In our previous article, we took a look at the guns that appear on Return to Castle Wolfenstein (2001), whose timeline I named “Wolfenstein-1” for ease of reference. In this one, we’ll take a look at the timeline I called “Wolfenstein-2”.

The Wolfenstein-2 setting is the chronology used by the trilogy of games made up of Wolfenstein: The New Order (2014), Wolfenstein: The Old Blood (2015) and Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus (2017). The Old Blood is a prequel to The New Order, so it happens first even though it’s the second game. We’ll talk about it in this post.

Plot Overview (Contains Spoilers)

The Old Blood is a retelling of the “escape from Castle Wolfenstein” story that made up the first two chapters of the 2001 game. Where the Wolfenstein-1 version was just a pulpier version of WW2, this one goes all in on the alternate history approach.

It looks like World War 2 in the Wolfenstein-2 timeline starts off more or less like it did in our world, but things go off the rails somewhere along the way. Deathshead, the same mad scientist from the 2001 game, is wildly more successful at coming up with absurd weapons and getting them mass-produced. As a result the war streches for longer than it did in our world. The game happens in 1946, with the war still raging on and the Allies on the losing side.

Like in the 2001 game, B.J. Blazkowicz and Agent One infiltrate Castle Wolfenstein. Their goal here is more well-defined - among the documents stored in the castle, there’s a folder that details the location of Deathshead’s secret fortress, where he’s been developing all these superweapons.

The Castle here is much larger than it was in the first game, and has been upgraded from its medieval roots into a giant concrete fortress full of superscience security measures, including prototype supersoldiers tethered to power lines. Its owner is still an occult-obsessed Nazi officer named Helga, who now works under Deathshead.

The broad outline of events is the same - the two get captured, Agent One dies under torture, Blazko escapes the castle. He heads to the nearby village of Wolfburg, where Helga leads an archaeological dig in search of buried occult secrets. Whatever she does triggers a sort of zombie apocalypse. Helga releases a giant zombie and dies failing to control it. B. J. escapes with the secret document folder after killing said zombie, completing his mission.

The Guns

All of the usable guns in this game are captured Nazi hardware, since you start the game proper unarmed save for a (surprisingly effective) sharpened metal pipe. This “early” in the timeline, a lot of the weapons presented here still have real-world equivalents.

Pistols

Pistol Model 1946

This is still mostly a Luger P08 (p. HT98), with the only difference being that it has a 10-round magazine instead of an 8-round one.

It accepts a suppressor, which is available to you from the start. It weights 0.25kg, adds -1 to Bulk and makes the gun cinematically silent. This means enemies won’t notice the gun firing unless a bullet impacts the environment near them, or if they survive being shot by it.

TL Weapon Damage Acc Range Weight RoF Shots ST Bulk Rcl
7 Pistol 1946 2d+2 pi 2 160/1800 1.2kg/0.3kg 3 10+1(3) 10 -2 3

Rifles

Assault Rifle Model 46-T

This is still pretty much a StG-44 (p. HT115). It has a folding foregrip not present in the real weapon, but that doesn’t affect its stats in any way either in the computer game or in GURPS.

Marksman Rifle (Bombenschluss)

This is likely a version of the Mauser Kar98K (p. HT111). Unlike the real weapon, this one’s magazine is inserted from the side, which means the gun can still be fired from a prone position.

There are two obtainable upgrades. The first is a 10-round extended magazine that adds -1 to Bulk and weights 0.44kg loaded. The other is a scope on a tacticool folding mount. It adds 0.5kg to weight and changes Acc to 5+2. It can be folded in or out of position with a Ready maneuver.

Weapon Table

TL Weapon Damage Acc Range Weight RoF Shots ST Bulk Rcl
7 Assault Rifle 46-T 5d pi 4 500/1300 6.6kg/1kg 8 30(3) 9† -5 2
7 Bombenschluss 7d pi 5 1000/4300 4.5kg/0.25kg 1 5+1(3) 10† -4 4

Shotguns

Double Barreled Shotgun

This 10-gauge classic makes two appearances: at the start of the game with a full length barrel, and at the end with the barrel sawn off to “whippet” length. The full-length gun uses the same stats as the Lefevre Automatic Hammerless from High Tech. The sawn-off one uses the stats below.

Shockhammer

This is a semi-automatic 12-gauge shotgun with a Rube Goldberg action. The gun takes shells from a revolving cylinder that alternates between its twin barrels with every cycle, which is supposed to allow for a higher rate of fire. The stats below are somewhat inspired by the Daewoo USAS-12 from High Tech, but there are enough differences to warrant its own stat block.

A possible upgrade here is a 20-round cylinder that changes Shots to 20(5) and Weight to 8.2/2.1kg.

TL Weapon Damage Acc Range Weight RoF Shots ST Bulk Rcl
6 Double-Barreled Shotgun 2d-1 pi 3 40/800 4.15/0.15kg 2x13 2(3i) 12† -4 1/7
7+1 Shockhammer 1d+1 pi 3 40/800 7.1/1.05kg 3x9 10(5) 11† -5 1/3

Grenades and Launchers

Hand Grenade

Enemy soldiers use a version of the historical “stick hand grenade 24” filled with TNT, as mentioned in p. HT190: Damage 7d cr ex, weight 0.7kg, Fuse 4-5. They’re not shy about throwing them at you if you stay for more than a few seconds behind cover.

Kampfpistole (“war pistol”)

This is a version of a historical flare gun used in WW2 that could also fire grenades. Its extremely limited ammo is the best choice for taking out the tankiest enemies in the game, so I think it fires the HEAT round described in High Tech.

TL Weapon Damage Acc Range Weight RoF Shots ST Bulk Rcl
7 Kampfpistole 4d(10) cr ex 1 10/330 1kg/0.1kg 1 1(3) 8 -2 2
    + 3d cr ex linked                

Heavy Weapons

We see another familiar face here: the Venom Heavy Machine Gun, which loses its edgy name but is basically the same weapon I already covered in my previous post on Wolfenstein guns. It’s found in the hands of early-model supersoldiers, and has 250 round belts weighting 10kg. Even a beefy guy like B. J. has trouble carrying it around.

This incarnation of the Venom is excellent to mow down human soldiers and zombies, but doesn’t actually do much to the supersoldiers that carry it. Therefore we can assume it fires regular ammo instead of armor-piercing: Dam 6d+2 pi.