For all those not in the know, I started after seeing what we had for our tech base that was missing from the production line. Bear in mind, this is a very long work made over 3 days, so feel free to skip over parts that aren't interesting or need for your enjoyment.
Alright, so for Vehicles, their is the Whirlwind Hyperios. The Hyperios-pattern launcher uses a different targeting system and fires anti-air rockets (after attempts to use anti-air rockets in the Helios launcher proved "disastrous").
The Whirlwind Hyperios is a specialized version of the standard Whirlwind used by many Chapters as an anti-aircraft vehicle. Instead of the typical armament of other Whirlwinds, the Hyperios mounts a specialized missile launcher, along with automated tracking and targeting equipment, dedicated to shooting down enemy aircraft and jetbikes. While it does not have the same reach as a Manticore AA missile it is highly efficient against low-flying craft making strafing runs. In a pinch the Hyperios can be used to target ground units, in which case its missiles act similar to Hunter-killer missiles, though this is mostly a method of last resort.
Armament
The Whirlwind Hyperios is an anti-air variant of the standard Astartes Whirlwind Artillery Tank. The Whirlwind Hyperios replaces the Whirlwind's Whirlwind Multiple Missile Launcher with a Hyperios Missile Launcher. The Hyperios Missile Launcher carries up to forty Hyperios Missiles that can be used to bring down enemy aircraft with ease.
The weapon is highly efficient against low-flying aircraft making strafing runs. Like the standard Whirlwind, the Whirlwind Hyperios can also be outfitted with a Dozer Blade, Extra Armour Plating, a Hunter-Killer Missile Launcher, improved communications equipment, a Pintle-mounted Storm Bolter, a Searchlight, and Smoke Launchers.
Next up, the Deimos Pattern Whirlwind Scorpius.
The very existence of the Whirlwind Scorpius serves as a direct reminder of the dire events of the Horus Heresy, for it was conceived to engage heavy armoured infantry. History does not recall if the vehicle entered service before the outset of the Heresy or if it was conceived only after the civil war had begun.
The weapon certainly saw widespread use amongst the Legiones Astartes, whether loyal to the Emperor or to the Warmaster Horus, for it was ideal for cracking open the ceramite battle plate worn then as now by Space Marines.
The Scorpius is therefore regarded by many as a direct and bitter reminder of the mass fratricide that consumed the Emperor's Legions and brought the nascent Imperium to the very brink of destruction. To field it is to summon forth the ghosts of the distant past and to witness anew the crimes of warriors once hailed as Humanity's greatest champions.
Because of the deep-seated significance of the Whirlwind Scorpius, it is rarely called forth from the stasis chambers of the fortress-monasteries, even when Space Marines are to confront a heavily amroured foe against which the weapon would be highly effective.
When the Scorpius is awakened from the reliquaries, it is to engage in battle against the hated Traitors that still serve those dark powers to which they sold their souls in a former age almost as if the ten thousand standard years since the Horus Heresy had never passed at all.
The hatred of that bygone age is summoned forth to fuel both sides, the Whirlwind Scorpius serving in the capacity in which it once excelled -- cutting down the Traitors to Humanity with brutal, fratricidal efficiency.
Armament
The Deimos Whirlwind Scorpius is similar in every way to the standard Deimos Pattern Whirlwind, with the exception of its main weapon system. The Scorpius variant replaces the Whirlwind Multiple Missile Launcher with the Scorpius Multi-Launcher.
The Scorpius Multi-Launcher is a drum-fed Rocket Launcher that makes use of special implosive warheads that are extremely effective against armoured infantry, such as Space Marines, and light vehicles.
The vehicle is also armed with pintle-mounted twin-linked Bolters, a Searchlight, and Smoke Launchers. The vehicle can be equipped with a Hunter-Killer Missile Launcher, a Dozer Blade, and Extra Armour Plating.
Next up, the Deimos Pattern Vindicator Tank Destroyer.
Tearing through the armour plating of enemy vehicles, the Vindicator Laser Destroyer array was a potent weapon of destruction.
First retrofitted into the heavily armoured Deimos Pattern Vindicator chassis during the dark days of the Horus Heresy, several Space Marine Legions took to fielding this variant as a mainline battle tank, proving itself on many occasions as an able tank hunter.
After millennia of brutal warfare across the galaxy, it is still in favour within the Adeptus Astartes, the Vindicator Laser Destructor continuing to bring retribution to the enemies of Mankind.
Armament
During the Great Crusade and the Horus Heresy, it was possible for the Vindicator to be armed with a Laser Destroyer Array instead of a Demolisher Cannon. The vehicle could also be equipped with an auxiliary drive system, armoured ceramite plating, and a Machine Spirit, along with a variety of pintle-mounted weapons, including Combi-Bolters or other Combi-weapons, a Havoc Missile Launcher, and either a single Heavy Flamer, or a Heavy Bolter.
Next up, we have the Typhon Heavy Seige Tank.
The Typhon, named after the Great Beast of ancient Terran myth, is armed with a single, massive, forward firing cannon known as the Dreadhammer Siege Cannon.
This massive weapon was designed in part by the Iron Warriors' Primarch Perturabo himself and is a modified version of an unknown class of static siege gun that was used to pound cities into dust.
The weapon fires massive, multi-tonne shells that are powerful enough to liquify flesh and bone and destroy even the most well-fortified bunkers and strong points.
The Typhon's structure is so densely constructed and heavily reinforced to withstand the force of its main weapon that it has the side effect of being able to completely pulverise anything smaller than itself, allowing the tank to cross through difficult terrain, such as rubble, wrecks, ruined buildings, or barricades with little difficulty.
Armament
Other than the tank's main weapon, the Typhon is only lightly armed compared to the Spartan Assault Tank or the Land Raider Proteus, featuring only two sponson-mounted Lascannons or Heavy Bolters, one on each side.
The tank was always outfitted with a Searchlight and Smoke Launchers. The Typhon could also be outfitted with a Hunter-Killer Missile Launcher for extra firepower or Armoured Ceramite Plating for better protection from enemy fire.
The tank could also be equipped with a variety of pintle-mounted weapons including a twin-linked Bolter (Combi-Bolter) or other Combi-Weapon, a Heavy Bolter, a Heavy Flamer, a Multi-Melta, or a Havoc Missile Launcher.
Next up, we have the Thunderfire Cannon.
The Thunderfire Cannon is a colossal, quad-barrelled artillery gun designed to excel in a static point defence role for the Adeptus Astartes. Each is capable of firing and reloading at a punishing rate, unleashing salvo after salvo of high explosive shells, pounding the enemy into oblivion. Only the brave or the foolish dare advance forwards in the face of such overwhelming firepower.
Space Marines task forces strike hard and fast, and a unit that cannot maintain a rapid advance swiftly becomes a liability. For this reason, most of their support weapons are mounted on vehicle chassis that can keep pace with the rest of the force, as can be seen with the Vindicator and Whirlwind, but the Thunderfire Cannons are the one exception to the rule.
Mounted on rugged track units, Thunderfire Cannons can traverse almost any terrain to reach the optimum firing position. Though they can move under their own power, they are normally deployed from Thunderhawk gunships or by Drop Pod, brought in when Space Marine forces need to crack a foe's strongpoint position or halt a sudden enemy breakthrough in its tracks.
Armament
The Techmarine manning a Thunderfire Cannon can set its shells to detonate in a variety of different ways, depending on the tactical situation.
Surface detonations are employed against numerous enemies in comparatively clear terrain, airburst shells are used to scour a foe from cover, and the Techmarine can even program the shells to burrow deep into the ground before detonating; though the force of the blast from such Tremor Shells is greatly reduced, the resulting shockwave is sufficient to leave the foe sprawling, making them easy prey for his brother Space Marines.
Next up, we have the Storm Hawk Interceptor.
The Stormhawk Interceptor, or simply the Stormhawk, is an air superiority fighter and gunship used by the Adeptus Astartes. A close relative to the Stormtalon gunship, the Stormhawk is a highly specialised fighter craft that is capable of both void and atmospheric flight. With thick frontal armour and heavy firepower, they make excellent dogfighters, hurtling through the clouds to execute target after target in a blazing display of overwhelming force.
Descending at incredible velocities from the mag-cradles of orbiting Astartes warships, Stormhawks will often deploy in the Vehemence Attack Pattern, with Stormhawk squadrons unleashing golden haloes of flares from their Infernum Halo-launchers to dissuade incoming enemy fire, a brilliant signal that the skies belong to the Emperor of Mankind.
Armamnet
Stormhawk squadrons are launched from mag-cradles in the canaverous hangers of orbiting warships directly into battle. Whether duelling their foes through boiling storm clouds or hurtling between the crackling pylons of mountain-sized Generatoriums, these high-altitude fighter craft dominate the aerial theatre of war.
The Stormhawk Interceptor is a heavily armed air-superiority fighter and gunship, and its weaponry includes a wide array of weaponry to engage both air and ground targets. The Stormhawk's main weapon is an under-slung laser weapon known as a Las-talon, which fires two blasts of laser energy in quick succession, ensuring a clean kill against even the heaviest of armoured targets.
The aircraft is also armed with twin-linked Assault Cannons, located under the tips of its wings, and a set of twin-linked Heavy Bolters, located between the craft's wing-mounted engines and the fuselage.
The Stormhawk can have its Las-talon replaced with an Icarus Stormcannon, and can have the twin-linked Heavy Bolters swapped out with either a set of Skyhammer Missile Launchers or Typhoon Missile Launchers. The Stormhawk is also outfitted with armoured ceramite plating and an Infernum Halo-launcher.
Next up, we have the Storm Eagle.
The Storm Eagle is a heavy assault gunship used by the Chapters of the Adeptus Astartes as a heavy tactical air support unit. Storm Eagle gunships will follow a Space Marine Chapter's Thunderhawk gunships and Drop Pods into battle, where it can lend its weapons to a devastating aerial assault.
The Storm Eagle mounts an impressive amount of firepower for an aircraft of its size and is also capable of transporting twenty Space Marines directly into the thick of a ground assault.
The Storm Eagle assault gunship was one of the most numerous designs found in a Space Marine Legion air-fleet during the Great Crusade. A dedicated tactical strike unit, its primary roles are orbital assault deployment of Space Marine infantry forces and low-level ground attack.
Armament
The Storm Eagle is a rugged and durable machine, very heavily armed for its size, and considerably protected by armour plating, although it lacks the speed and manoeuvrability of true fighters and bombers.
The Storm Eagle is an assault gunship and is thus heavily armed for its task. In fact, the Storm Eagle is one of the most heavily armed Imperial aircraft of its size. The Storm Eagle is equipped with forward hull-mounted twin-linked Heavy Bolters, and a hull-mounted Vengeance Launcher.
The forward hull-mounted twin-linked Heavy Bolters can be replaced with twin-linked Multi-Meltas or a single Typhoon Missile Launcher. The Storm Eagle can also carry up to 4 Hellstrike Missiles or Tempest Rockets under its wings.
Alternatively, the Storm Eagle can equip two twin-linked Lascannons under its wings. The aircraft can be upgraded with a searchlight that is used to illuminate enemy ground forces and extra armour plating for additional protection from enemy fire.
Storm Eagles are also commonly outfitted with an additional layer of ceramite plating, for added protection against enemy fire.
Next up, we have the Storm Bird.
Stormbird is a catch-all term that refers to a series of various super-heavy dedicated attack landers that were once used by the Legiones Astartes as their primary means of deploying forces into combat.
Stormbirds also served in air support and general planetary transport roles during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy eras in the late 30th and early 31st Millennia.
Unlike the spacecraft used later, the Stormbird series is based on an incredibly old and incomplete STC (Standard Template Construct) design and as such consists of multiple classes and patterns of super-heavy flyers.
These super-heavy spacecraft were used nearly exclusively by the Space Marine Legions before the development of the smaller and much easier to produce STC-based Thunderhawk gunship and was often considered the lynchpin of any Space Marine Legion's aviation arm, as it was able to fulfill many combat roles.
The Stormbird was fully void-capable as well as of functioning as an orbital drop ship, an assault lander, a heavy ground attack gunship, a bomber, or as a ground bastion or firebase. This spacecraft was able to quickly carry Space Marine forces from orbiting starships down into the midst of a battle, while at the same time providing supporting fire against enemy ground or air targets.
All known Stormbirds were bulkier and larger than the Thunderhawk and also less agile in flight. However, some Stormbird classes, such as the Warhawk IV, could carry up to the equivalent of a modern Space Marine company, up to 100 Space Marines or the equivalent in vehicles or cargo, far larger than the Thunderhawk's carrying capacity. Some Stormbirds had missiles or bombs slung under both wings while other classes included powerful ballistic cannons mounted on its nose.
Stormbirds were piloted by two Space Marines or Legion serfs along with either hardwired servitors, Space Marines or Legion serfs operating the craft's various weapons.
While various classes and patterns of the Stormbird have been described, it is not known what most actually looked like, yet descriptions of some classes include folding wings, armoured co*ckpits with view slits, multiple large engines, and magnetic launch rails used aboard Imperial starships to quickly launch the craft into the void.
However, one of the more modern Stormbirds, the Sokar Pattern, has a nearly full technical data sheet available at present, including telling pict-captures.
Armaments
Armoured Ceramite fuselage
Machine Spirit (artificial Intelligence)
Dual Void Shield Generators
5 turret-mounted twin-linked Lascannons
6 wing-mounted Dreadstrike Missiles
Next up, we have the Stormbird Sokar Pattern.
The Sokar Pattern Stormbird was developed from the various Warhawk and Nephoros-class Stormbird assault transports utilised by the Yndonesic Bloc during the Unification Wars on Terra, and were later adapted by the Emperor for His early Space Marine Legions. The Sokar Pattern itself was one of the later patterns of Imperial spacecraft developed during the Great Crusade and was used as the design precursor to the smaller, more widely produced Thunderhawk Gunship. It was conceived as a specialised, high-durability orbital assault craft -- almost a mobile bastion and firebase -- which could land a Space Marine strike force and withstand heavy ground fire while its passengers forced a landing zone.
To this end, the Sokar's design features all-around gun turrets and particularly dense composite armour plating comparable to a main battle tank. It is further protected by Void Shield generators which it can extend to protect disembarking troops and war machines. Multiple thruster units ensure that even if several engines are damaged, the Sokar is a power if somewhat ungainly flyer. The howl these huge engines make is quite distinctive, even over the din of battle, and along with the bloodshed that followed its appearance it has earned the Sokar the informal name of the "Death Bird" among the Imperialis Auxilia.
Armament
The Sokar Pattern Stormbird's standard armament includes five ball turret-mounted twin-linked Lascannons, two on each side of the spacecraft, and three hull-mounted twin-linked Heavy Bolters. The twin-linked Lascannons can be replaced with Quad Heavy Bolters depending on the needs of a particular mission. The craft also carries up to six Dreadstrike Missiles under its wings, which can be replaced with either a single Macro-bomb Cluster payload or an advanced targeting sensor array that enables the Sokar to serve as a targeting relay for orbital strike craft, allowing precise strikes from the edge of space in close support of assault operations. It is also equipped with particularly dense armoured ceramite plating, and is further protected by a series of Void Shield generators which it can extend to protect disembarking troops and war machines.
Next up, we have the Spartan Assault Tank.
The Spartan Assault Tank, sometimes referred to as the Land Raider Spartan, is a heavy-assault transport that was originally used by the Space Marine Legions during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy, and later by the Chapters of the Adeptus Astartes that still possess them in their armoury.
The Spartan is a massive vehicle, and is one of the largest ground vehicles ever used by the Space Marines, smaller only than their ancient super-heavy vehicles such as the Mastodon, Fellblade, and Falchion. The Spartan also has the largest carrying capacity of all non-super-heavy vehicles, with the ability to carry 25 Power Armoured Space Marines or 12 Astartes in Terminator Armour.
The Spartan is an extremely durable and completely sealed assault transport armed with heavy weapons and possessed of a high transport capacity, but the true genius of the Spartan is that the greater proportion of its interior space is given over to carrying capacity, and yet the vehicle's engine and drive system still allows it to travel at speeds much higher than that of similar-sized transports, such as the Gorgon used by the Imperial Army and the Astartes' own Mastodon.
Armament
The Spartan Assault Tank is heavily-armed with powerful weaponry, and is more than capable of defending itself from an attack. The Spartan is a powerful war machine in its own right, as it is fully capable of destroying entire squads of enemy infantry or tanks with its heavy weapons. The Spartan is armed with two sponson-mounted Quad-Lascannons, one on each side of the tank, and a single, hull-mounted, forward-firing twin-linked Heavy Bolter. The tank's Quad-Lascannons are able to make quick work of most armoured vehicles, and its twin-linked Heavy Bolters are used to provide covering fire for disembarking troops.
