the Kai Gun included, in return. Eventually this deal came to an end when Daemons descended on Kai and butchered the bulk of the population. Several Chaos Lords, being more cynically enterprising, swooped in to secure some (very grateful) potential candidates and weapon-techs during the massacre. Ultimately, when the dust settled only the massive, arcane, Bolter-like weapons that were the Kai system's legacy remained. Mostly because GW won't tell us what else Kai made during its stint in the warp.
3.5th Edition Stats: Strength: 6 AP: 3 Range: 24" Type: Assault 2, Daemon Weapon
4th Edition Stats: Strength: 4 AP: 3 Range: 24" Type: Assault d6, Daemon Weapon
Note that due to the new Daemon Weapon rules, the Kai Gun counts as a Power Weapon in close-combat and gives +1d6 attacks in close combat every time its bearer is involved in an assault. Due to the Daemonic spirit in it, however, it rebels on a roll of a 1 for its firing or attack bonus stats, giving no attacks and firing no rounds and instead inflicting an automatic wound on its owner with no saves allowed. Power at a price.
But now you can't get one, because the 6th Edition Codex doesn't have them.
Avenger Bolt Cannon
The Avenger Bolt Cannon is the latest addition to the Bolter family, and seems to be intended to fill the role of "most powerful bolt weapon in non-Apocalypse games" (and at Strength 6, AP3, Heavy 7, it certainly is). It was introduced with the Avenger Strike Fighter, but is also an available option for the Dark Angels' Nephilim Jetfighter, though their Avenger Mega Bolter is only AP4 Heavy 5 instead of terrifying AP3.
Knight Pattern Heavy Bolter
A supposedly better Heavy Bolter Pattern existing only within the Cult Mechanicus, the Knight Pattern Heavy Bolter is only mounted on Knight Titan chassis, and is somehow designed to more effectively combat vehicles, monstrous creatures, and heavy walkers. How this is accomplished is uncertain, but it was apparently more suited to the task than the Imperial Autocannon. Supposedly two of these weapons can equal the power of a Vulcan Mega Bolter, which probably puts these Bolters soundly at a Vulkan stat-line, though only Heavy 6. Too bad we will never know, because Games Workshop hates Knights.
Vulcan Mega Bolter
The closest thing you will ever see to "enuff dakka" that does not require a starship, an Imperator class titan, or a platform the size of a small city rooted firmly into the ground to fire. Even the Punisher Cannon stands in awe. Think of a gatling gun but instead of using wussy little stubbers for its barrels, it uses extra large heavy bolters. Typically comes in pairs so imagine two groups of five very rapidly rotating heavy bolter guns all shitting out 100 caliber rocket propelled explosive rounds at emperor knows how fast (to see why bolters are powerful, see the main section on bolters, to see why heavy bolters are even more powerful see the heavy bolter section) .
Only seen on Titans (typically only the smaller ones like Warhounds and Reavers since they don't quite make a big enough boom to be worth placing on Warlords, Imperators or Warmongers), A a type of Baneblade, and one class of Macharius Heavy Tank. Infantry and light vehicles suffer critical existence failure the instant one of these pops up as they are pulped out of existence by several hundred rockets per second. (Now while Gyrojets technically can only really fire 6 rounds per second or 360 rounds per minute at maximum per barrel due to the sheer amount of backblasted gas that the rockets create, bolters cheat around this limit by using a normal propellant charge to launch the bolt out of the gun, then firing the rockets once the bolt has exited the barrel.)
It shits out so many bolts that it can be surprisingly effective against things like Predator and Leman Russ tanks if you did some favors for lady luck (if you are at least somewhat pleasant to look at we recommend sexing her up; otherwise give her money, and lots of it), but don't expect it to do much against something like Land Raiders or Monoliths but theoretically if you gave it anti-armor rounds it would make tank commanders shit bricks. The Imperium is considering loaning one of these to the Grey Knights and replacing the heavy bolters with psycannons for an amount of rape that would make Slaanesh weep tears of joy. Another proposal was to replace the heavy bolter barrels with assault cannons, for a gatling-gatling gun [("Yo dawg I heard you like assault cannons so we put assault cannons on an assault cannon so you can rape things while you rape things")THIS IS THE BEST IDEA EVER!] to bring a new meaning to the term "bullet storm." To counter this, the forces of chaos are pondering a version with two groups of six reaper autocannons arranged in a rotary cannon (twenty four short barreled autocannons in all) for massive levels of automatic tank cannon induced rape.
Possibly the single most awesome thing about this weapon, is that when mounted on a Stormlord (shadowsword chassis with mega bolter primary weapon) the tank can choose to fire twice at different targets if it didn't move, that's thirty AP3 shots, that only need a 2+ to wound T4 models. Sooooooo basically it can cause two entire Space Marine Tactical squads to suffer critical existence failure in one turn, the weapons only weakness is its operators, guardsmen with BS3....seems like a waste, doesn't it, still, if you're a master converter add some Space Marine crew for a small points increase, and watch as you opponent cries tears of horrified rage as 30 S6, AP3 shots tear into his precious precious battlesuits or whatever he has (and that's before adding the shots from the twin linked heavy bolters, the lascannons, and the shots fired by anyone riding in it, for maximum lulz, stuff as many heavy bolter carrying infantry as you can inside and take the two extra sponson mounts for a grand total of 13 more heavy bolter barrels raining death upon your foes)
Strength:6 AP:3 Range:60" Type:Heavy 15
Speaking of On the Tabletop
Despite the really cool fluff, the Bolter is, in fact, a middle-of-the-road weapon on the table; the average by which all default infantry weapons of every race must be judged. While not as potent and long raged as the Tau Pulse rifle or annoying and devastating as the Necron Gauss Flayer, it's considerably better in terms of punch than most other infantry weapons in the 41st Millennium; Eldar Shuriken weapons have shorter ranges, weaker armor-penetration, and have less punch, Lasguns have the same long range, but minimal armor-penetration and less punch - the list goes on, but Bolters, while middling at best, are far from the worst gun on the battlefield. Besides, they're one of the cool parts of the Commissariat, since they the primary weapon used for summary executions. Now, if only this stopped them from being doucheba*BLAM* Pretty much they're like Mario is in most of the games he shows up in where he isn't the only playable character. While the others are a lot better than he is in certain areas, no one else is as good overall (well...except for the Gauss Flayer and Pulse rifle... though both are on units that can't melee for shit, and one is on a unit that can't even shoot straight but costs more than two guardsmen, so it all kinda evens out.)
Certain Commissars prefer Laspistols or Hell pistols(If they're lucky/wealthy enough to get one) to Bolt Pistols however, but Laspistols are much worse at blamming because it's one of the very few weapons that Flak armor can resist. Bolt Pistols however, have recoil and have considerably less ammo (A typical mag only has 10 rounds[Even though that's enough rounds to execute an entire squad of troopers, including the Sergeant]) than Laspistols.
In action
- You can see this gun turning Tau into hamburger here.
- You can also see an in-depth explanation of how bolts work here.
