I know that there has been some work done with Drake's Hammer's Slammers
franchise (powerguns), but has anyone statted out some of the other
weapons he's mentioned in his books?  I recently re-read "Forlorn Hope"
and the mercenaries' rifles were intriguing (they utilized the squeeze
bore principle with synthetic diamond barrels and saboted osmium
projectiles *1), and now reading "Red Liners" (perhaps one of the best
studies of troops pushed to the edge) they have "electric explosives"
where they have a capacitor or battery that quickly powers an osmium
(IIRC, it was osmium) wire to cause an explosion and fragmentation.  His
claim is that ounce for ounce, an electric explosive has more energy,
and delivers it faster, than a chemical explosive.

At first glance, they seem a bit much, but then again, I think an M-1
Garand might have been thought to be a "bit much" to a Norseman in 800 AD.

*1:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squeeze_bore

--
Kurt Feltenberger
xxxxxx@thepaw.org/xxxxxx@yahoo.com
“Before today, I was scared to live, after today, I'm scared I'm not living enough." - Me