The Spartan can replace its Quad-Lascannons for Laser Destroyer Arrays, which are useful against both enemy heavy armour and infantry. The Spartan is also always equipped with both a Searchlight and Smoke Launchers, but can also be equipped with a Hunter-Killer Missile Launcher, an auxiliary drive system that can be used if the vehicle's main drive system is damaged or destroyed, a Flare Shield, an extra layer of armoured ceramite for increased protection at the cost of speed, and a dozer blade for clearing debris and mines.
The tank can also be outfitted with a Pintle-mounted weapon, such as a Storm Bolter, a Heavy Flamer, or a Multi-Melta. During the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy, the Spartan Assault Tank could have been armed with other weapons such as a Combi-Bolter, another Combi-weapon, or a Havoc Missile Launcher. The Spartan can also have Frag Assault Launchers attached to its front, on either side of the front debarkation ramp, to blast the targeted area with shrapnel before its cargo of troops disembark.
Like all Land Raiders and their variants, the Spartan Assault Tank is equipped with a powerful Machine Spirit (artificial intelligence), which is capable of taking control of the vehicle and its weapons if the crew is killed or otherwise unable to operate the vehicle.
Next up, we have the Space Marine Landing Craft.
The Space Marine Landing Craft is a super-heavy landing craft that is used by the Space Marines of the Adeptus Astartes.
This massive voidcraft is designed to quickly deliver troops, vehicles and supplies to a planet's surface from orbit, much like its smaller cousins the Thunderhawk gunship and the Thunderhawk Transporter.
The main difference between these craft, however, is that the lander can carry entire detachments of Space Marines and their supporting vehicles, more than twice the complement of the Thunderhawk.
The Space Marine Landing Craft can carry a large number of units into combat including but not limited to: Internal Cargo Holds:
60 individual Space Marines
36 Space Marine Assault Bikes
36 Scout Marine Scout Bikes
12 Space Marine Attack Bikes
30 Space Marine Terminators
6 Space Marine Dreadnoughts
External Hydraulic Clamps:
4 Land Raider-class vehicles
6 Rhino-class vehicles
The Space Marine Landing Craft is heavily armed to support disembarking troops and vehicles, and as long as it remains on the ground it can act as a mobile stronghold and fall-back point for all Astartes forces on-planet.
Armament
The craft is armed with two sets of turret-mounted Lascannons, one located on each of its rear wings, above its main thrusters on the top of the ship's hull.
The central spine of the lander is dotted with three remote-controlled pintle-mounted Storm Bolters for anti-infantry defense, and three sets of remote-controlled turret-mounted twin-linked Heavy Bolters that are located on the ship's wings and one near the co*ckpit.
Next up, we have the Sicaran battle tank.
The Sicaran Battle Tank was an Imperial main battle tank and one of the most advanced armoured vehicles used by the Space Marine Legions during the Great Crusade and the Horus Heresy in the late 30th and early 31st Millennia.
These powerful vehicles were exclusive to the armouries of the Legiones Astartes and were just in the process of being introduced as a standard vehicle of the Legions when the Horus Heresy broke out. This allowed the Warmaster Horus to ensure that many examples of the new tank found their way only into the armouries of those Space Marine Legions that would side with him before the outbreak of his rebellion against the Emperor of Mankind.
In the 41st Millennium, many Adepts of the Machine God deny that the Sicaran is anything but a myth, an imagined or at best half-remembered phantom of an age long ago shrouded in blood and shadow. Others, especially more senior Techmarines, know that the Sicaran is real and once served the Legiones Astartes as they prosecuted the wars of the Great Crusade.
Those few Adeptus Astartes Chapters in possession of the Sicaran know that its Machine Spirit slumbers fitfully in their relic chambers and when awoken appears haunted by the dire events of the Horus Heresy. The Sicaran is possessed of the most advanced and therefore ill-understood machine systems, and it is the subject of deep-rooted awe and superstition, even amongst the most venerable Masters of the Forge.
Even when held in stasis, the Sicaran must be ministered to constantly by its overseers, never less than a score of servo-lectors combining their efforts to ensure the machine's continued rest, as should the Sicaran awake before being called, its Machine Spirit is prone to behave in an unpredictable manner.
Armament
The primary armament of the Sicaran Battle Tank is a twin-linked set of the highly sophisticated Herakles Pattern Accelerator Autocannon. These weapons are akin to the much heavier calibre Accelerator Cannon mounted upon the super-heavy Fellblade tank. While the Accelerator Autocannons used by the Sicaran are smaller, they are superior in terms of firing speed and accuracy, and are capable of firing shells at far higher velocities than a standard Autocannon.
This allows the Sicaran to engage swiftly moving enemy vehicles and pinpoint vulnerabilities in their armour with lethal precision. The Sicaran is also armed with a hull-mounted Heavy Bolter and two sponson-mounted weapons, which can be either Heavy Bolters or Lascannons. The vehicle can also be outfitted with a Hunter-Killer Missile Launcher, Extra Armour Plating, a Dozer Blade, an Auxiliary Drive System, armoured ceramite plating, a Searchlight, or Smoke Launchers.
Next up, we have the Sicaran Venator.
The Sicaran Venator is a variant of the Sicaran battle tank which saw extensive use in the opening battles of the Horus Heresy. The Sicaran Venator replaced the turret-mounted Accelerator Cannon of the standard Sicaran with a powerful Neutron Beam Laser. When coupled with the Sicaran Venator's ferocious speed, the Sicaran Venator was an ideal tank hunter, slicing apart armoured hulls with casual ease and blasting internal compartments and crew with atomic fire.
Conceived in the fires of war, the Sicaran Venator was the result of all the knowledge gleaned from the unnumbered battles of the Great Crusade. Its advanced Neutron Laser was specially designed to provide the Legiones Astartes with superior firepower, enabling it to destroy any and all xenos threats that might be encountered by the expanding armies of the nascent Imperium.
At the time Horus began his rebellion on the black fields of Istvaan V, the Sicaran Venator had only just entered full production and only limited numbers had inducted into the various Legions. Despite the relative rarity of these vehicles, their combination of durability, speed and firepower ensured that they proved pivotal in a number of battles, surviving where lesser Predator or Vindicator tanks did not.
Armament
The Sicaran Venator replaces the standard Sicaran Battle Tank's turret-mounted Accelerator Autocannons and hull-mounted Heavy Bolter with a hull-mounted Hadyxis Pattern Neutron Beam Laser. This weapon turns the Sicaran Venator into a formidable anti-armour vehicle that is capable of engaging nearly any target, as a Neutron Laser weapon's particle beam is capable of penetrating all known types of armour.
The vehicle is also armed with a single pintle-mounted, remote-controlled Heavy Bolter to engage infantry that gets too close and two sponson-mounted weapons, which can be either Heavy Bolters or Lascannons. The Sicaran Venator can also be outfitted with a Hunter-Killer Missile Launcher, Extra Armour Plating, a Dozer Blade, an Auxiliary Drive system, Extra Armour Plating, a Searchlight, or Smoke Launchers.
Next up, we have the Sicaran Arcus Strike Tank.
The Arcus Strike Tank, like the base Sicaran and its myriad variants are now a long-forgotten part of the Imperium's distant past. These vehicles are only found now deep within the relic chambers of those few Adeptus Astartes Chapters that are lucky enough to have them at all. Its Machine Spirit (artificial intelligence) slumbers fitfully in the relic chambers where it is kept, and when awoken appears haunted by the dire events of the Horus Heresy.
The Sicaran Arcus is possessed of some of the most advanced and therefore ill-understood machine systems, and it is the subject of deep-rooted awe and superstition, even amongst the most venerable Masters of the Forge. Even when held in stasis, the Sicaran Arcus must be ministered to constantly by its overseers, never less than a score of servo-lectors combining their efforts to ensure the machine's continued rest, as should the Sicaran awake before being called, its Machine Spirit is prone to behave in an unpredictable manner.
Armament
When the Arcus is used by the Space Marine Chapters that retain examples of this rare pattern in the 41st Millennium, it can be found racing forwards to saturate a target area with incendiary devices of a more commonplace provenance and using its renowned speed to escape unscathed, enabling them to clear otherwise redoubtable bunkers and fortresses with brutal efficiency.
The Arcus Strike Tank was one of the most advanced support platforms available to the Space Marine Legions during the Great Crusade, however without the support of the ancient Mechanicum to produce and repair the vehicle's Arcus Launchers they were eventually replaced with more common Rotary Missile Launchers.
The original Arcus Launchers were capable of deploying a wide range of warheads, each crafted to fulfil a distinct tactical niche during combat. Without the Mechanicum's continued support it is assumed that very few, if any original Arcus Launchers still exist in the 41st Millennium, and that any Arcus Strike Tanks that are still usable are all armed with Rotary Missile Launchers.
The Sicaran Arcus is also armed with a hull-mounted Heavy Bolter and two sponson-mounted weapons, which can be either Heavy Bolters or Lascannons. The vehicle can also be outfitted with a Pintle-mounted Weapon, a Hunter-Killer Missile Launcher, Extra Armour Plating, a Dozer Blade, an Auxiliary Drive System, Armoured Ceramite Plating, a Searchlight, or Smoke Launchers.
Next up, we have the Sicaran Punisher assault Tank.
The Sicaran Punisher Assault Tank, or simply Sicaran Punisher, is a variant of the standard Sicaran Battle Tank. The Sicaran Battle Tank was an Imperial main battle tank and one of the most advanced armoured vehicles used by the Space Marine Legions during the Great Crusade and the Horus Heresy in the late 30th and early 31st Millennia. The Sicaran Punisher variant came to be used by the Space Marine Legions during the final days of the Great Crusade, along with several other Sicaran variants. The Punisher is an anti-infantry-focused assault tank, replacing the standard Sicaran's twin-linked set of the highly sophisticated Herakles Pattern Accelerator Autocannons with a massive Punisher Rotary Cannon.
Originally found mounted on the now rare Cerberus Pattern main battle tanks once used by the Imperium, the Punisher had an established reputation as a deadly tool that excelled in the eradication of massed infantry or hordes of swarming xenos creatures, limited only by its relatively short range and an appetite for munitions. Married to the Sicaran chassis, the impressive speed of that vehicle effectively negated the short range of the weapon, and the complex feed assemblies developed as part of the various Terran-supplied Accelerator Cannon weapons ensured the Punisher saw widespread use among the Legions, though eventually it was employed against the very warriors it was intended to protect.
The Sicaran Punisher, like the base Sicaran and its myriad variants are now a long forgotten part of the Imperium's distant past. These vehicles are only now found deep within the relic chambers of those few Adeptus Astartes Chapters that are lucky enough to have them at all. The Machine Spirit (artificial intelligence) of each tank slumbers fitfully in their relic chambers and when awoken appears haunted by the dire events of the Horus Heresy. The Sicaran Punisher is possessed of some of the most advanced and therefore ill-understood machine systems, and it is the subject of deep-rooted awe and superstition, even amongst the most venerable Masters of the Forge. Even when held in stasis, the Sicaran Punisher must be ministered to constantly by its overseers, never less than a score of servo-lectors combining their efforts to ensure the machine's continued rest, as should the Sicaran Punisher awake before being called, its Machine Spirit is prone to behave in an unpredictable manner.
Armament
The Sicaran Punisher is an anti-massed infantry assault tank, replacing the standard Sicaran Battle Tank's twin-linked set of the highly sophisticated Herakles Pattern Accelerator Autocannons with a massive Punisher Rotary Cannon. The Rotary Cannon does not directly replace the base Sicaran's weapon system, instead the tank's entire turret is replaced with the domed turret commonly found on other Astartes vehicles such as the Deimos Predator and Fellblade. The Punisher Rotary Cannon is mounted to the side of the turret dome, with its complex feeding mechanisms and gyro-assisted recoil compensators taking up the remainder of the turret. The Sicaran Punisher is also armed with a hull-mounted Heavy Bolter and two sponson-mounted weapons, which can be either Heavy Bolters or Lascannons. The vehicle can also be outfitted with a Pintle-mounted Weapon, a Hunter-Killer Missile Launcher, Extra Armour Plating, a Dozer Blade, an Auxiliary Drive System, Armoured Ceramite Plating, a Searchlight, or Smoke Launchers.
Next up, we have the Sicaran Omega tank destroyer.
The Sicaran Omega Tank Destroyer, or simply the Sicaran Omega, is a variant of the standard Sicaran Battle Tank. The Sicaran Battle Tank was an Imperial main battle tank and one of the most advanced armoured vehicles used by the Space Marine Legions during the Great Crusade and the Horus Heresy in the late 30th and early 31st Millennia. Retrofitted to allow the Sicaran hull to carry more firepower, the Omega variant is a formidable tank hunter.
The Omega utilises the speed provided by the Sicaran's engines to apply overwhelming short range firepower in battle, racing forwards to ambush and obliterate the lumbering siege tanks of enemy columns. The Sicaran Omega is not the only tank hunter variant of the Sicaran, as the Venator variant is also armed with anti-tank weaponry, though the Venator is much more suited to destroying enemy heavy armour and super-heavy vehicles.
Armament
The Sicaran Omega is armed with a turret-mounted Omega Plasma Array. The Omega Plasma Array is a simplified, and sometimes considered crude, over-sized copy of the ancient Mechanicum's Plasma-fusil Weaponry, a stopgap and imperfect copy that was nonetheless capable of being produced by the lesser forges attached to many Space Marine Legion strongholds, allowing them to replace losses of more complex vehicles. These weapons relied on the brutal application of overwhelming force to reduce enemy armour to wrecks instead of the precise annihilation of more advanced weapons systems.
The Omega Plasma Array is capable of focusing and projecting a highly pressurised stream of volatile and highly charged plasma, vaporising outer armour layers and literally burning through an enemy tank's defences. The weapon is capable of firing either as a volley of plasma bolts, or as a sustained burn which can quickly rip through multiple layers of armour plating, at the expense of potentially overheating the weapon.
The highly charged plasma utilised by the Sicaran Omega is contained at pressures that are difficult to regulate for even the most skilled Techmarines, and even a slight miscalculation can lead to disaster. When such an engine suffers a catastrophic breach, the destruction wrought is far more terrible than for other vehicles of its class. The Sicaran Omega is also armed with a hull-mounted Heavy Bolter and two sponson-mounted weapons, which can be either Heavy Bolters or Lascannons. The vehicle can also be outfitted with a pintle-mounted weapon, a Hunter-Killer Missile Launcher, Extra Armour Plating, a Dozer Blade, an Auxiliary Drive System, Armoured Ceramite Plating, a Searchlight, or Smoke Launchers.
Next up, we have the sabre tank hunter.
The Sabre Tank Hunter was an anti-armour variant of the Rhino that was developed and used sometime shortly before or during the Horus Heresy in the late 30th and early 31st Millennia. During this time, large tank formations were very common amongst the Space Marine Legions that fought on both sides of that interstellar civil war and so too was the need to combat them.
The Sabre Tank Hunter was designed for just such a purpose. The Sabre was armed with a powerful anti-armour weapon known as the Laser Destroyer. This powerful laser weapon gave the Sabre the ability to engage and destroy enemy armoured vehicles at range.
The tank was developed in much the same way as the Vindicator Siege Tank, and it is unclear in Imperial records which design was developed first or even if the Sabre was a variant of the Vindicator. In any event, it proved remarkably efficient in its role. Like the Vindicator, it was modified to carry a massive weapon in a limited-traverse mount on a heavily-armoured Rhino chassis.
While Imperial records are incomplete, it is believed that the Sabre is largely responsible for the dismantling of the massed armour formations once used by the Astartes. Near the end of the Great Crusade, the Mechanicum initiated the field testing of a new type of energy weapon known as the Neutron Laser Projector.
Armament
This massive weapon, whose origins lie in the Dark Age of Technology, was mounted upon a variant of the Spartan Assault Tank known as the Cerberus Heavy Tank Destroyer. Either shortly before or just after the outbreak of the Horus Heresy, the Mechanicum developed a smaller version of the Neutron Laser Projector known as the Neutron Laser Cannon. The Mechanicum then began to deploy Sabre Tank Hunters and Valdor Tank Hunters armed with Neutron Laser Cannons for anti-armour roles.
Once the Horus Heresy ended, the use of the Sabre began to decline and many of the newly-formed Space Marine Chapters were not provided with any of these vehicles at all, and instead were given Land Raiders and Predators to perform all their anti-armour needs. In addition, the Adeptus Mechanicus' capability to manufacture both the Laser Destroyer and the Neutron Laser Cannon was nearly lost and only a few Forge Worlds are still capable of building them.
