re: #74 Feline Emperor of the Conservative Waste

Not even considering that one since it was so bad I saw reviews of the movie in war game magazines touting it as an example of doing everything totally wrong.

One in particular I saw was space mercenary companies being hired out that were essentially just light infantry. (I think the hand wave for not being heavier units was low cargo capacities and getting them landed.) They had hand weapons (rifles) and light MGs I think. Which let them do infantry combat and allow the main character to do some heroic things.

My sense of disbelief went since even this set-up would require fairly heavy logistics support since it would eat ammo. And if you had enough support to keep up with WW2 equivalent ammo usage you would be able to add support for light/pack artillery, or at least mortars. Not a mention as I recall. I figure it didn’t fit what the author wanted to do, so it was ignored.

40k addressed this with the Lasrifle, the standard weapon of choice for nonmodified humans. The basic energy cell for the rifles can be recharged off of any standard power source in a matter of minutes. In the field, the cells can be charged off of solar power in a few hours, or in an emergency, by exposing them to direct heat, such as a campfire, though this tends to cause them to break down sooner. As for explosives, refinements in technology means the average grenade is about the size of a pill bottle, with most of the mass being the fragmenting shell, not the explosive charge. This refinement in explosive means a regular infantry man can carry more munitions, as they are smaller and lighter than current versions.