Even early in the World War, armor-piercing ammunition was developed for rifles to help defeat trench armor. The Mark I and Mark II were somewhat vulnerable to the 7.92x57mm steel-cored K bullet, but the Mark IV was essentially impervious. Thus, the Germans created a rifle around a 13.2x92mm steel-cored round that had been in development for the Maxim machinegun.
The resulting gun was the Tankgewehr 1918, a single-shot manually-loaded rifle with no concessions to the gunner. It had a hard wooden stock and no recoil compensation, making it a rather nasty weapon to fire repeatedly. It was intended for use from a bipod or other fixed rest, not for off-hand shooting. With a loaded mass of 18.5 kilograms, few people would want to try a standing shot anyway. Most of these weapons used a two-man crew for transportation of the rifle to the location from which it would be fired.
Mauser Tankgewehr 1918
TL: 4
Ammunition: 13.2x92mm TuF
Capacity: 1
Weight: 15.9kg unloaded, 18.5kg loaded with bipod
Length: 169.1cm overall, 98.4cm barrel
Dam: 8
Pen: 2-3-4
Recoil: 5
Range: 210 (not including bipod bonus)
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