Some Forge Worlds began to equip the Sabre with the more common Vanquisher Cannon, and while this allowed the Sabre to maintain its role as a powerful tank-hunter, the Vanquisher Cannon was much too heavy for the Rhino chassis to carry, and the ammunition too large for its cramped interior.
In the late 41st Millennium, the ability to produce Sabres is limited to a handful of Forge Worlds and its complex construction limits the number that can be produced per standard year. For this reason, many Space Marine Chapters treasure the few that they have in their armouries and employ them only in situations where their specialised abilities can be utilised to maximum effect.
The Vanquisher Cannon-armed version of the Sabre is the most common variant, but the Laser Destroyer version can still be seen amongst those few Chapters with the technical know-how to maintain them. The Aurora Space Marine Chapter is known to use both versions and it is speculated that they have enough Sabres in their Armoury to outfit an entire squadron. If true, the Aurora Chapter would have a considerable advantage against any other mechanised formation.
The Sabre Tank Hunter is equipped with a powerful Laser Destroyer that is mounted on the front hull and is off-set to the left side of the vehicle to provide increased stability and reduce the overall silhouette of the vehicle for enemy targetting sensors. The tank can also be equipped with a Siege Shield, much like the Vindicator, which gives it forwards protection from enemy attack. The Sabre can also be outfitted with a Vanquisher Cannon, but due to the weight of the weapon and its large shells, it is often too troublesome to be used effectively.
After the initial deployment and field testing of Neutron Laser Weaponry with the Cerberus Heavy Tank Destroyer the Mechanicum began to deploy Sabres equipped with a Neutron Laser Cannon, a weapon that is powerful enough to destroy its targets on the molecular level.
In the 41st Millennium this weapon is now only commonly found on the Imperial Guard's Valdor Tank Hunter and is extremely difficult to manufacture with the Imperium's current technology base. The Sabre can also be outfitted with a dozerblade if it lacks a Siege Shield, extra armour plating, a Pintle-mounted Storm Bolter, a Hunter-Killer Missile Launcher, improved communications equipment, a searchlight, and smoke launchers.
Next up, we have the Sabre Strike Tank.
The Rhino itself was conceived to be easily modified to answer various specific needs. Many Rhino variations have their origins during the Horus Heresy, when variations of existing vehicles to fulfill new roles became a necessity. The Sabre was one of these modifications, seeing its first use during the earliest days of the Heresy, its design spurred by the need for heavier firepower. The Sabre was one of the type of Rhinos modified during the Heresy wars to mount heavier weapons, this type becoming known as "Tank Hunters" for the role they played during the Heresy. Besides the Sabre, various types of Tank Hunter were developed, each mounting different heavy weapons, such as missile launchers or lascannon. However, the Sabre was the most common form of Tank Hunter. The Sabre was devised as a part of a new generation of Astartes vehicles alongside the likes of the Sicaran Tank and was developed from experience gathered during the Great Crusade. It embodied a new mobile style of war that departed from the static gun lines of the early Crusade.
Fast, rugged and heavily armed, the Sabre served the Legiones Astartes as a strike tank, attacking key enemy targets and destroying them long before they can pose a threat. Once the immediate foe was annihilated by its advanced weaponry, the speed of these vehicles allows them to evade any further counter-attack and reform to strike at the vulnerable flanks of the enemy army, keeping heavy armor suppressed as the infantry advanced.
The most well remembered combat use of the Sabre was during an incident in which Dark Angels Space Marines had retaken a city from a combined force of Ork Freebooters and Chaos Renegades, only to be pushed back by Ork reinforcements. The Dark Angels fell back past a great bridge spanning the mile-wide crack called the Black Gorge. The bridge itself, a structure of adamantium from the Dark Age of Technology, could not be destroyed; instead, the Dark Angels set up a single squadron of Sabres at a site overlooking the bridge, and allowed the Orks to cross much of the bridge before the Sabres began to fire. First the lead vehicles were destroyed, blocking the bridge's front. With the column halted, the Sabres began firing at the column's rear, blocking any retreat. Then began the slaughter of the entire Ork column.
Armament
The tank was designed to quickly close the distance to its target, before utterly destroying it. To achieve this, the Sabre could be fitted with a range of advanced weaponry and fielded in squadrons of up to two tanks. Primary weaponry included a Anvilus Snub Autocannon, Neutron Blaster, or a Volkite Saker. It also sported a top-mounted weapon which included a Heavy Bolter, Multi-Melta, Volkite Culverin or Heavy Flamer. Lastly, it was fitted with side-mounted Missile Launchers which fired low-velocity advanced shaped warheads.
Next up, we have the Damocles command Rhino.
The Damocles is an example of the kind of advanced technology available to the current Space Marines. It is used only in operations where command and control of significant Space Marine formations is required, such as a battlegroup consisting of a Battle Company plus support elements. The Damocles provides a communications link between the Force Commander, his battlegroup and any air or orbital assets operating in the area. For this reason, the Damocles is rarely committed to front-line actions, and typically hidden away to prevent enemy interference.
In addition to the driver, the Damocles is crewed by a communications officer and a tactical officer. These Space Marines will have undergone additional training with the Chapter's Techmarines in order to operate this sophisticated technology. There is also room for the Force Commander next to the driver, allowing him the ability to keep himself updated on the developing situation.
Armament
The command vehicle is packed with some of the most advanced technology available to the Imperium at large. It mounts secure, multi-band communications gear that acts as a communications hub for the battlegroup, with signal boosters to allow ground-to-orbital comm-links, as well as the ability to communicate with other Imperial command units operating in the area. It can also monitor, intercept and decrypt enemy communications, which in addition to a multi-spectral auspex allows it to track enemy movements. Link-up with an orbital relay allows the Damocles to track individual squads and vehicles for an entire Chapter, as well as bio-status readouts provided directly by the Marines' power armour. Finally, the Damocles includes a teleport homer, which produces a strong signal to allow for much safer and accurate teleportations.
The Damocles can be further upgraded with Dozer Blades, Extra Armour, Hunter-killer Missile, Pintle-mounted Storm Bolter, Searchlight and Smoke Launchers.
Next up, we have the Rhino Advancer.
The Rhino Advancer is a variant of the the standard Deimos Pattern Rhino armoured personnel carrier (APC) used by the Adeptus Astartes. The Rhino Advancer chassis is much longer than the standard Deimos Rhino chassis and uses a variable open-topped design in which the vehicle's dorsal hatches can slide open to allow its passengers easy access to the combat space.
The Rhino Advancer's troop hold is able to carry twice as many Space Marines as the standard chassis, and its open-topped design allows its passengers to fire upon enemies and to quickly deploy into battle. When the Space Marines being transported need to deploy, they can use either the vehicle's five ramps or just vault over its side.
The Rhino Advancer was used during the the Great Crusade and the Horus Heresy by the Space Marine Legions on both sides, but after the remaining Loyalist Legions were divided into one-thousand man Chapters during the Second Founding, the vehicle fell out of use. The reason for this is likely the fact that Space Marine Chapters rarely deploy in large enough numbers to properly utilise the Rhino Advancer's large troop carrying capacity.
Armament
The Deimos Pattern Rhino chassis is equipped with two top turret-mounted Bolters that are controlled by the vehicle's target-logis systems, or its Machine Spirit (artificial intelligence), but the Rhino Advancer's turret-mounted Bolters are controlled by the passengers and act as a pintle-mounted weapon.
Next up, we have the Infernus pattern razorback.
The Infernum Pattern Razorback is a minor variant of the standard Razorback APC used by the Chapters of the Adeptus Astartes. The Infernum Pattern of the Razorback is a relatively new addition to the armouries of the Space Marines that has entered service amongst several Chapters, most notably those with homeworlds within the Segmentum Tempestus.
This pattern replaces the Razorback's default turret-mounted weapon load-out with a Multi-Melta and a searchlight. However, this change makes excessive demands on the vehicle's power cell conduits, and because of this flaw the Infernum Pattern is rarely deployed.
It is believed that the Techmarines of the now-extinct Fire Hawks Chapter formulated a means to circumvent this issue, and deployed these vehicles during the Badab War.
The Fire Hawks used these vehicles to smash through enemy fortifications with both speed and ease, delivering squads through the breach. It is unknown how far the usage of the Infernum Pattern has spread, or if this pattern has even been approved for widespread use by the Adeptus Mechanicus.
Armament
The Infernum Pattern Razorback is armed with a turret-mounted Multi-Melta and searchlight. The turret is remote-controlled from inside the vehicle using a targeting logis-engine similar to that found in the Land Raider.
The Infernum Pattern Razorback is also able to be outfitted with a Hunter-Killer Missile Launcher, Extra Armour Plating, a pintle-mounted Storm Bolter, ram spikes or a Dozer Blade, a searchlight, and Smoke Launchers.
Next up, we have the Votimer Pattern Razorback.
The Vortimer Pattern Razorback is a minor variant of the standard Razorback APC that is used exclusively by the elite and secretive daemon-hunting Grey Knights Chapter of Adeptus Astartes. In addition to the protective wards crafted within the Razorback's armour, the Vortimer Razorback mounts one of that Chapter's few remaining Psycannons and, like the Vortimer Pattern Land Raider Redeemer, each deployment must be sanctioned by order of the Grey Knights' Chapter Council.
The Vortimer Pattern of the Razorback is used by the Grey Knights during combat, particularly when small squads of Power Armoured warriors, such as Purifier, Strike or Purgation Squads, require additional heavy fire support to suppress the enemy as they close on their objective. Only a few Razorbacks configured in this pattern exist within the armoury of the Grey Knights homeworld of Titan.
Armament
The Vortimer Pattern Razorback is armed with a turret-mounted set of twin-linked Psycannons. The turret is remote-controlled from inside the vehicle using a targeting logis-engine similar to that found in the Land Raider. Psycannons are a type of weapon created specifically by the Imperium to combat daemons and the other entities of the Immaterium. The bolt is devastating to the psyches and physical bodies of psychic creatures, such as psykers, daemons, and daemonhosts, those individuals who have been possessed by the daemonic entities of the Warp. The Psycannon is a more powerful version of the Bolter, equivalent to a Heavy Bolter, utilising high-caliber, psychically-charged, ritually-inscribed, silver-tipped bolts. The negative psychic charge and anti-daemonic ritual inscription on every Psycannon bolt allows them to pass through any defensive shielding, whether it is created by psychic energies or generated by gravitic technologies such as Void Shields or Conversion Fields.
The Vortimer Pattern Razorback is also able to be outfitted with a Hunter-Killer Missile Launcher, Extra Armour Plating, a Pintle-mounted Storm Bolter, ram spikes or a Dozer Blade, a Searchlight, and Smoke Launchers.
Next up, we have the Rapier Laser Destroyer.
The Rapier Armoured Carrier or Rapier Laser Destroyer is a semi-automated tracked weapons carrier used by the Imperium of Man, including the Imperial Guard, Adeptus Mechanicus and Space Marines. A potent anti-tank weapon, it mounts a powerful multi-barrelled laser cannon with which it shares its name. However Rapiers have also been seen wielding Graviton Cannons, quad Multi-Lasers, quad Mortars, and quad Heavy Bolters.
In the early years of the Imperium's history the Rapier was a common weapons platform used by the Imperial Army at both the company and regimental level. Under ideal conditions each company would have a support squad with five Rapier carriers plus other weapons, while regiments had support companies of ten machines each, such as five Rapiers and five Mole Mortars, though attrition often accounted for fewer numbers of these weapons. Rapier crewmen wore the blue uniform of artillerymen, with yellow shoulder pads displaying their company insignia or red ones displaying their regimental insignia depending on their assignment.
Over the millennia, however, the number and use of Rapiers declined due to difficulties in manufacturing these complex devices, and they have been largely supplanted by designs simpler to construct and easier to maintain. There still remain tens of thousands deployed throughout the Imperium, mostly in the hands of the Adeptus Mechanicus or those Planetary Defense Forces on worlds which still retain the capability to produce and maintain them. They are in more limited use by the Space Marines and Imperial Guard regiments. Those Chapters which descend from the Imperial Fists and Iron Hands Legions are especially known users of Rapiers, and have even employed them for boarding assaults.
Armament
The armoured carrier is built around the weapon system with which it has become synonymous, the Rapier Laser Destroyer. This multi-barrelled weapon achieves greater firepower than even a normal lascannon by focusing its four separate laser systems with precise accuracy on a single point. This is possible thanks to a weak machine spirit which can adjust the convergence of the beams depending on the target's range. However, the weapon system has tremendous power requirements, along with increased maintenance and heat build-up due to its moving parts and the close proximity of multiple laser chambers to each other. Rapiers have also been seen mounted with Graviton Cannons, quad Multi-Lasers, quad Mortars, and quad Heavy Bolters though as of the M41 the technology to manufacture Rapiers with Graviton Cannons seems all but lost.
As it was initially designed for defending cities and fortresses the Rapier has limited mobility, enough to move into ambush positions and across rough terrain, and is often fielded in special batteries of one to three Rapiers used to break up enemy armour attacks. The system can move and fire at the same time thanks to an auto-drive and benefits from targeter equipment. Actual aiming and firing of the laser destroyer, however, is handled by the on-board machine spirit, making the Rapier a semi-independent system; its crew is necessary only for moving the weapon and operational mode selection.
Next up, the Baal Predator.
The Standard Template Construct (STC) designs for the Baal Pattern Predator were discovered by the Blood Angels Space Marine Legion at the start of the Great Crusade in the late 30th Millennium. The designs were found on the planet of Atium III amidst the ruins of the Arch-Heretek Lord de Ladt's fortress.
After the Astartes of the IX Legion stormed into the fortress and defeated the Heretek's forces, they found the Baal Predator's STC designs within his inner sanctum. The Blood Angels never handed the designs over to the Adeptus Mechanicus as Imperial law required and instead returned with them to their homeworld of Baal, where the originals remain to this day.
The designs are stored alongside the Chapter's relics, and are protected from enemies and Imperial allies alike. This act has caused great friction between the Blood Angels and the Adeptus Mechanicus, which claims that this variant and its STC template were never officially sanctified in the eyes of the Machine God.
The Blood Angels only allow the knowledge of the Baal Predator's design to be used by their Successor Chapters, who also protect this knowledge from falling into the hands of others.
Armament
The Baal Predator is the variant Predator pattern that differs the most from the standard pattern. The Baal Predator can be equipped with either twin-linked Assault Cannons or a Flamestorm Cannon, which is a massive, vehicle-sized Flamer weapon. Unlike other Predator variants, the Baal Predator is able to equip Heavy Flamers and Multi-Meltas on the vehicle's sponson-mounts. The Baal Pattern is also faster and more maneuverable than any other Rhino chassis-based vehicle in use by the Adeptus Astartes.
The Blood Angels have also reverse-engineered these features into their other vehicles. Due to the designs for the Baal Predator being kept secret, there may be other differences between this pattern and standard pattern Predators.
The Baal Predator, like all other Predator patterns, can also be outfitted with a Dozer Blade, Extra Armour Plating, a Hunter-Killer Missile Launcher, improved communications equipment, a Pintle-mounted Storm Bolter, a Searchlight, and Smoke Launchers.
Next up, we have the Deimos destructor pattern predator.
The Deimos pattern Predator is type of predator tank used during the Great Crusade, is one of the oldest variants of the standard Predator Destructor main battle tank used by the Adeptus Astartes of the 41st Millennium. Sporting a much boxier hull and a rounded turret like the Fellblade. It is distinguishable from its modern counterparts however, by its notably heavier weaponry and exclusive ability to use the Executioner and Infernus patterns.
Armament
Each and every Deimos Predator was Artificer-crafted by the finest machine-wrights of the great forge-complexes of Mars. The Deimos Predator Destructor and its variants haven't been constructed on a large scale, or at all, since the Age of Apostasy, the Chapters of the Space Marines. The Deimos Predator Destructor is the standard pattern of Deimos Predator, and is armed with a turret-mounted Autocannon known as a Predator Cannon and two sponson-mounted Heavy Bolters, one on each side. The sponson-mounted Heavy Bolters can be replaced with either Heavy Flamers or a twin-linked Lascannons (Turning it into a normal Predator Annihilator by function), depending on if the mission calls for close-range fighting or an enemy fielding a large number of armoured vehicles. The vehicle can also remove its sponson weapons entirely to reduce weight and increase speed, although this is rarely done for obvious reasons on bringing a tank with half its armaments on the battlefield.
