The gunsmiths of the Empire of Man are the finest in the Old World, and the crown of their craft is the Hochland Long Rifle. Named for the forested province where it was first perfected, this long-barrelled masterwork trades the massed thunder of the common handgun for a single, precise, killing shot delivered at astonishing range.
Where a line of state handgunners looses volleys into the enemy horde, the bearer of a Hochland long rifle hunts a different quarry. Its elongated barrel and finely bored mechanism lend the weapon an accuracy no ordinary firearm can match, allowing a steady marksman to pick an enemy general, standard-bearer, or monster-rider from the midst of a heaving press of bodies. A single shot, striking down a warlord before the battle is fairly joined, can throw an entire army into confusion and disarray.
Such weapons are rare and dearly prized, for each is the labour of a master engineer and costs a small fortune to produce. The great gun-foundries of Nuln turn out cannon and handguns by the hundred, but a true Hochland long rifle is very nearly a work of art, often passed from one marksman to another as a treasured inheritance. In the hands of a cool-headed scout, it is proof that the Empire need not always meet its enemies with brute numbers; sometimes a single well-placed ball is enough to change the course of a war.
The armoury continues
