Im also hoping to use the minis for an Alien univers RPG, amongst many other things, so have a range of reasons to have a few minis with pistols. Such as for smartgunners who run dry, for officers, for crew/admin personel. etc etc.

I would think using frangible rounds in the rifle would be a lot better than limiting yourself to a pistol. If short on ammo, a more accurate weapon with a longer effective range is going to be a better use of the limited ammo too.

In ship/colony/station board engaguements how often do you think you'll be outside the effective range of a pistol from your target? Really in that situation an smg, pistol or shotgun is probably a better choice.

Often enough.

Heck, look at some of the layouts Prodos has shown for this board game, anything across more than one tile is going to be a long shot with a pistol, and shotguns don't give you the point accuracy at distance a good carbine/short rifle does.

Pistols and shotguns notoriously have small ammo capacity, which means less range and more time spent reloading.

There is a reason we train today to clear rooms/buildings/urban areas with rifles/carbines and not pistols. Shotguns are used for breaching, and the first guys through have an M4 or similar weapon.

I'm not going to get into a debate about tactics and hardware because, frankly, I'm ill-equipped for such a thing.

So I can only point back to Aliens and say, "but that's the way they did it." I'm OK with the situations being unrealistic (to a point) so long as it's appropriate to the setting.

It's not yet been released, thus it's subject to change, the pistol is a good idea!

Jarek as its not been released yet whats chance of the torch cutter being added only a small thing and the Smart guns computer.
Cheers all Great to be back.