Quote:
Originally Posted by StainlessSteelCynic
As I recall, ships (and even castles) of the gunpowder era where often fitted with swivel guns for pretty much that same purpose - a short range anti-personnel weapon.
For those who haven't heard about them, a swivel gun is basically a small canon on a swiveling mount to allow wide arc of movement, filled with grapeshot to help repel enemies attempting to board the ship (or castle).
Again, reload time is slow but you can mitigate that somewhat by having multiple swivel guns in the same place so that one (or more) are available while the first gun is reloading.
The main point here is that you can get multiple swivel guns for the cost of a single larger cannon and they have a greater range of movement as well as being much faster to move.
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Also, keep in mind that swivel guns being black powder and generally of small caliber do not necessarily fall under the guidelines of either the NFA (National Firearms Act of 1934) or under the Gun Control Act of 1968 which makes them very easy to acquire legally. This means that they can still be made (as "replica firearms") unlike larger caliber BP cannon (which are "Destructive Devices" under NFA). That alone would see them "pressed into service" during the Twilight War. Even today, a large number of sailors have small BP swivel guns as "saluting guns" or just for fun on the decks of their ships.