Repeating Rifles
Prerequisites
Requires:
- Corporation
- Conscription
Statistics
Gives:
- Rifleman
Gameplay
Replacing the first gunpowder infantry with modern small arms allows a substantial upgrading of your defenses by replacing older infantry with the Rifleman.
Historical
As soon as firearms were invented men began trying to increase the speed with which they could be fired. Most of the early attempts focused on having multiple barrels, since with loose gunpowder and bullets there was no way to speed up the process of loading the individual weapons. Lack of precision engineering capabilities doomed all attempts to get a reliable multiple-shot individual firearm until the 19th century. It was a combination of developments that made the ’self-loading’ and automatic rifle possible. First, the invention of the percussion cap in 1807 meant that the powder could be ignited without requiring a separate charging or priming powder charge. Second, the metallic cartridge developed and perfected between 1813 and 1835 simplified the loading process by putting everything required for a shot into a single package. Finally, in 1884 Paul Vielle’s invention of smokeless powder meant that any working mechanism would not be fouled by gunpowder residue within a few shots. By then several reliable repeaters were already in widespread use. During the American Civil War the Spencer breechloading repeating carbine and rifle had both been introduced in large numbers by the Union Army. The 7-shot Spencer was the gun that caused Confederate soldiers to complain that the Union had a gun they could "load on Sunday and shoot all week". During the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78 Turkish troops equipped with American-made Remington and Winchester repeating rifles massacred Russian infantry trying to charge across open ground against them. The final step in the development of the repeating rifle was the bolt-action magazine rifle of Paul Mauser in 1884. By the end of the same decade French Lebel and British Lee-Enfield versions followed, and the infantry had their basic shoulder weapons for the next 75 years.