Pistols for troopers with combi rifles or shotguns

You can also use pistols in CC.

 

It depends on a troop. On HI with PH 13-14 you're better off with a knife or you have a proper CCW anyway. On PH 10 LI, though...

 

Apart from simply "feeling right" in terms of displaying some form of pseudo realism, the CC aspect for Pistols is important for ITS.

A model armed with a Combi, a Pistol and a Knife might want to cause one damage and one damage only to a LI in Order to score the Coup De Grace Classified later on.
The current main purpose is pretty much Hunting Party, where I've used Achille's Pistol extensively in CC and outside of it to avoid killing Specialists/Lts straight up with either his Spitfire or EXP CCW.

Other niche uses are when you want to win a FTF while minimizing the risk to kill the other guy, becase it would end up putting your opponent in retreat. Getting the same chance to win a FTF with reduced chance to kill has it's uses.

 

Also remember from where it all comes. Combi could be disabled (all of second edition), so having a backup was important, and there was no submachine gun until HS. Ranges were different too.
Now in some cases, as pointed above, pistols matter, and in others is just inertia and fluff.

 

I think I'd actually be bothered if shotgun or combi-armed models didn't get pistols. It would just feel visually and thematically broken.

 

I use the pistol on my Ninja when I just want the victim to go unconscious, so I don’t risk overkill, and then perform coup de grâce for classified.

 

There's plenty of models that don't have a use for their pistol, Yuriko has a CCW at same PH with Combi Rifle for long range, Shinobu and Saito gets the same PH if simply bitch-slapping the target, and basically all HI that doesn't have an SWC gun (other than Wu Ming who have Breaker Pistols) have same or higher PH simply bitch-slapping people about as well.

CCW is more interesting. Yuriko Oda doesn't have a use for their CCW due to having the same PH on Pistol, Kempei is even worse off since the Pistol has better DAM than their CCW's PH and I also think the CCW ups the cost of the Kempei slightly.

 

Pistol/knife are generally free equipment in people's attempts to calculate point breakdowns. They get them because it seems right to give them to the models.

Since you mentioned shotguns, remember that the light shotgun does not have a non-template mode. So there are at least some scenarios where you can't use it and need to fall back on the pistol even though it has worse range bands and does less damage.

 

Just a follow up to your statement in blue.

While these cases exist (like a Prone guy with a Shotgun, shooting a Prone guy hugging the HVT) in 99% of all cases you can just angle a Impact template as shown in the above picture so rest of the template vanishes into the ground or thin air.

When your opponent is claiming you have to place a template in a way so it is cancelled, he is more likely than not trying to scam.
Also note that Ranges are still determined by the shortest distance between Silhouettes (the blue dotted line) no matter who much of an angle you decide to go for.

 

Light Shotguns can't shoot into CC, that's one of few cases where the shotgun will basically be unable to shoot. The other that comes to mind is someone with a Synched HVT, moving the HVT as a human shield.

 

CC yes, but I don't see how a HVT protects you from a LSG. A synched HVT is mostly useful to protect against circular Impact Templates. Even though the small teardrop impact template is a cone it's very easy to angle the template downward so it vanishes into the ground within the Silhouette size of the initial target.
Am I missing something?

 

I for one am glad we keep pistols around. Most of my units have the standard PH of 10, so knifes really dont cut it (no pun intended, I swear) for them in CC. They seem to be ubiquitous equipment for most Units. So if one day my Djanbazan wants to use an HMG instead of her Sniper Rifle, she will independently be armed with a pistol.

However, since the question was aimed at those weapons that have similar and better close range choices, I'd agree with it being a carry on from N2. Also, and this is for the Armed Forces members of the community, don't all personnel armed with medium/long range weapons have a backup handgun? I know most Security guards armed with shotguns and police officers armed with SMGs in my country carry one pistol

 

Never been armed forces myself, but from what I've read, historically a pistol has been the symbol of an officer, or a weapon for someone not anticipating combat. Even in Iraq and Afghanistan they were more likely to be carried by officers and rear line troops as defence weapons, and it's only the relatively recent advent of special-ops soldiers and police units that have seen them be more widely used as secondary weapons intended for actual combat - though far more limited than compared to a rifle or SMG. Pistols have also been useful in urban warfare because they're small and easier to use in tight spaces, so troops that traditionally didn't carry pistols may be issued them nowadays if they're doing peacekeeping or other work.

And a pistol can be a more useful weapon than a rifle when dealing with civilians, or otherwise in an area with a lot of possible collateral damage. A rifle round has more power behind it and can go through more things (walls, fences, people, crates, etc) than a pistol, but IIRC it's more like a pistol round only goes through two or three walls instead of five or six, but it's still halving the number of rooms you accidentally shoot.

Of course, in Infinity, the main reason for carrying a backup gun - running out of ammo or your main weapon becoming inoperable for whatever reason - isn't a problem, but since most Infinity units are in some way special ops units, it does make a lot of sense they carry sidearms and secondary weapons.

Plus, soldiers often carry some non-issue gear. Paratroopers in WW2 may have not been issued a handgun, but a fair few still had their own personal weapons. Band of Brothers is based on real-life events and in the first episode, one trooper is sent a revolver as a gift - and IIRC actually uses it a few episodes later in Normandy. Pistols being carried by soldiers who might not have been issued them is likely to continue even in the future, because they're light. Even a big pistol is a good bit more portable than a small rifle.

 

Yeah, you need to Move the HVT as the second Short Skill, at which point you Move it over so it touches the template. It's one of few situations that uses Shoot + Move instead of the classic Move + Shoot. Only works active turn.

 

You are right that you can probably avoid a lot of template problems by explicitly angling every shot so it just clips the very top or bottom of the silhouette, with the majority of the template either going into the air or ground. I guess I and my local players tend to be a little looser in their play and don't super-optimize every shot like that.

 

If you're in BtB with a Civilian, you're template proof even if you aren't in CC. Because if a template affects one model of a group of them in BtB, it affects all of them.

 

Are troopers always engaged with models they are in base contact with? I was under impression there are exceptions, friendly models being the most common one.