A design that is prized in the Imperium but now almost entirely lost, the Deimos Executioner is armed with a mighty Plasma destroyer. The powerful weapon allows it to blast apart even the most powerful armour with contemptuous ease. However, only the Forge World of Ryza is still able to manufacture the advanced photo-plasmic cells needed for the Executioners weapon. As a result of this spare parts shortage, many chapters' Techmarines have replaced the main Plasma Destroyer with a Conversion Beamer. This modification turns the Executioner into a powerful siege tank and long-range tank destroyer, but this firepower is gained at the cost of manoeuvrability and increases vulnerability to short-range attacks.
The Deimos Predator Destructor is the standard pattern of Deimos Predator, and is armed with a turret-mounted Autocannon known as a Predator Cannon and two sponson-mounted Heavy Bolters, one on each side. The sponson-mounted Heavy Bolters can be replaced with either Heavy Flamers or Lascannons, depending on if the mission calls for close-range fighting or an enemy fielding a large number of armoured vehicles. The vehicle can also remove its sponson weapons entirely, although this is rarely done. The Deimos Predator's sponson-mounted weaponry can be enclosed in a circular armoured shell, and unlike the equally enclosed sponson weapons of the Mark III Predator, the Deimos Predator's sponson weapons can turn a full 180 degrees, allowing the weapons to be protected from enemy fire and to fire upon enemies that are behind the tank. The Deimos Predator can also be outfitted with a Dozer Blade, Extra Armour Plating, a Hunter-Killer Missile Launcher, Improved Communications Equipment, a pintle-mounted Storm Bolter, a Searchlight, and Smoke Launchers. During the Great Crusade and subsequent Horus Heresy, when these vehicles were in service to the Space Marine Legions, they could also be equipped with an Auxiliary Drive System, Armoured Ceramite Plating, and even a Machine Spirit. Their pintle-mouted weaponry could include Combi-Bolters or other Combi-Weapons, a Heavy Flamer, a Heavy Bolter, or a Havoc Missile Launcher.
Next up, we have the Deimos pattern predator infernus.
An ancient design dating back to the early days of the Great Crusade, the Deimos Pattern Predator Infernus is armed with a fearsome Flamestorm Cannon or Magna-Melta as well as Heavy Flamers and Heavy Bolters. STC data indicates that the Deimos Pattern Infernus may have been an attempt to replicate the Baal Predator design after the Blood Angels refused to share the design with the Adeptus Mechanicus. Accordingly, the Mechanicus maintains that the design is superior to the Baal Predator in speed, protection, and firepower.
The Deimos Predator Infernus replaces the standard Deimos Predator's turret-mounted Autocannon, known as a Predator Autocannon, with a turret-mounted Flamestorm Cannon. The Flamestorm Cannon is a massive, vehicle-sized Flamer. The Predator Infernus was fielded in large numbers by the Space Marine Legions during the Great Crusade, although by the 41st Millennium it has been mostly replaced in many Chapters with the more heavily armoured Land Raider Redeemer.
It is not recorded in available records if the Infernus variant is exclusive to the Deimos Pattern Predator or if any other Predator pattern, such as the Mars Pattern Mark IVb, which is the most common Predator pattern used in the 41st Millennium, is capable of utilising the Infernus variant's weapons load-out. The Deimos Predator Infernus can also be armed with a turret-mounted Magna-Melta in place of its Flamestorm Cannon. The Megna-Melta is a powerful Melta Weapon that makes use of a miniature fusion reaction to produce a blast of intense, searing heat that is capable of reducing armoured targets to charred scraps of molten slag.
Armament
The Deimos Predator Infernus, as with all Predator tanks, can be armed with up to two sponson-mounted weapons including Heavy Bolters, Heavy Flamers, or Lascannons. The tank can be equipped with a variety of Pintle-mounted weaponry, including a Combi-bolter or other Combi-weapon, a Heavy Flamer, a Heavy Bolter, or a Havoc Missile Launcher. The vehicle can also be outfitted with a Hunter-Killer Missile Launcher, a Dozer Blade, an Auxiliary Drive System, Extra Armour Plating, Armoured Ceramite Plating, or a Machine Spirit (Artificial Intelligence). All Deimos Predator Executioners are equipped with Smoke Launchers and a Searchlight.
The ancient design however has largely been replaced by the Land Raider Redeemer in most Chapters, including the Crimson Fists, Fire Lords, and Subjugators. But with the new Tyranid menace emerging across the Imperium, the Deimos Pattern Infernus' close-range firepower has seen renewed use and interest by many within the Space Marine Chapters.
Next up, we have the Executioner pattern predator.
The Deimos Predator Executioner, also known as the Predator Executioner, is a variant of the standard Deimos Predator Destructor main battle tank used by the Space Marine Legions and after the Second Founding by the Chapters of the Adeptus Astartes. The Deimos Predator Executioner is an ancient and revered design that dates back to the time of the Emperor of Mankind's Great Crusade, where it was used by the Space Marine Legions as they conquered the galaxy. The Deimos Predator design differs from other Predator variants in that its turret and sponson-mounts are eloquently curved to the point that they are almost circular and the tank makes use of more advanced internal systems and support for technologies now lost to the Imperium.
Each and every Deimos Predator was Artificer-crafted by the finest machine-wrights of the great forge-complexes of Mars. The Deimos Predator Executioner is no longer manufactured on a large scale, or at all, for the Chapters of the Space Marines as the Mars Pattern Predator is now used almost exclusively by the Adeptus Astartes. As Plasma Weapons technology has been nearly lost to the Imperium in the late 41st Millennium, the Predator Executioner's main weapon, the Plasma Destroyer, is extremely rare and difficult to replace. However, these vehicles still survive in the Armoury of many Chapters, revered as both relics of the long-forgotten past and as symbols of a Chapter's ancient heritage.
The Deimos Predator Executioner, also known as the Predator Executioner, is a variant of the standard Deimos Predator Destructor main battle tank used by the Space Marine Legions and after the Second Founding by the Chapters of the Adeptus Astartes. The Deimos Predator Executioner is an ancient and revered design that dates back to the time of the Emperor of Mankind's Great Crusade, where it was used by the Space Marine Legions as they conquered the galaxy. The Deimos Predator design differs from other Predator variants in that its turret and sponson-mounts are eloquently curved to the point that they are almost circular and the tank makes use of more advanced internal systems and support for technologies now lost to the Imperium.
Each and every Deimos Predator was Artificer-crafted by the finest machine-wrights of the great forge-complexes of Mars. The Deimos Predator Executioner is no longer manufactured on a large scale, or at all, for the Chapters of the Space Marines as the Mars Pattern Predator is now used almost exclusively by the Adeptus Astartes. As Plasma Weapons technology has been nearly lost to the Imperium in the late 41st Millennium, the Predator Executioner's main weapon, the Plasma Destroyer, is extremely rare and difficult to replace. However, these vehicles still survive in the Armoury of many Chapters, revered as both relics of the long-forgotten past and as symbols of a Chapter's ancient heritage.
Armament
The Deimos Predator Executioner replaces the standard Deimos Predator's turret-mounted Autocannon, known as a Predator Cannon, with a turret-mounted Executioner Pattern Plasma Destroyer. The Plasma Destroyer is a powerful Plasma Weapon that is able to blast apart even the most powerful armour with contemptuous ease. The Predator Executioner was fielded in large numbers by the Space Marine Legions during the Great Crusade, although by the late 41st Millennium Plasma Weapons technology has nearly been lost to the Imperium. As a result, surviving Deimos Predator Executioners are revered as treasured relics that cannot be easily replaced. It is unknown if the Mars Pattern Predator can be armed with the same weapon load-outs as the Deimos Predator variant, or even if the Adeptus Mechanicus would allow it if it were possible.
The Deimos Predator Executioner can also be armed with a turret-mounted Heavy Conversion Beamer in place of its Plasma Destroyer. The Heavy Conversion Beamer is an ancient and poorly understood weapon that fires a high intensity beam of anti-matter that transforms matter into pure energy. A heavily armoured target and dense material will be rent apart as its matter is transmuted into pure electromagnetic energy. The denser the material of the target, the more energy that is converted, making Predator Executioners into extremely powerful siege units and long-range tank destroyers. Yet, this firepower is gained at the cost of maneuverability and increased vulnerability to short-range attacks.
The Deimos Predator Executioner, as with all Predator tanks, can be armed with up to two sponson-mounted weapons including Heavy Bolters, Heavy Flamers, or Lascannons. The tank can be equipped with a variety of Pintle-mounted weaponry, including a Combi-Bolter or other Combi-Weapon, a Heavy Flamer, a Heavy Bolter, or a Havoc Missile Launcher. The vehicle can also be outfitted with a Hunter-Killer Missile Launcher, a Dozer Blade, an Auxiliary Drive System, Extra Armour Plating, Armoured Ceramite Plating, or an advanced Machine Spirit (Artificial Intelligence). All Deimos Predator Executioners are equipped with Smoke Launchers and a Searchlight.
Next up, Deimos Annihilator pattern predator.
The Deimos Predator Annihilator is a variant of the standard Deimos Predator Destructor main battle tank used by the Adeptus Astartes adpated to make use of twin-linked Lascannons. The Deimos Predator Annihilator is a new addition to the variants of the revered Deimos Predator design that dates back to the time of the Emperor of Mankind's Great Crusade in the late 30th Millennium, where it was used by the Space Marine Legions as they conquered the galaxy. The Deimos Predator design differs from other Predator variants in that its turret and sponson-mounts are eloquently curved to the point that they are almost circular and the tank makes use of more advanced internal systems and support for technologies now lost to the Imperium.
Each and every Deimos Predator was Artificer-crafted by the finest machine-wrights of the great forge-complexes of Mars. The Deimos Predator is no longer manufactured on a large scale, or at all, for the Chapters of the Space Marines as the Mars Pattern Predator is now used almost exclusively by the Adeptus Astartes. However, these vehicles still survive in the Armoury of many Chapters, revered as both relics of the long-forgotten past and as symbols of a Chapter's ancient heritage.
Armament
The Deimos Predator Annihilator replaces the standard Deimos Predator's turret-mounted Autocannon, known as a Predator Cannon, with a set of turret-mounted twin-linked Lascannons. The replacement of the standard Predator Cannon with twin-linked Lascannons makes the Annihilator variant an excellent anti-armour tank destroyer, as the Lascannons' heavier firepower allows the tank to penetrate even the thickest of enemy armour. The Deimos Predator Annihilator, as with all Predator tanks, can be armed with up to two sponson-mounted weapons including Heavy Bolters, Heavy Flamers, or Lascannons. The tank can also be equipped with Pintle-mounted Storm Bolter. The vehicle can also be outfitted with a Hunter-Killer Missile Launcher, a Dozer Blade, Extra Armour Plating, a Searchlight, and Smoke Launchers. During the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy, Deimos Predators could also be equipped with a larger variety of pintle-mounted weaponry, including a Combi-Bolter or other Combi-Weapon, a Heavy Flamer, a Heavy Bolter, or a Havoc Missile Launcher; they also had the ability in that ancient time to be outfitted with an Auxiliary Drive System, Armoured Ceramite Plating, and a Machine Spirit (Artificial Intelligence). The Annihilator variant of the Deimos Predator may not have these options, as it was not known to be used until the 36th Millennium, long after the Imperium's period of technological stagnation and even regression had begun.
Next up, we have the Predator support tank.
A very interesting variant of the Predator that is neither a different pattern nor mark. Instead, this Predator is a sister-vehicle to the more mainstream Predator Battle Tank.
With a name like 'support tank', you would expect this vehicle to be some sort of light tank variant of the Predator that provides covering fire or suppressive fire to allow targets to be flanked by heavy hitters right? Nope. It is called a support tank because it is armed with more esoteric and rare weapons used by the Space Marine Legions during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy. For all intents and purposes, these are experimental tanks that acted more as a prototypical testbed for new weapons development, but could also hold their own against other MBTs. As such, it is capable of having a hold out of 5 separate main weapon holdouts:
Armament(s)
Executioner Plasma Destroyer, Flamestorm Cannon, Heavy Conversion Beam Cannon, Magna-Melta Cannon, and a Neutron Blaster.
Next up, we have the Nephilim Jet fighter.
A Nephilim Jetfighter is an attack aircraft used exclusively by the Space Marines of the Dark Angels and their Unforgiven Successor Chapters. The Nephilim's primary role is as an atmospheric interceptor, helping to keep the skies clear over the field of battle, protecting their brethren on the ground from the threat of an aerial attack. The Nephilim is capable of flight in the void, but only for short trips, usually when deploying from an orbiting warship or The Rock itself. It has little combat capability outside of a planetary atmosphere.
Sleek air-to-air interceptors, Nephilim Jetfighters are hunting craft perfectly in keeping with the Dark Angels' secret mission to hunt down the Fallen. The oversized 2nd and 3rd Squads of the Ravenwing provide the pilots for these craft, their skills at performing lightning manoeuvres in high-speed warfare making them the ideal candidates for the role.
The combination of such skilled pilots with the heavy armaments, impressive speed and stalwart resilience of the Nephilim has proved a truly potent one and, since their inception in the late 40th Millennium, these craft have served as the foremost combat aircraft of their Chapter.
Armament
The Nephilim Jetfighter is armed with a twin-linked Heavy Bolter, a twin-linked Lascannon and possesses hard points usually fitted with 6 Blacksword Missiles. These missiles take their name from the ominous black contrails they leave in their wake, and are used primarily to bring down enemy flyers and light ground vehicles.
When pursuing an anti-armour ground attack role, the Chapter's Techmarines may replace the aircraft's twin-linked Lascannons with a potent Avenger Mega Bolter, which fires explosive bolts intended to penetrate the heaviest of vehicle armour.
Next up, we have the Dark Talon.
A Dark Talon, also known as a Ravenwing Dark Talon, is a variant atmospheric fighter used only by the Space Marines of the Dark Angels and their Unforgiven Successor Chapters. A formidable weapon employed by the Dark Angels' elite 2nd Company, known as the Ravenwing, the Dark Talon is flying death, a veritable grim reaper of the skies.
The enemies of the Imperium have learned to fear its distinctive silhouette, for it carries a mighty arsenal, raining death upon its foes with righteous vengeance. The Dark Talon is capable of flight in the void, but only for short trips, usually when deploying from an orbiting warship or The Rock itself. It has little combat capability outside of a planetary atmosphere.
Armament
The Ravenwing Dark Talon is armed with two wing-mounted Hurricane Bolters, one under each wing, a powerful ventral-mounted Rift Cannon, and has a single hardpoint for carrying an arcane Stasis Bomb.
Next up, we have the Mastodon.
The primary combat role of the Mastodon was the safe delivery of its Astartes passengers directly into the enemy defences, and usually used to breach fortified walls or structures using its forwards firing Siege Melta Array and heavy armoured prow. The Mastodon's forwards Siege Melta Array could create a breach through even the thickest of enemy walls, few fortifications could withstand this fearsome weapon.
Armament
Once the Mastodon creates a breach powerful interior servos fire the assault doors open, smashing aside debris and unfortunate enemies and allowing the Space Marines within to press directly into the heart of the enemy's position. Once the Space Marines begin to cross through the breach the rear ramp lowers, allowing more squads to funnel through the Mastodon and into the enemy stronghold all the while being protected by the Mastodon's heavy armour and weaponry as the Mastodon itself acts as an armoured breach tunnel.
The Mastodon was as heavily armed as it was armoured, with a wide variety of weapons and technology it was fully capable of defending itself and its cargo from attack. The most important weapon of the Mastodon was its fixed forwards-firing Siege Melta Array, an array of nine melta-weapons that was used to burn through enemy walls and fortifications. The secondary weapons of the Mastodon include a turret-mounted Skyreaper Battery for protection from enemy flyers, two sponson-mounted Heavy Flamers , and two sponson-mounted Lascannons .
The Mastodon commonly comes outfitted with Smoke Launchers , a Searchlight , and Armoured Ceramite Plating and can also be equipped with up to four Hunter-Killer Missile Launchers . The Mastadon can be used a command tank, and its Skyreaper Battery can be completely replaced with a command vox relay system. The Mastodon is also equipped with two Void Shield Generators, providing even more protection from enemy fire.
Next up, we have the Vortimer Redeemer Pattern land Raider.
The Vortimer Pattern Land Raider Redeemer, also sometimes called the Grey Knights Land Raider Redeemer, is a variant pattern Land Raider Redeemer utilised exclusively by the secretive Grey Knights Chapter of Space Marines, the Chamber Militant of the Inquisition's daemon-hunting Ordo Malleus.
