Rifle

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Name	rifle
Appearance	rifle
Damage vs. small	1d2
Damage vs. large	1d2
To-hit bonus	+1
Weapon skill	firearms
Size	two-handed
Base price	150 zm (+10/positive enchant)
Weight	30
Material	iron

A rifle is a firearm introduced in SLASH'EM. A two-handed gun with low rate of fire that usually shoots single bullets at enemies, it is often found on soldiers.

Rate of fire

Enchantment	Unskilled/basic	Skilled	Expert
+2 or lower	1	1	1
+3 to +5	1	1	1d4-2 (min 1)
+6 to +8	1	1d4-2 (min 1)	1d5-2 (min 1)
+9	1d4-2 (min 1)	1d5-2 (min 1)	1d6-2 (min 1)

Generation

Rifles are found on 50% of (plain) soldiers.

Strategy

Owing to their two-handed nature and low rate of fire, rifles are generally not useful. They do technically have one of the longest ranges of any firearm (22, only exceeded by the sniper rifle at 25), but it is rare to be shooting at a target more than 10 or so squares away.

Origin

The term rifle refers to a firearm that has had spiral grooves cut in the barrel. When a bullet is fired, it expands and molds to these grooves, thereby imparting to that bullet a spin which significantly increases its accuracy. This technology has existed since the early 16th century, but early muzzle-loading rifles were rarely used in a military setting, since they were far slower to load and far more expensive to produce than contemporary smoothbore (non-rifled) muskets. By the mid-1800s, industrial fabrication processes made rifled barrels practical to mass-produce, while the prior invention of breech-loading firearms meant that rifled weapons were no longer slower to load than their smoothbore cousins. As a result, the rifle soon became ubiquitous in armies of the time.

Given their appearance on soldiers who also carry weapons such as assault rifles and grenades, it seems likely the rifles in SLASH'EM are some type of mid-20th century semi-automatic service rifle, such as the M1 Garand.