The Imperial LasGun : The standard issue weapon of the Imperium. Every Guardsman's friend..or rather best friend. Ease of use, maintenance, cheap to manufacture and very common. This weapon is part of standard Imperial Guard kit.

     At strength 3 and with no armor piercing capability, the lasgun is considered effective against ordinary humanoid beings. This includes Eldar, Dark Eldar, Tau Fire Warriors, Kroot Mercenaries, Chaos Cultists, Gretchin, Hormagaunts, Termagants, Sisters of Battle, and regular human Guardsmen. While this allows some balance since at least you can wound these targets at a 4, the majority of the players are using marine type armies and these are usually toughness 4 and has an armor save of 3+.

     The Guardsman has been laughed at because of what other players consider a mediocre weapon. True, compared to the bolters used by the space marines the lasgun is but a flashlight. The Tau with their wonderful Pulse Rifles and Carbines at strenght 5 is something to be envied about. But a player must consider though that lasguns by themselves, are cheap. At 6 points, they're considered a bargain. The key is massed firepower. Sure, Spacemarines do better at staying put and duking it out with other armies. Better weapons and armor make them the winners, right? Wrong.

     Each Space Marine costs 15 points with a regular bolter and power armor while a guardsman is 6 points armed with his lasgun and flak jacket. In a straight up fight, a 10-man space marine will have to duke it out with 25-man Imperial Guard Platoon. Each costs 150 points. The Marine player will fail his armor saves one way or the other..and even the Guard player needs to roll a 4+ to hit and a 5+ to wound, at average he will succeed half of the time.

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     "The lasgun is truly a guardsman's most trustworthy weapon besides his knife. Without it, they would have to go hand to hand with assault type monsters like genestealers and Orks...it allows them to have a ranged capability that while unenviable compared to other weapons in the universe, take comfort that it is much better than a Grot Blasta...^_~x"