The Helblaster Volley Gun has nine separate barrels, divided into three decks of three barrels, fixed on a circular crank. The advantage of the Helblaster is that it can fire several shots at once in a devastating volley. A full volley will rip through the toughest regiment causing immense casualties in the blink of an eye. The disadvantage of the Helblaster is that it is inclined to jam or misfire. In fact, the chances of being able to fire for a prolonged time are slim as the weapon is quite likely to malfunction.

The Helblaster's barrels are organized in three groups of three. When the crew shoots, they pull the lever and discharge a group of three barrels. Then the crew will rotate the crank and place a new deck of three new barrels into firing position, while at the same time reloading the deck which just fired.

Firing the Volley Gun

The procedure for firing the Helblaster is as follows. The Volley Gun has a range of 24". First nominate your target and turn the Volley Gun to face it. Then fire your first shot. Each shot causes a variable number of hits as described below.

Once you have worked out how many hits your first shot has caused, fire a second shot at the same target, then a third. At this point the crew needs to rotate the crank to place the second deck of barrels into firing position, so the next deck will be fired in your next Shooting phase.

To work out how many hits are caused you will need the Artillery dice. Roll one Artillery dice for each shot in turn. If the target lies within 12", then the number rolled is the number of hits scored on the target. If the target lies more than 12" away, the number of hits scored is half the number rolled (eg, a roll of 8 would equal 4 hits). Determine the number of hits from all of your shots before calculating the result then damage inflicted. If you roll a 'Misfire' result then consult the Helblaster Misfire chart immediately, before rolling the Artillery dice for any remaining shots. Note that you must roll the dice for all three barrels even if the target happens to be out of range.

Damage

Once you have fired the three barrels, you must roll for each hit to determine damage. The Helblaster has a Strength of 5 at short range and a Strength of 4 at long range. Roll to wound as normal. Saving throw modifiers are -3 at short range and -2 at long range because the Helblaster is a blackpowder weapon and therefore very good at penetrating armour.

Profiles

The Volley Gun's Movement rate assumes it has a full crew if any crew are slain then its Movement is reduced proportionally. A Volley Gun cannot move and shoot except to turn to face its target.

Loss of Crew

A Helblaster Volley Gun requires a full crew of three crewmen to work properly. Two crewmen can just about cope without reducing the machine's rate of fire. If only one crewman remains to operate the Volley Gun by himself, then when the machine fires, the crewman must spend an entire turn preparing to fire again, reducing the weapon's rate of fire to once every other turn. If the Helblaster has no crew at all then it cannot fire.