A Heavy Bolter is a powerful Bolt Weapon that is used for anti-infantry and
fire support roles, and is also known as the "Backbreaker" or the "Bruiser"
because of its great weight and the amount of damage it can deal.
Heavy Bolters operate differently to other Bolt weapons.
Instead of a firing pin physically striking the bolt shell to activate the projectile,
a specific electronic pulse is applied in the firing chamber. Bolts are fed into
the chamber by an electric motor, rather than exhaust gases cycling the action as
in other Bolt weapons. Exhaust gases are only used to generate the power needs of
the weapon; the initial power and the impulse for the first round are provided by
working a slide on the weapon's side. These features enable the Heavy Bolter to
maintain rates of fire that are physically impossible for a standard Bolter or Bolt
Pistol.
Rapid Fire (X): When firing with a Rapid Fire weapon, a successful hit
roll scores a number of hits equal to the number of bullet
holes on the Firepower dice. In addition the controlling
player can roll more than one Firepower dice, up to the
number shown in brackets (for example, when firing a
Rapid Fire (2) weapon, up to two firepower dice can be
rolled). Make an Ammo check for each Ammo symbol
that is rolled. If any of them fail, the gun runs Out of
Ammo. If two or more of them fail, the gun has jammed
and cannot be used for the rest of the battle.
If a Rapid Fire weapon scores more than one hit, the hits
can be split between multiple targets. The first must be
allocated to the initial target, but the remainder can be
allocated to other fighters within 3" of the first who are
also within range and line of sight. These must not be any
harder to hit than the original target...for example if a target in the
open is hit, an obscured target cannot have hits allocated
to it. Allocate all of the hits before making any wound
rolls.
Rapid Fire also works in close combat when on a weapon that also has the Pistol trait.
Unwieldy: A fighter who uses an Unwieldy weapon to shoot in ranged combat
treats the Shoot action as a Double action. A fighter
who uses an Unwieldy melee weapon in close combat cannot use a second weapon at the same time.
Unwieldy weapons take up two weapon slots.