In addition to the Redeemer's usual centreline weapons turrets, the Vortimer Pattern Redeemer utilises a rare and powerful Psycannon in the arsenal of the Grey Knights. These rare and archaic weapons were created specifically by the Imperium to combat daemons and the other entities of the Immaterium.
The Psycannon's bolt is devastating to the psyches and physical bodies of psychic creatures, such as psykers, daemons, and Daemonhosts, those individuals who have been possessed by the daemonic entities of the Warp. The Psycannon is a more powerful version of the Bolter, equivalent to a Heavy Bolter, utilizing high-calibre, psychically-charged, ritually-inscribed silver-tipped Bolts.
The negative psychic charge and anti-daemonic ritual inscription on every Psycannon Bolt allows it to pass through any defensive shielding, whether it is created by psychic energies or generated by gravitic technologies like Void Shields or Conversion Fields.
Armament
The Land Raider Crusader was a modification of the standard Land Raider, replacing the sponson-mounted, twin-linked Lascannons with Hurricane Bolters, the hull-mounted, twin-linked Heavy Bolters with Assault Cannons, and adding Frag Assault Launchers, Extra Armour Plating, and a pintle-mounted Multi-Melta.
The Redeemer variant of the Crusader keeps all of its predecessor's upgrades, except the pintle-mounted Multi-Melta, and replaces the hull-mounted, twin-linked Assault Cannons with twin-linked Psycannons and the sponson Hurricane Bolters with massive flame-throwers known as Flamestorm Incinerators.
The Flamestorm Incinerator can send a billowing cloud of burning Promethium into enemy fortifications and buildings, and is capable of cleansing even the most well-defended structures.
The Redeemer is capable of transporting up to twelve fully-armoured Space Marines, or six Terminators into battle, and can use its Frag Assault Launchers to clear enemy infantry away from the front ramp so its cargo of armoured warriors can charge into enemy-held territory or structures.
Like all Land Raiders, the Redeemer has a very potent Machine Spirit (artificial intelligence), which is capable of taking control of the vehicle and its weapons if the crew is killed or otherwise unable to operate the vehicle. The Vortimer Pattern Land Raider Redeemer is also equipped with Frag Assault Launchers that fire Psyk-Out Grenades in addition to the usual Frag Grenades.
Like its standard counterpart, the Vortimer Pattern Land Raider Redeemer can also make use of a number of additional enhancements, including: a Searchlight, a Hunter-Killer Missile Launcher, a Dozer-Blade, pintle-mounted Storm Bolter, pintle-mounted Multi-Melta, Extra Armour Plating, Psybolt Ammunition, a Warp Stabilisation Field and Truesilver Armour.
Next up, we have the Ares Pattern land raider.
The Land Raider Ares is a variant of the Land Raider used by the many Chapters of the Adeptus Astartes. The Land Raider Ares was developed by the Dark Angels Space Marine Chapter as a heavy siege tank. The Land Raider Ares replaces the Land Raider's sponson-mounted twin-linked Lascannons with twin-linked Heavy Flamers. These flame-based weapons enable the Ares to be highly effective against infantry during close-combat.
The Land Raider Ares can use its Heavy Flamers to burn enemy infantry out of fortified bunkers, trenches, and tunnels. A siege can last for months, years, or even centuries and for the Space Marines, who are dedicated to the pursuit of lightning-fast planetary assaults that can conquer the enemy before they even know they are under attack, such slow-moving stalemates are completely unacceptable. It was to prevent such a situation from developing that the Land Raider Ares was created, and where it excels.
The main feature of the Land Raider Ares is its hull-mounted, forwards-firing Demolisher Cannon and Siege Shield, these features, taken from the Space Marine Vindicator siege tank, allow the Land Raider Ares to level enemy structures and bunkers quickly. The Demolisher Cannon is also capable of creating breaches in or even destroying enemy walls, allowing Space Marine and Imperial Guard infantry to enter.
Armament
The Land Raider Ares is armed with two sponson-mounted twin-linked Heavy Flamers, one on each side of the vehicle. The Heavy Flamers are used by the Ares to burn enemy infantry out of cover, so that the Ares does not need to use its more limited amount of Demolisher Cannon shells to destroy small targets.
The Ares is also equipped with a hull-mounted twin-linked Assault Cannon and a Demolisher Cannon. The Assault Cannon is capable of unleashing a powerful stream of high-velocity shells that are able to tear enemy infantry to shreds, while the Demolisher Cannon fires massive, rocket-propelled shells that are capable of leveling entire buildings in one shot.
The Land Raider Ares, like all Land Raiders, also possesses a very powerful Machine Spirit (Artificial Intelligence), which is capable of taking control of the vehicle and its weapons if the crew is killed or otherwise unable to operate the vehicle. The Land Raider Ares can be outfitted with additional enhancements such as a Dozer Blade, Extra Armour Plating, a Hunter-Killer Missile Launcher, a pintle-mounted Storm Bolter, a Searchlight, and Smoke Launchers.
Next up, we have the Terminus Ultra Pattern land raider.
The Land Raider Terminus Ultra is a rare configuration of the standard Land Raider that makes use of the vehicle's inherent modularity. It is primarily used as an assault transport and main battle tank.
Being compatible with a range of weapon configurations, the vehicle mounts additional sponson Lascannons in place of its side assault hatches, and a turret-mounted, twin-linked Lascannon in place of the usual Heavy Bolters.
These weapons require an inordinate amount of power, the additional reactor systems needed displacing the entirety of the Land Raider's troop-carrying capacity.
Unfortunately, even with the entire troop compartment given over to power generation and regulation, the Terminus Ultra can still take irreversible damage from massive and uncontrollable power surges caused by the firing of its weapons.
All of these weapons combine to make the Terminus Ultra one of the most potent armour-killers in the arsenal of the Space Marines, but the configuration stretches the Land Raider's capabilities to such a degree that the pattern remains rare and is only ever fielded in the direst of circ*mstances to counter enemy super-heavy vehicles or Titan-class war machines.
Armament
The Land Raider Terminus Ultra is used by the Adeptus Astartes as a powerful anti-armour vehicle, and it is armed with the standard sponson-mounted Twin-linked Godhammer PatternLascannons used on the standard Phobos Pattern Land Raider. The standard hull-mounted Twin-linked Heavy Bolters are replaced with Twin-linked Lascannons, and an additional two Lascannons are mounted in front of the sponson Lascannons.
The Terminus Ultra, with its total of eight Lascannons, can fire a single salvo that is capable of crippling super-heavy tanks such as the Baneblade, disabling Chaos Titans, and even out-right destroying Ork Gargants.
Like all Land Raiders, the Terminus Ultra is equipped with a powerful Machine Spirit that is capable of taking over in case the vehicle's Astartes crew is killed or incapacitated.
The Land Raider Terminus Ultra can also be outfitted with a Dozer Blade, a Hunter-Killer Missile Launcher, a Pintle-mounted Storm Bolter or a Pintle-mounted Multi-Melta, a Searchlight, and Smoke Launchers.
Next up, we have the Achilles Pattern land raider.
The Land Raider Achilles is a heavily armoured variant of the standard Land Raider used by the Adeptus Astartes. The Land Raider Achilles was developed during the Great Crusade of the 30th Millennium by the Imperial Fists Legion.
The Achilles is considered one of the rarest of all Land Raider variants. It utilises so many of the most arcane machine-artifice rites in its construction that each must be wrought individually and under the scrupulous gaze of the most senior Adepts of the Machine God.
The Achilles differs from the standard Land Raider in both its armament and its construction, as the Achilles is armed as a short-range siege tank that is capable of withstanding massive amounts of punishment. The Land Raider Achilles has become legendary for its durability and the ancient and arcane technologies used in its construction.
It is therefore an extremely rare sight on the battlefields of the late 41st Millennium and any Chapter blessed with even a single example of this formidable war machine considers itself fortunate indeed.
Armament
The Land Raider Achilles is heavily armed for close-range siege combat, as the vehicle's armour can absorb most enemy attacks while the tank closes in for the kill. The Achilles is armed with two sponson-mounted twin-linked Multi-Meltas, one on each side, that are capable of making quick work of enemy armour and enemy fortifications.
The Achilles' most unique weapon is its hull-mounted Thunderfire Cannon. The Thunderfire Cannon is a massive, multi-barrelled, rotary assault cannon that is usually mounted on a slow-moving, remote-controlled tracked chassis, and is used to provide heavy direct fire support for Space Marines during combat.
The Achilles is thought to have been originally armed with a Viper Pattern Quad Launcher, although most have been replaced with the more familiar Thunderfire Cannon. The Land Raider Achilles' troop-carrying space has been reduced in order to store the massive shells for the Thunderfire Cannon, and thus it can only carry up to six Space Marines, or three Terminators.
Like all Land Raiders, the Achilles is equipped with a Machine Spirit that is capable of taking over in case the vehicle's crew is killed or incapacitated. The Achilles can also be equipped with a pintle-mounted Storm Bolter, Extra Armour Plating, a Searchlight, a Dozer Blade, a Hunter-Killer Missile Launcher, Smoke Launchers and a Siege Shield.
As destructive as these weapons are, the ultimate intention is to deliver Space Marines into the heart of an enemy's position. The Achilles itself has only a limited transport capacity, much of its internal space taken up by the Thunderfire Cannon and its ammunition as well as the Techmarine ordnancer who mans it.
For this reason, the Achilles is often fielded in conjunction with other patterns of Land Raider bearing the bulk of the assault units, in particular Land Raider Crusaders, their Hurricane Bolters and Assault Cannon scything down any enemy who might have survived the destruction wrought upon their position by the Achilles itself.
Next up, we have the Helios Pattern land raider.
The Land Raider Helios is a variant of the standard Land Raider super-heavy tank used by the Adeptus Astartes. The Helios variant of the Land Raider came about when the need arose to provide a fast-moving Space Marine heavy assault force with close-in armoured bombardment capable of operating in the close confines of a built-up area. Many missile tanks are comparatively light-armoured and therefore less able to operate alongside heavier vehicles.
The Helios solves this problem by mounting a Helios Missile Launcher, a weapon similar to the Whirlwind Multiple Missile Launcher found on the Whirlwind artillery tank, onto the hull of a standard Land Raider, providing Space Marine forces with close range bombardment capability, even in the most hotly contested war zones. The mounting of the Helios Missile Launcher upon the Land Raider chassis provides a much larger amount of room to store extra ammunition and greater armour to protect the tank from enemy fire.
The Land Raider Helios can also be equipped with a Hyperios Missile Launcher, which is an anti-air variant of the Helios Missile Launcher and Whirlwind Missile Launcher. Due to the sophisticated targeting technology used by the weapon, the Land Raider's hull-mounted twin-linked Heavy Bolters are replaced with targeting sensors to assist in aiming and target acquisition.
Armament
The Land Raider Helios remains an uncommon variant of the Land Raider, and is usually only deployed when a Chapter is in need of extra artillery support that their Whirlwinds cannot provide. However, the Land Raider Helios is one of the most useful vehicles in the Armouries of the Adeptus Astartes, as it is able to provide long-range fire support, act as an anti-air platform, an assault transport, and engaging enemy armour with its Lascannons.
The Land Raider Helios' main armament and weapon is its sponson-mounted, twin-linked Lascannons. These weapons are able to provide the vehicle with extensive protection while it fires its missiles. The Helios is also capable of transporting Astartes infantry, although its capacity is only half that of a standard Land Raider with room enough for six Space Marines in standard power armour or three Terminators.
The Land Raider Helios is capable of equipping a Hyperios Missile Launcher to engage enemy aircraft. The vehicle can also be equipped with a Dozer Blade, Extra Armour Plating, a pintle-mounted Storm Bolter, an improved Vox communications systems, a Hunter-Killer Missile Launcher, a Searchlight, and Smoke Launchers.
Next up, we have the Prometheus Pattern land raider.
The Land Raider Prometheus is a variant of the standard Land Raider used by the Adeptus Astartes as an assault transport and super-heavy main battle tank. The Land Raider Prometheus is used as a battlefield command vehicle as it is outfitted with additional sensor and communications equipment. The standard Land Raider's hull-mounted, twin-linked Heavy Bolters are removed in order to make room for the additional equipment.
The vehicle features an advanced Vox signal booster allowing it to coordinate units at long-range, including ground-to-ground and ground-to-orbit. The Land Raider Prometheus shares several features in common with the Damocles Command Rhino, and as such is capable of fulfilling the role of an Astartes strike force command and control hub if a Damocles is not deployed or is disabled.
Outwardly, the most visible difference between the most common patterns of the Land Raider and the Land Raider Prometheus is its weaponry, with the Quad Heavy Bolters in each sponson replacing the Land Raider's Lascannon to provide a storm of fire to cut swathes through enemy infantry and light vehicles. It is standard practice that all Prometheus Land Raiders are armed with a pintle-mounted Storm Bolter for close-in anti-infantry defence.
This is a substitute for the hull-mounted Heavy Bolters, which are removed to make space for the extra Vox net that facilitates the vehicle's primary role as a command node. Despite the lethality of this particular weapon configuration, the vehicle's main task is not to provide fire support, but to serve as a front-line command vehicle. This is especially appropriate, for the leaders of the Adeptus Astartes are every bit as much warriors as they are strategists, and their place is not behind the lines, but as the very leading edge of battle.
As a dedicated command transport, the Prometheus utilises an extensive array of communications and sensor equipment. All Land Raiders carry a tactical holosphere and squad status displays, but the Prometheus augments this with a long-range signals Amplex, a two-way signal booster, for squad-to-squad, ground-to-air and ground-to-orbit sensorium and Vox-communion.
The Prometheus has some features in common with the Damocles Command Rhino, a command variant of the Rhino armoured personnel carrier, and can serve as an Astartes strike force command and control hub if a Damocles is not deployed or is somehow disabled. It utilises secure multi-band communications for coordination with allied forces and transmission monitoring equipment for intercepting and de-crypting enemy comm signals, and also incorporates a multi-spectral ground surveillance Auspex for locating and tracking enemy forces.
The information provided by this array of sensors can then be shared with other Imperial forces as required. The advantage the Prometheus has over the Damocles Rhino as a command and control hub is that it is also a front-line combat vehicle. In battle it can lead from the front, and whilst a Prometheus does not contain all the advanced features of the dedicated command Rhino, it makes a peerless front-line command transport worthy of the most courageous and warlike leaders of the Adeptus Astartes.
The advanced targeting systems and additional communication systems take up some of the interior room within the vehicle, and as such the standard Land Raider's hull-mounted twin-linked Heavy Bolters are replaced. Additionally, the Land Raider Prometheus' transport capacity has been reduced compared to the standard pattern of the vehicle. The Prometheus is capable of transporting up to ten fully-armoured Space Marines or up to five Terminators. A Land Raider Prometheus is always equipped with a pintle-mounted Storm Bolter for added defence against enemy attack, but can also be outfitted with Extra Armour Plating, a Hunter-Killer Missile Launcher, a Pintle-mounted Multi-Melta, a Searchlight, and Smoke Launchers.
Next up, we have the Wrath of Mjalnar Pattern Land Raider.
The Land Raider Wrath of Mjalnar is a variant of the standard Land Raider main battle tank that was created and used by the Space Wolves Chapter.
It differed from the standard Land Raider only in being armed with twin-linked Helfrost Cannons and two twin-linked Lascannons.
Next up, we have the Solemnus Aggressor Pattern Land Raider.
The Land Raider Solemnus Aggressor is a variant of the standard Land Raider main battle tank that was created and used by the Dark Angels Chapter.
It differed from the standard Land Raider only in being armed with a twin-linked Assault Cannon, 2 Heavy Bolters and 2 Hurricane Bolters.
This armament gives the Solemnus Aggressor the firepower to shatter an infantry advance in a single volley.
Next up, we have the Angel Infernus Pattern Land raider.
The Land Raider Angel Infernus is a variant of the standard Land Raider main battle tank that was created and used by the Blood Angels Chapter.
It differed from the standard Land Raider only in being armed with a twin-linked Assault Cannon, 2 Heavy Flamers and 2 Flamestorm Cannons.
These weapons allow the Angel Infernus to unleash firestorms so intense that even the most dug-in defenders are reduced to ashes in a heartbeat.
Next up, we have the Castraferrum Hellfire pattern dreadnaught.
The Hellfire Dreadnought, also known as the Hellfire Pattern Dreadnought, is a common variant of the standard Mars Pattern Dreadnought combat walker used by the Space Marines of the Adeptus Astartes and their Chaos Space Marine counterparts. Dreadnoughts are cybernetic combat walkers that house the mortal remains of a fallen Space Marine hero, so that he may continue fighting for the Emperor and his Chapter even after his body has been crippled. Dreadnoughts are classified in several different ways, the most common of which is simply by their armament.
Standard Dreadnoughts are equipped with a long-range weapon such as an Assault Cannon in place of one of their arms and their other ends with a Dreadnought Close Combat Weapon, such as an enlarged Powerfist. The Hellfire Pattern Dreadnought sacrifices its close-range offensive weapon arm for a Missile Launcher, changing its battlefield role from one of close or medium-range heavy support to a long-range fire support role for infantry.
The Hellfire Dreadnought's Missile Launcher carries up to 8 Krak Missiles that are capable of causing severe damage to enemy vehicles, and unlike the Missile Launchers carried by Space Marine infantry, the Dreadnought is fully capable of firing accurately whilst moving. The Hellfire Dreadnought can use any weapon in the Astartes Armoury other than a Dreadnought Close Combat Weapon or another Missile Launcher as its other weapon arm. A Dreadnought using either of those two configurations will be classified as either a standard Furioso Dreadnought or a Mortis Dreadnought, respectively.
Armament
The Hellfire Dreadnought is always equipped with two long-range weapon arms, and one is always a Missile Launcher. The Hellfire Dreadnought's other weapon arm can be changed, depending on the needs of the Chapter when the Dreadnought is awoken for battle. These weapons can be an Assault Cannon, twin-linked Lascannons, twin-linked Autocannons, a Plasma Cannon, a Multi-Melta, or twin-linked Heavy Bolters.
Due to the fact that the Hellfire Dreadnought gives up both of its standard grasping arms for weapons it is unable to carry any smaller weaponry that would normally be located on the bottom or inside of one or both of its arms. The Hellfire Dreadnought, like most other Dreadnoughts, can be outfitted with extra armour plating for added protection along with smoke launchers and a searchlight for additional battlefield utility.
Next up, we have the Castraferrum Ironclad Pattern Dreadnaught.
The Ironclad Dreadnought is a specialised variant of the standard Imperial Castraferrum Pattern Dreadnought combat walker that is used by the Chapters of the Adeptus Astartes. Dreadnoughts are cybernetic combat walkers that house the mortal remains of a fallen Space Marine hero so that he may continue fighting for the Emperor and his Chapter even after his body has been fatally crippled. Dreadnoughts are classified in several different ways, the most common of which is simply by their armament.
Standard Dreadnoughts are equipped with a long-range weapon such as an Assault Cannon in place of one of their arms and their other is tipped with a Dreadnought Close Combat Weapon, such as an enlarged Powerfist. The Ironclad Dreadnought variant was designed for heavy close-combat fighting and siege warfare similar to the Siege Dreadnought, yet the Ironclad Dreadnought is more commonly found in Space Marine armouries.
Ironclad Dreadnoughts sacrifice versatility and firepower for an even greater amount of armoured protection and powerful, dedicated siege weaponry, and while they may not be as effective as the Siege Dreadnought in close-quarters, street-to-street urban combat, they more than make up for it by way of their powerful close-combat weaponry and extreme durability.
The Ironclad is the most heavily armoured Dreadnought in the Space Marines' arsenal, trading long-ranged weaponry for thicker slabs of ceramite plating and devastating short-ranged weapons. Ironclad Dreadnoughts often spearhead assaults against heavily defended positions, their superior hulls able to withstand the firepower of a garrisoned fortress as if it were but a summer's rain.
Akin to gigantic battering rams, Ironclad Dreadnoughts drive a wedge through the enemy's battle lines as they advance. Their deployment often means a quick end to any siege, for when even a single Ironclad reaches the walls of an enemy bastion, its Seismic Hammer will batter them down in mere moments, while its built-in Meltagun can melt through even Proteus-class bunker doors
Armament
The Ironclad Dreadnought variant is most commonly armed with powerful dedicated close-combat and siege warfare weaponry, usually a Seismic Hammer and a specialised Dreadnought Close Combat Weapon. The Seismic Hammer, unlike the Assault Drill carried by Siege Dreadnoughts, does not drill through a heavily fortified position's walls, but instead pulverises it into rubble. The Ironclad Dreadnought's Dreadnought Close Combat Weapon is armed with a built-in Storm Bolter for fighting enemy infantry that are too far away for close-combat.
There are two variants of the Seismic Hammer used by Ironclad Dreadnoughts. The most common takes the form of a large fist-like armature that uses high-powered hydraulics to extend outwards with extreme force, smashing anything it comes into contact with; this pattern is capable of being outfitted with either an Heavy Flamer or a Meltagun and the weapon is attached beneath the Seismic Hammer itself.
The second pattern of the Seismic Hammer, which is much less common, takes the form of a long metal housing that holds the hydraulic ram inside. The housing ends in a shape similar to an eagle's head. The ram extends outwards when fired and smashes into its target with extreme force.
This pattern of the Seismic Hammer is also capable of being equipped with either a Heavy Flamer or a Meltagun, but unlike its more common counterpart, this version of the Seismic Hammer has its ranged weapons installed onto the bottom corner of the Dreadnought's chassis.
The Ironclad Dreadnought can also have the Storm Bolter built into its Dreadnought Close Combat Weapon replaced with a Heavy Flamer. The walker can have its entire Dreadnought Close Combat Weapon arm replaced with a Hurricane Bolter, or have its Seismic Hammer replaced with a Dreadnought Chainfist. The Ironclad Dreadnought is always outfitted with a Searchlight, Smoke Launchers, and Extra Armour Plating, but can also be equipped with up to two Hunter-Killer Missile Launchers and Ironclad Assault Launchers.
Next up, we have the Castraferrum Siege pattern dreadnaught.
The Siege Dreadnought is a specialised variant of the standard Imperial Castraferrum Dreadnought combat walker used by the Chapters of the Adeptus Astartes. Dreadnoughts are cybernetic combat walkers that house the mortal remains of a fallen Space Marine hero, so that he may continue fighting for the Emperor and his Chapter even after his body has been fatally crippled.
Dreadnoughts are classified in several different ways, the most common of which is simply by their armament. Standard Dreadnoughts are equipped with a long-range weapon such as an Assault Cannon in place of one of their arms and their other is tipped with a Dreadnought Close Combat Weapon, such as an enlarged Powerfist.
Siege Dreadnoughts are specifically armed for either taking part in or actively leading an assault on heavily fortified enemy positions, such as armoured pillboxes and ferrocrete bunkers. These variants of the Dreadnought have their Dreadnought Close Combat Weapon on their left arm replaced with an Assault Drill and built-in Heavy Flamer, and their right weapon arm replaced with an Inferno Cannon.
The Assault Drill with its built-in Heavy Flamer allows the Dreadnought to grind its way through ferrocrete in a matter of solar seconds. After the hole in the enemy fortification is completed, it unleashes a blast of super-heated Promethium into the structure, burning enemy infantry out of their fortifications or simply engulfing them in flames. The walker's other weapon, the Inferno Cannon, is a massive Dreadnought-sized Flamer that allows the Siege Dreadnought to excel at close-quarters fighting, such as in dense street-to-street combat.
Armament
The Siege Dreadnought was specifically designed to fight in close-quarters, such as breaking through a static defence line, capturing enemy fortifications, or taking part in dense urban combat. The Siege Dreadnought's armament relies heavily on the fear-inducing power of fire, which can easily clear entire rooms and defensive structures with ease.
The Siege Dreadnought's Assault Drill is capable of creating breaches in enemy walls and bunkers, and its in-built Heavy Flamer can clear the other side of the breach of enemies, thus allowing friendly troops to enter the fortification without immediate retaliation. The Assault Drill also makes for an extremely effective close-combat weapon, one that is capable of destroying hardened rockcrete just as well as flesh and bone.
The sight of a massive machine spouting fire and using a rock-crushing drill to utterly destroy all in its path is very effective at demoralising enemy forces. The Siege Dreadnought's Inferno Cannon can be used to clear entire streets as well as the inside of enemy buildings and fortifications. The Siege Dreadnought can have its Inferno Cannon replaced with a Flamestorm Cannon or a Multi-Melta.
The Siege Dreadnought can be outfitted with extra armour plating, allowing it to shrug off even more enemy fire, and up to two Hunter-Killer Missile Launchers can be attached to the top of the walker's chassis. It can also be equipped with smoke launchers and a searchlight, while a Storm Bolter can be attached to the underside of its sarcophagus for additional anti-infantry firepower.
Next up, we have the Castraferrum Venerable Pattern Dreadnaught.
A Venerable Dreadnought is a variant of the standard Imperial Castraferrum Pattern Dreadnought combat walker used by the Chapters of the Adeptus Astartes whose occupant is regarded as one of the oldest and wisest Space Marines still in service to the Imperium of Man.
Dreadnoughts are cybernetic combat walkers that house the mortal remains of a fallen Space Marine hero so that he may continue fighting for the Emperor of Mankind and his Chapter even after his body has been fatally crippled.
Venerable Dreadnoughts have fought in thousands of battles over the course of many centuries or even millennia. These Dreadnoughts are the veterans of wars and battles now considered myth and legend by the younger Astartes of their Chapters.
Venerable Dreadnoughts have gained vast amounts of knowledge and insight into the ways of war in the course of their long lifetimes. These ancient warriors have fought for the Emperor for so long that they have become almost impervious to damage, and can only truly be stopped by the complete and total destruction of their armoured sarcophagus.
The vast amount of knowledge and experience earned by Venerable Dreadnoughts places them in high regard amongst the other warriors of their Chapter. From the lowliest Initiate to the Chapter Master, all will eventually seek out the advice of one of these Ancients.
A Dreadnought's raw power is made all the more deadly because it is wielded with all the grim resolve of the mortally wounded Veteran in its core. The memories of the ancient heroes who pilot them can extend back to the Founding of their Chapter and its earliest history.
Venerable Dreadnoughts are amongst the oldest war machines fighting on the battlefields of the 41st Millennium. Thus they are revered by other Space Marines, not just as potent warriors of legend, but also as ageless forebears and living embodiments of battles fought long ago.
Venerable Dreadnoughts are keepers of tradition and custodians of knowledge who lend wisdom to strategy as they do fury to the battlefield. Only for key battles or in direst need are the most ancient of a Chapter's Dreadnoughts awoken, for they are death given form, and not to be roused lightly.
Armament
Venerable Dreadnoughts are typically armed in much the same way as are other Dreadnoughts, with a Dreadnought Close Combat Weapon and a long-range weapons arm.
The most common close-combat weapons found on Venerable Dreadnoughts are a bladed version of the Dreadnought Powerfist sometimes referred to as a Dreadnought Power Claw, and these weapons are most common on Dreadnoughts of any type that utilise the older Mark IV Castraferrum Dreadnought chassis.
There are rarer patterns of Dreadnought Powerfists that take the shape of a four-fingered human hand, and rarer ones still that feature the use of a full five fingers. These types of Powerfists allow Dreadnoughts the use of an opposable thumb, allowing a greater degree of manual dexterity when picking up objects or enemies.
Venerable Dreadnoughts can take any of the long-range weapons used by other Dreadnoughts, such as an Assault Cannon, twin-linked Lascannons, a Storm Bolter, a Heavy Bolter, or an Autocannon, along with weapons such as a Plasma Cannon, a Heavy Flamer, an Inferno Cannon, a Flamestorm Cannon, a Multi-Melta, or a Missile Launchers.
Venerable Dreadnoughts can also be armed with weaponry that is unique to certain Chapters, such as the Psycannons, Nemesis Doomfists, and Nemesis Doomglaives of the Grey Knights, the Bloodfists and Blood Talons of the Blood Angels, and the Dreadfire Fists used by some Dreadnoughts of the Salamanders Chapter.
Much like all Dreadnoughts, Venerable Dreadnought close-combat weapons are usually outfitted with either built-in weaponry or weapons that are attached to the underside of the walker's chassis, which usually include either a Storm Bolter or a Heavy Flamer.
Venerable Dreadnoughts can also be outfitted with Extra Armour Plating, usually in the form of ostentatious icons of gold that depict the entombed warrior's tales of glorious battles and past victories.
Venerable Dreadnoughts can also be equipped with both searchlights and smoke launchers and any other upgrades that may be unique to their respective Chapters.
Next up, we have the Castraferrum Chaplain Pattern Dreadnaught.
A Chaplain Dreadnought, also known as the Chaplain Venerable Dreadnought, is a variant of the Castraferrum Dreadnought combat walker used by the Chapters of the Adeptus Astartes. Dreadnoughts are cybernetic combat walkers that house the mortal remains of a fallen Space Marine hero so that he may continue fighting for the Emperor of Mankind and his Chapter even after his body has been fatally crippled.
Chaplain Dreadnoughts are also considered a variant of the Venerable Dreadnought, as all Chaplain Dreadnoughts are just as highly venerated by their Chapter as the oldest of the Ancients amongst them. Chaplain Dreadnoughts differ from standard Imperial Dreadnoughts in that their occupants are Astartes Chaplains.
A Chaplain is a specialist officer of the Adeptus Astartes that serves as the appointed spiritual leader of a Space Marine Chapter. Chaplains are the warrior-priests who administer to the spiritual well-being of their fellow Battle-Brothers, instilling in them the values and beliefs of the Chapter and promoting the veneration or, in much rarer cases, the actual worship of the Emperor as a god.
When a Chaplain falls in battle and is damaged beyond repair he may be placed in a Dreadnought, as Chaplains offer their Battle-Brothers unparalleled morale benefits. A Chaplain afforded the honour of being encased within a Dreadnought chassis becomes a highly respected living shrine to the glory of the Chapter. Chaplain Dreadnoughts are unwavering in their faith and conviction and show righteous hate for the enemies of Mankind. They will take to the field of battle with their Vox and speaker systems shouting a booming oratory that stokes the fires of wrath in the hearts of their Battle-Brothers.
Much like Venerable Dreadnoughts, Chaplain Dreadnoughts are veterans of countless wars and have gained vast amounts of knowledge and insight into the ways of war over the course of their long lifetimes. These warriors have such faith in the Emperor that they become almost impervious to damage, and can only be stopped by the complete and total destruction of their armoured sarcophagus. These Dreadnoughts will use their wisdom and spiritual teachings to shape generation after generation of new Space Marines for their Chapter.
Armament
Chaplain Dreadnoughts can be armed in the same manner as all other Castraferrum Dreadnoughts. Chaplain Dreadnoughts are usually armed with a Dreadnought Close Combat Weapon and a long-range weapon arm. The most common close-combat weapons found on these Dreadnoughts are a bladed version of the common Dreadnought Powerfist that is sometimes referred to as a Dreadnought Power Claw.
These weapons are most common on Dreadnoughts of any type that utilise the Mark IV Dreadnought chassis. There are rarer patterns of Dreadnought Powerfists that take the shape of a four-fingered human hand, and rarer ones still that feature a full five fingers. These rare patterns allow Dreadnoughts the use of an opposable thumb, which provides a greater degree of manual dexterity when picking up objects or enemies.
Chaplain Dreadnoughts can take any of the long-range weapons used by other Dreadnoughts, such as twin-linked Lascannons, Heavy Bolters, Heavy Flamers, or Autocannons, along with weapons such as Plasma Cannons, Flamestorm Cannons, Assault Cannons, and Multi-Meltas. The combat walker can forgo the use of long-range weapons entirely and be armed with two Dreadnought Close Combat Weapons.
Much like all Dreadnoughts, Chaplain Dreadnought close-combat weapons are usually outfitted with either built-in weaponry or weapons that are attached to the underside of the walker's chassis, such as a Storm Bolter or a Heavy Flamer. Chaplain Dreadnoughts can also be outfitted with Extra Armour Plating, usually in the form of ostentatious icons of gold that depict the entombed warrior's status as a Chaplain and spiritual leader of the Chapter.
Chaplain Dreadnoughts are outfitted to appear similar to the common iconography of a Space Marine Chaplain's Power Armour, so that they are all black in colour and possess a skull-shaped helmet and other skeletal ornamentation. These Dreadnoughts can be equipped with both Searchlights and Smoke Launchers and any other upgrades that may be unique to their respective Chapters.
Next up, we have the Castraferrum Furioso Pattern Dreadnaught.
The Furioso Dreadnought, also known as the Furioso Pattern Dreadnought, is a variant of the standard Dreadnought that is used almost exclusively by the Blood Angels and their Successor Chapters for melee combat. Other Chapters may use Dreadnoughts configured similarly to the Furioso Pattern Dreadnought though they are not called so and are usually referred to simply as a Dreadnought configured for close combat.
The Furioso, like most Dreadnought variants, only differs from the standard Dreadnought due to its armament and the battlefield role it plays. Standard Dreadnoughts are always equipped with a single long-range weapon arm, such as an Assault Cannon, and a single arm ending in a Dreadnought Close Combat Weapon, yet the Furioso Pattern Dreadnought usually replaces the long-range weapon arm with a second close combat weapon.
The Furioso Pattern Dreadnought is nigh-unstoppable in close combat, as its heavy armour and powerful weapons allow it to tear through most types of enemy armoured vehicles with ease
Armament
The Furioso Pattern Dreadnought is usually equipped with two Dreadnought Close Combat Weapons, in which the war machine's arms end in massive versions of standard Space Marine close combat weapons, such as Powerfists and Lightning Claws. These weapons are used by every standard Dreadnought of by the Adeptus Astartes, though standard Dreadnoughts usually only wield one such close combat weapon.
True Furioso Dreadnoughts that are used by the Blood Angels and their Successor Chapters are equipped with versions of these two close combat weapons known as "Bloodfists" and "Blood Talons," respectively. However, other than the difference in names, there is no known differences between these weapons and their more standard versions.
The Furioso Dreadnoughts of the Blood Angels and their Successor Chapters can also be equipped with two Dreadnought-class weapons that are rarely seen amongst the armouries of other Chapters. The first of these is the Frag Cannon, a large ballistic cannon that fires massive fragmentation shells which are extremely effective at close-range, and the Magna-Grapple, a weapon that fires several yards of tempered adamantium chain attached to powerful magnetic and gravitic field generators. When fired at an enemy vehicle, the Magna-Grapple's chains form an unyielding bond with the enemy vehicle's hull, allowing the Dreadnought to pull the vehicle in closer to finish it off with its main close combat weapons.
The Furioso also possesses several smaller ranged weapons that it can use during combat, such as Storm Bolters, Heavy Flamers and Melta Guns that are attached under its fists or installed on the bottom of its torso. The Furioso Dreadnought can also be outfitted with extra armour plating, smoke launchers and a searchlight.
Next up, we have the Castraferrum Mortis Pattern Dreadnaught.
The Mortis Dreadnought, also known as the Mortis Pattern Dreadnought, is a variant of the standard Castraferrum Pattern Dreadnoughts used by the Adeptus Astartes. The Mortis Pattern, like most Dreadnought variants, only differs from the standard Dreadnought in its armament loadout and the battlefield role it plays.
The standard Castraferrum Dreadnought's loadout consists of a single long-range weapon arm, such as an Assault Cannon, and an arm ending in a Dreadnought Close Combat Weapon, yet the Mortis Pattern Dreadnought replaces the close combat weapon arm with a second ranged combat weapon. The Mortis Dreadnought is capable of unleashing a tremendous amount of firepower on a target, and since the Dreadnought's body is such a stable firing platform it can continue moving while firing accurately.
Armament
The Mortis Dreadnought is always equipped with two long-range weapon arms, and these weapons are always of the same type. The Hellfire Dreadnought, which is a common Dreadnought variant used by most Astartes Chapters, is the only other Dreadnought variant that is equipped with two long-range weapons, and one of those is always a Missile Launcher. The Mortis Pattern Dreadnought is capable of being armed with two twin-linked Heavy Bolters, two twin-linked Lascannons, two twin-linked Autocannons, two Missile Launchers, two Heavy Plasma Cannons or two Assault Cannons. These options are capable of turning this pattern of Dreadnought into a highly effective anti-infantry or anti-armour weapon, and unlike other Dreadnought variants, such as the Furioso Dreadnought, the Mortis Dreadnought can remain safely at a distance from his target. The Mortis Dreadnought, like all Dreadnought variants, can also be outfitted with Extra Armour Plating, Smoke Launchers and a Searchlight. During the 31st Millennium, Mortis Dreadnoughts, like their Contemptor-Mortis Dreadnought cousins, were equipped with the advanced Helical Targeting Array. However, by the late 41st Millennium most Astartes Chapters seem to have lost the means to produce or otherwise acquire that technology.
Next up, we have the doomglaive pattern dreadnaught.
The Doomglaive Pattern Dreadnought, or simply the Doomglaive Dreadnought is a variant of the Grey Knights Dreadnought combat walker used by the Grey Knights Chapter of the Adeptus Astartes.
Dreadnoughts are cybernetic combat walkers that house the mortal remains of a fallen Space Marine hero so that he may continue fighting for the Emperor and his Chapter even after his body has been fatally crippled and is beyond even the ability of bionics to fully repair.
The Grey Knights Dreadnought is one of the rarest and most advanced Dreadnought variants in Imperial service and is used exclusively by the Grey Knights, the secret Chapter of Space Marine psykers that serves as the Chamber Militant of the Inquisition's Ordo Malleus.
Many of the Grey Knights themselves would rather die in combat and be laid to rest in the Dead Fields under their fortress-monastery on Titan than be placed in the armoured sarcophagus of a Dreadnought.
The other reason for the rarity of Grey Knights Dreadnoughts are their use of the Aegis system, a complex network of protective prayers, runes and other wards which are inscribed into the chassis of the Dreadnought and psychically charged to provide better protection from the sorcerous powers of daemons and the other servants of Chaos.
While a Dreadnought is a fearsome opponent to face on the battlefield, the Grey Knights Dreadnought can provide more than just fire support to his battle-brothers, he is also able to support them with enhanced psychic defences.
This is possible as a result of the psyber-circuitry that is incorporated into the Dreadnought's sarcophagus and which can link its own Aegis field to the psychic defences deployed by nearby Grey Knights battle-brothers, thus creating a series of reinforced psychic wards that is much stronger than what individual Grey Knights can project on their own.
Unlike in other Chapters of Space Marines, being interred within a Dreadnought chassis is not seen as a great honour by the Grey Knights. Grey Knights who aspire to such a fate are rare; most simply yearn to while away eternity in the cool shadows of the Dead Fields beneath the Chapter's fortress-monastery on Titan.
However, if a Grey Knight has been gravely wounded but his life can still be saved by the Chapter's Apothecaries, he will often see the necessity of being placed within the metal chassis of a Grey Knights Dreadnought. He will then give the attending Apothecary the needed consent for the transfer.
Armament
The Doomglaive Dreadnought is armed with rare weaponry that is used exclusively by the Grey Knights Chapter. The Doomglaive Dreadnought's weapons load-out includes a Dreadnought Close Combat Weapon known as the Nemesis Doomglaive, a massive Nemesis Force Weapon in the form of a blade used to combat daemonic enemies. The weapon is fitted with a built-in Storm Bolter.
The Dreadnought's Storm Bolter can be replaced with an Incinerator.
Doomglaive Dreadnoughts can also be equipped with Hunter-Killer Missile Launchers, Extra Armour Plating, a Searchlight, and Smoke Launchers. The Dreadnought's Machine Spirit can be blessed by the Chapter's Techmarines to purify it against daemonic attack.
The Dreadnought's sarcophagus can be transformed into a sacred hull, which is covered in potent icons of the Imperial faith such as Imperial Cult scriptures, Purity Seals, and inscriptions of abjuration, making it extremely difficult for a daemon or other Warp entities to even approach such a potent symbol of faith in the God-Emperor.
Next up, we have the Space wolf Venerable Pattern Dreadnaught.
Its just a venerable chassis, but with a literal giant double-bladed power axe and shield.
Next up, we have the Contemptor Pattern Dreadnaughts, starting with the mortis.
The Contemptor-Mortis Dreadnought, also known as the Contemptor-Mortis Class Dreadnought, was a variant of the standard Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought, specifically the original Contemptor Prime model, that possessed two ranged weapon arms. The Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought is an ancient Imperial cybernetic combat walker used by the Space Marine Legions in the days of the Great Crusade and the Horus Heresy, 10,000 Terran years before the present day. Like the current patterns of Dreadnoughts now in service, the Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought served as a cybernetic sarcophagus for an Astartes who had been so badly wounded in battle that his only chance for continued service to the Emperor lay in being interred within the cybernetic sarcophagus of a Dreadnought.
The Contemptor Dreadnought, like much of the technology developed at the dawn of the Imperium of Man, is larger and more powerful than its standard pattern counterparts. This pattern of Dreadnought was once a key part of the earliest Space Marine Legion forces raised on Terra in the late 30th Millennium to initiate the Great Crusade. Such relics are sometimes recovered as archeotech by the Imperium in the late 41st Millennium and then used to supplement the forces of the present-day Space Marine Chapters.
Armament
The Contemptor-Mortis Dreadnought differs from the standard pattern Contemptor Dreadnought only in being outfitted with two ranged-weapons arms as a standard weapon load-out along with the integration of a Helical Targeting Array that allows the Dreadnought to unleash its heavy weapons as dedicated anti-aircraft support. The standard load-out of the Contemptor-Mortis was two sets of twin-linked Heavy Bolters, along with Smoke Launchers and a Searchlight. The walker's Heavy Bolters could be replaced with several different weapons, including a set of twin-linked Autocannons, a set of twin-linked Lascannons, a set of Multi-Meltas or a set of Kheres Pattern Assault Cannons. The Contemptor-Mortis could also be outfitted with Extra Armour Plating and a carapace-mounted Havoc Missile Launcher. In the late 41st Millennium the Contemptor-Mortis can be equipped with a carapace-mounted Cyclone Missile Launcher instead of the Havoc Missile Launcher.
The Mortis Dreadnought was the Castraferrum Pattern Dreadnought's version of the Contemptor-Mortis Dreadnought, although many of this version lacked the Helical Targeting Array that allowed the Contemptor-Mortis to engage enemy aircraft, along with being built upon the less advanced Castraferrum chassis.
Next up, we have the Contemptor Furioso Pattern Dreadnaught.
The Blood Angels Chapter and its Successors have long been considered unique amongst the Adeptus Astartes as a result of their history and much of their wargear, as well as for their armoury and the "taint" that some whisper hangs over the Blood Angels and their Brethren since the death of their Primarch Sanguinius during the Battle of Terra at the end of the Heresy.
At the end of the Great Crusade, the Blood Angels Legion fielded a large number of Contemptor Pattern Dreadnoughts in its ranks, which had been optimised for close assault duties as was always the tactical preference of that Legion. Very few of these walkers survived the horrors of the Horus Heresy that followed.
In the millennia afterwards, the Furioso Dreadnought came to dominate amongst the ranks of the Blood Angels' Dreadnought brothers and what Contemptor Dreadnought remained had been distributed to the Blood Angels' Successor Chapters as living monuments to both the triumphs and the tragedy that defined the Blood Angels Legion's past. They became living monuments of war intended to tie Blood Angels Astartes yet unborn to the fragile and fading memory of the lost glories of Sanguinius.
The Blood Angels Contemptor Dreadnought is largely identical to the standard Contemptor with only a few key differences. The Blood Angels variant is optimised for close assault combat and so replaces the standard Contemptor's weapons load-out with two Blood Fists (Blood Angels variants of the Power Fist) with built-in Storm Bolters and Smoke Launchers.
It can replace its Blood Fists with Blood Talons (Blood Angels variants of Lightning Claws) and can also make use of a carapace-mounted Magna-Grapple. Unfortunately, like all Blood Angels Astartes, the Space Marine within this Dreadnought can still fall victim to the Chapter's Flaw known as the Black Rage.
Next up, we have the Contemptor Incaendius Pattern Dreadnaught.
The Contemptor-Incaendius Dreadnought is a sub-class of the Contemptor Dreadnought chassis manufactured only within the ancient Mechanicum enclave that clung to the irradiated surface of Baal's first moon, under ancient treaty with the great Forge World of Anvillus.
Similar in most respects to the widely used Contemptor chassis, the Incaendius differed in one key aspect: the external Incaendius Booster Pack secured to its back. This volatile, single-burn magneto-plasma engine was powerful enough to decelerate the Dreadnought in a fall from low orbit or to propel it in a shallow leap at significant velocity despite the bulk of its armour and ceramite endoskeleton.
It served the Blood Angels Legion exclusively as a shock assault unit of unparalleled ferocity, for the half-dead warrior entombed within suffered none of the disorientation such tactics inflicted on the living.
Armament
Most commonly, such vehicles were armed with weapons designed for battle at close ranges, with Flamers and the so-called Talons of Perdition being preferred, though some had been known to employ the prototype Iliastus Pattern Assault Cannon.
These weapons were well-suited to the Dreadnought's role, which was to secure a heavily contested drop zone for the Blood Angels' infantry that followed on its heels. Those enemies that survived the impact of its arrival were given no opportunity to fortify their position or to fall back in good order.
Next up, we have the Space Wolfs Contemptor Pattern Dreadnaught.
The Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought has an uneasy reputation as a result of the dark and strange history of this walker within the ancient Space Wolves Legion which was woven into the sagas and legends of the present day Space Wolves Chapter. The Contemptor was never as numerous within the Space Wolves as it was in some of the other Space Marine Legions of the Great Crusade era as they favoured the Castraferrum Mars Pattern Mark IVs and Mark Vs due to their robust natures and ease of repair.
The Space Wolves' Contemptor Dreadnoughts developed a reputation within the Legion for engaging in excess on the battlefield and unwarranted savagery that stained the character of those interred within the Dreadnought's armoured carapace. This infamy became a form of self-fulfilling prophecy in some cases as the superstitious Iron Priests of the Chapter began to inter only elite fallen Astartes who already possessed sagas relating deeds darker than most of their peers in pursuit of the foe.
As a result, the few Contemptor Pattern chassis that survived the Fall of Prospero and the heavy losses the Chapter sustained during the Wars of Apostasy of the 36th Millennium still serve, but are always looked upon as troublesome and ill-omened allies at best by the Astartes of the Great Companies. They are valued for their great prowess in combat and always afforded the respect that all Dreadnoughts are due, but are never fully trusted as is normally the due of such living ancients amongst the Get of Russ.
Armament
Space Wolves Contemptor Pattern Dreadnoughts are essentially identical to the standard variant of this Dreadnought pattern save for the addition of Smoke Launchers and some morale-building wargear that is unique to the Astartes of the Space Wolves, such as Wolftail Talismans and Wolftooth Necklaces that are derived from the massive, semi-sentient Fenrisian Wolves.
Additionally, unlike in other Chapters, the few Contemptor Pattern Dreadnoughts left to the Space Wolves are infamous war engines whose stories are filled with ill-omens, blood and death. As such, these Dreadnoughts are defined by three special sagas that shape the personalities of the warriors within these ceramite behemoths.
Next up, we have the Contemptor Cortus Pattern Dreadnaught.
The Contemptor-Cortus Dreadnought, also known as the Contemptor-Cortus Class Dreadnought, was a variant of the standard Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought that was designed to replace the original Contemptor Prime model in the field. It possessed more robust, but less potent, weapons and sub-systems due to its creation from salvaged components. The Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought is an ancient Imperial cybernetic combat walker used by the Space Marine Legions in the days of the Great Crusade and the Horus Heresy, 10,000 Terran years before the present day.
Like the current patterns of Dreadnoughts now in service, the Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought served as a cybernetic sarcophagus for an Astartes who had been so badly wounded in battle that his only chance for continued service to the Emperor lay in being interred within the cybernetic sarcophagus of a Dreadnought. The Contemptor Dreadnought, like much of the technology developed at the dawn of the Imperium of Man, is larger and more powerful than its standard pattern counterparts.
This pattern of Dreadnought was once a key part of the earliest Space Marine Legion forces raised on Terra in the late 30th Millennium to initiate the Great Crusade. Such relics are sometimes recovered as archeotech by the Imperium in the late 41st Millennium and then used to supplement the forces of the present-day Space Marine Chapters. It is unknown if any Contemptor-Cortus Dreadnought variants still exist in the modern day Imperium, or if the Space Marine Chapters that may possess them would even know the difference between the Cortus and the standard pattern Contemptor.
Armament
The standard load-out found on a Contemptor-Cortus Dreadnought is a set of twin-linked Heavy Bolters attached to one arm and a massive Dreadnought Close Combat Weapon on the other with a built-in twin-linked Bolter. Smoke Launchers and a Searchlight complete the standard weapons load-out. A Contemptor-Cortus' standard weapons complement can be replaced with a number of different weapons to suit different tactical needs, including a Multi-melta, a set of twin-linked Autocannons, a Plasma Cannon, a Kheres Pattern Assault Cannon, a set of twin-linked Lascannons, a power-leeching Heavy Conversion Beamer, and a Dreadnought Chainfist with a built-in twin-linked Bolter.
A Contemptor-Cortus can replace its built-in twin-linked Bolter with a Heavy Flamer, a Plasma Blaster or a Graviton Gun. It can also be outfitted with Extra Armour Plating and a carapace-mounted Havoc Missile Launcher. All Contemptor-Cortus Dreadnoughts are protected by an Atomantic Deflector, which generates a protective gravitic shield around the walker using an advanced Atomantic power core and which provides greater protection from both ranged and melee attacks for the walker. However, when damaged, the Atomantic power generator can overload and result in a devastating miniature atomic explosion that can badly damage nearby allied units.
Next up, we have the Contemptor Osiron Pattern Dreadnaught.
For many solar decades the arts by which the power of an Astartes psyker could be maintained medically within the armoured sarcophagus of a Dreadnought eluded the Thousand Sons and any other Space Marine Legion that tried, with the occupant experiencing a lingering death, madness or malign psychic phenomena.
The Osiron Pattern Dreadnought came about as the result of Magnus the Red himself applying his brilliant mind to solve the problem, resulting in the creation of a device known as the "Osiron."
This device takes the form of a crown of psychometric barrier lattice encasing the occupant's living brain. The Osiron device was difficult to construct and was barely understood by even the most learned psi-arcanists, though this did not stop the Thousand Sons from outfitting it to their Contemptor Pattern Dreadnoughts, with startlingly powerful results.
Imperial records indicate that Magnus the Red, before the Council of Nikaea, gave the schematics of the Osiron device to all of the other Space Marine Legions, though it is likely that most spurned this gift entirely. It is unknown if the Osiron Pattern Dreadnought is still used by the Thousand Sons, or if any other Astartes Legions or their descendants made use of the Osiron.
Although the Blood Angels Chapter makes use of Librarian Dreadnoughts, it is unknown if those walkers make use of the Osiron device or some another means by which a Librarian may be entombed within a Dreadnought sarcophagus without going insane.
Armament
The Osiron Dreadnought mirrored the standard Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought's armament with a twin-linked Heavy Bolter attached to one arm and a massive Dreadnought Close Combat Weapon on the other with a built-in twin-linked Bolter.
The difference between the Osiron and a standard Contemptor was that the Osiron's Dreadnought Close Combat Weapon was always a Dreadnought Force Blade, and its twin-linked Bolter was loaded with Asphyx Shells.
Smoke Launchers and a Searchlight completed the standard weapons load-out. The Osiron's standard weapons complement could be replaced with a number of different weapons to suit different tactical needs, including a Multi-melta, a set of twin-linked Autocannons, a Heavy Plasma Cannon, a Kheres Pattern Assault Cannon, a twin-linked Lascannon, a power-leeching Heavy Conversion Beamer, or the ability to equip another Dreadnought Close Combat Weapon with a built-in twin-linked Bolter.
An Osiron can replace its second built-in twin-linked Bolter with a Heavy Flamer, a Plasma Blaster or a Graviton Gun, if equipped with a second Dreadnought Close Combat Weapon.
It can be outfitted with Extra Armour Plating and a carapace-mounted Havoc Missile Launcher.
All Contemptor Dreadnoughts are protected by advanced Atomantic Shielding which generates a protective gravitic shield around the walker using an advanced Atomantic Power Generator that provides greater protection from both ranged and melee attacks for the walker.
However, when damaged, the Atomantic Power Generator can overload and result in a devastating miniature atomic explosion which will badly damage nearby allied units. The Osiron Dreadnought is also capable of using whatever psychic powers its occupant once wielded as a mortal warrior.
Next up, we have the Deredeo Pattern Dreadnaught.
The Deredeo Pattern Dreadnought was developed during the Great Crusade for use by the Space Marine Legions. This pattern was developed as an outgrowth of the same project to improve upon the fusion of Terran and Mechanicum technology which gave birth to the first Legiones Astartes Dreadnoughts, such as the Castraferrum and Lucifer Patterns.
It shares many core components and systems with the hugely successful Contemptor class, but rather than a general assault unit, the Deredeo is an expressly designed heavy weapons platform, intended to combine superior firepower with the flexibility and durability of a Dreadnought chassis.
Deployed in limited numbers for each of the Legions, the Deredeo was treated as a specialist unit as it proved highly resource intensive to produce and maintain, but its undoubted survivability and killing power saw a resurgence in its use after the initial wave of internecine conflict during the outbreak of the Horus Heresy, and was in high demand by Traitor and Loyalist alike from the few Forge Worlds that produced this rare pattern.
Armament
The Deredeo Pattern Dreadnought is a dedicated heavy support walker, and though it shares many core components and systems with the more general assault-based Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought, the Deredeo was designed purely for ranged support. The Deredeo Pattern Dreadnought, with its formidable carrying capacity and battlefield stability, was used as a test-bed platform for a number of advanced Legiones Astartes weapons systems, created from the wisdom won during the two centuries of the Great Crusade.
The standard loadout for the Deredeo consisted of a set of twin-linked Anvilus Pattern Autocannons, known as an Anvilus Autocannon Battery, and a set of carapace-mounted twin-linked Heavy Bolters. The Heavy Bolters could be replaced with a set of twin-linked Heavy Flamers and an Aiolos Missile Launcher could be mounted atop its carapace. With its formidable carrying capacity and battlefield stability, the Deredeo was used as a test-bed for a number of advanced weapon systems. Chief amongst its anti-vehicle armaments was the Arachnus Heavy Lascannon Battery. The Deredeo could also be outfitted with smoke launchers, a searchlight, and extra armour plating or armoured ceramite plating.
The Deredeo Pattern shares the Contemptor Pattern's system of defensive energy field generators inside its armour plating and is powered by the enhanced Atomantic Power Core within. The Helical Targetting Array's advanced Augury and sophisticated banks of Combat-cogitators allow the Deredeo to track and destroy even the swiftest of targets with ease.
However, due to the Helical Array's delicacy and ravenous consumption of power, the Deredeo must be immobile while the system is in operation. The Deredeo also sports the Atomantic Pavaise, a highly experimental system developed by the Clave Nuathac sub-cult Magi of the Forge World of Anvilus. The Atomantic Pavaise was created with Zone Mortalis operations in mind, and the idea of turning the Deredeo Pattern Dreadnought into a mobile bulwark against the heaviest enemy weapons fire.
And next up, we have the Leviathan Pattern Dreadnaught.
Built in limited numbers during the latter days of the Crusade, the Leviathan was developed in secret on Terra without the knowledge of the Mechanicum. Its massive frame incorporates hybridised technologies, some dating back to the Dark Age of Technology. The resources to build these machines were nearly equal to that of a Knight. They were made available to the Legions only in limited quantities before the outbreak of the Horus Heresy and were highly valued and recognised as savagely powerful siege and hunter-killer units. Many in the Mechanicum were deeply uneasy over the design, seeing it as purposed-designed to match and destroy the Mechanicum's own battle-automata in some future, unforeseen crisis or dispute. Towering over later Imperial walker patterns, this heavily armoured dreadnought is savagely powerful.
During the Horus Heresy, Loyalists with access to Terra were able to obtain new Leviathan Dreadnoughts, although never many, while Traitors and isolated forces were reduced to marshalling their few Leviathans carefully or hunting down relics of the dead from battlefields to be recommissioned.
Those few Leviathan Dreadnoughts that survive into the 41st Millennium are ancient and terrible relics, rarely spoken of and rarely deployed, dreaded as much as they are revered by those Chapters that possess them. The tormented and ravaged minds of those interred within are driven to the edge of madness by the little-understood mechanisms unique to the Leviathan, trapped in dreams of the Heresy which haunt the machines themselves, and soon suffer a final dissolution owing to the terrible strain the Leviathan inflicts on those who would dare to master it. Only the full authority of a Chapter Master is sufficient to unleash these terrifying machines in war, as where they strike and what they kill is as often determined by their dark dreaming as it is the will of their commanders.
While the Leviathan is extremely rare today, some machines still remain in service.
Armament
The Leviathan Siege Dreadnought bristled with weaponry, including two arm mounts that could be equipped with a combination of:
Ranged weapons:
Leviathan Storm Cannon
Grav Flux Bombard
Cyclonic Melta Lance
Melee weapons:
Leviathan Siege Claw
Leviathan Siege Drill
Melee weapons would incorporate a meltagun.
Its torso was equipped with a pair of Heavy Flamers or twin-linked Volkite Calivers. Additional weaponry could include up to three Hunter-Killer Missiles and/or a Phosphex Bomb discharger. Finally, it would typically be armed with frag and smoke grenades, as well as a spotlight.
Next up, we have the Xiphon Interceptor Pattern Fighter.
The Xiphon Pattern Interceptor, or simply Xiphon Interceptor, is a void and atmospheric flight-capable fighter craft once used by the Space Marine Legions of old.
The Xiphon Interceptor was widely used by the Legiones Astartes during the early days of the Great Crusade, before falling out of regular service and seeing a resurgence in general use during the Horus Heresy due to shortages of available combat aircraft.
The Xiphon is rarely used by the Space Marine Chapters of the late 41st Millennium, with limited numbers of the fighter craft found within their armouries. The craft is known to have been used in recent times by the Ultramarines, Space Wolves, Dark Angels, Blood Angels, and the Grey Knights Chapters.
Armament
The Xiphon Interceptor is a heavily armed and armoured fighter craft, with two sets of twin-linked Lascannons located on the sides of the aircraft's fuselage.
The craft is also armed with a ventral-mounted Xiphon Rotary Missile Launcher, a smaller and more compact design more commonly found on heavy void fighters, and incorporates sophisticated cluster munitions.
This firepower when combined with an Astartes pilot and the Interceptor's speed and agility made it an incredibly deadly opponent. The Xiphon is armoured with ceramite plating by default and can be equipped with chaff launchers. Its co*ckpit can be outfitted with additional protective armour.
During the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy the Xiphon Interceptor could also be equipped with ground tracking auguries, sophisticated scanners and advanced Cognis-interpreters that allowed for the detection and analysis of even the most well-concealed ground targets.
Next up, we have the Fire Raptor Pattern Fighter.
The Fire Raptor, also known as the Fire Raptor Gunship, is a specialised variant of the Storm Eagle gunship and was first used by the Space Marine Legions during the Great Crusade in the late 30th Millennium.
The Fire Raptor replaces the storage capacity of the Storm Eagle with greater ammunition stowage in order to feed the voracious appetite of its numerous weapon systems. The Fire Raptor is usually deployed as heavy support for landing Astartes transports, such as the Thunderhawk, and during Drop Pod assaults.
The Fire Raptor is no longer a common sight within the armouries of the Adeptus Astartes and has largely vanished from the machine canon of the Adeptus Mechanicus for many thousands of standard years.
In the late 41st Millennium the Fire Raptor is slowly being fielded in increasing numbers across countless war zones, suggesting that an as-yet unidentified Adeptus Mechanicus Forge World or Space Marine Chapter Forge has come into possession of a complete Standard Template Construct (STC) imprint for the aircraft.
A small number of far older Fire Raptors, some dating back to the time of the Great Crusade, are known to exist within the armouries of a very small number of Chapters, precious relics of that lost age of glory that was so cruelly curtailed when the galaxy was consumed by the raging fires of the Horus Heresy. These aircraft are only ever used during the most dire of circ*mstances, as they are true relics and are greatly revered by their Chapter.
Only the sanctioned blessings of a senior officer of the Chapter, such as an Interrogator-Chaplain, Reclusiarch, Master of the Forge, or a Rune Priest can give the order to endanger one of these ancient relics. The Fire Raptor is also found in small numbers within the armouries of the Traitor Legions and Renegade Space Marine Chapters, some as relics from the Horus Heresy, and others captured or scavenged from the battlefield. Many times these ancient vehicles will remain hidden away within a Chaos Space Marine warband's armoury until a Warpsmith allows it to be used in combat.
Armament
The Fire Raptor carries a formidable range of heavy weaponry, most destructive of which is its nose-mounted twin-linked Avenger Bolt Cannons. The craft is also armed with two waist-mounted ball turrets, each manually operated by a Space Marine gunner, allowing them to engage targets independently of the vehicle's main weapons.
These weapons can include quad-linked Heavy Bolters, twin-linked Autocannons, or, if the Fire Raptor comes from the dark armouries of the Chaos Space Marines, it may be armed with a Reaper Battery. The aircraft is also armed with four wing-mounted Hellstrike Missiles, or if it belongs to the Blood Angels Chapter, it can be armed with a Revelation-class Warhead Battery.
The Fire Raptor is also equipped with a Machine Spirit and Extra Armour Plating.
All Fire Raptors can be outfitted with Armoured Ceramite Plating for extra protection from enemy fire.
Next up, we have the Caestus Assault Ram.
The Caestus Assault Ram is one of several types of assault rams used by the Imperium of Man. Assault rams are used for boarding actions during void battles and are capable of quickly placing boarding parties directly aboard enemy spacecraft.
The Caestus Assault Ram is the most common assault ram used by the Adeptus Astartes, due to the craft's high speed and phenomenal durability, which makes it highly prized by many Space Marine Chapters.
The Caestus Assault Ram is smaller than the Thunderhawk gunship but is larger than the Shark Assault Boat, allowing more Space Marines to be safely deployed into enemy vessels.
The craft can safely transport up to 10 fully armoured Space Marines into combat, wearing either Power Armour, Artificer Armour, or Terminator Armour.
The Caestus was originally designed for ship-to-ship boarding actions in the void of space, yet the revolutionary anti-gravitic technology discovered by the Technoarcheologist Arkhan Land enabled the craft to be fitted with high powered anti-gravitic plating, allowing it to be used in high-velocity orbital operations, as well as operate as a heavy battle skimmer once it reaches the ground and deploys it cargo of Space Marines.
The Caestus is a common sight on-board the ships of fleet-based Chapters, who spend much of their time fighting against enemy starships, boarding Space Hulks, or attacking enemy void stations or asteroid bases.
Armament
The Caestus Assault Ram is equipped with a forward-firing heavy Melta Weapon known as a Magna-Melta.
This weapon is used to weaken the hull armour of an enemy ship or fortification wall before the craft's armoured prow crashes through the weakened area, creating a breach through which its complement of Space Marines can immediately deploy and advance.
When the Caestus is used as a heavy skimmer during ground combat this weapon is extremely effective at close-range against enemy tanks and bunkers. Many Space Marine Chapters also equip their Caestus Assault Rams with twin-linked Firefury Missile Launchers, one launcher on each of its stabiliser wings. These weapons fire all of their missiles at once, completely saturating the area with a massive amount of firepower, which allows the assault ram to touch down and deploy its cargo of Astartes before the enemy can retaliate.
The Caestus Assault Ram can be upgraded with several enhancements, including Frag Assault Launchers and a Teleport Homer. When a Caestus Assault Ram is upgraded with a Teleport Homer the craft can allow additional forces to be teleported to its location, which can greatly speed up the process of taking over or destroying an enemy starship or teleporting Terminators into a breach created during a ground conflict.
During the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy eras of the late 30th and early 31st Millennia, the Caestus Assault Ram could also be outfitted with an auxiliary drive system and a Machine Spirit, and armed with wing-mounted twin-linked Havoc Missile Launchers instead of the Firefury Missile Launchers found on the newer craft.
Next up, we have the Land Speeder Pattern Proteus.
The Land Speeder Proteus is an ancient variant of the standard Land Speeder that was deployed by the Space Marine Legions during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy eras.
It was a particular favorite variant of the White Scars Legion.
Mainstays of most Space Marine Legion armouries, Land Speeders are high-speed reconnaissance and rapid attack skimmers that utilise anti-gravity technology to achieve extraordinary battlefield mobility and speed.
As lightly armoured two-man craft, they require the kind of skill and reflexes to operate at peak performance that only a Space Marine can bring to bear, and rely more on their extreme manoeuvrability and speed for survival than durability.
Land Speeder squadrons provide a Space Marine force with a flexible core of rapidly deployable firepower and make for highly able tank hunters and close air support units.
As a result, mixed formations of Land Speeders are often called upon to operate as a rapid reaction force, held in reserve to quickly intercept enemy counter-attacks.
Relic versions of the Land Speeder Proteus are rarely if ever seen in the late 41st Millennium.
Armameant
The Land Speeder Proteus could be armed with multiple weapon configurations. These included one of two of the following weapons:
1 Plasma Cannon
1 Heavy Flamer
1 Multi-melta
1-2 Heavy Bolters
1 Grav-Gun
1 Volkite Culverin
1 Havoc Missile Launcher
2 Hunter-Killer Missiles
Next up, we have the Land Speeder Pattern Tempest.
The Land Speeder Tempest is a heavily modified variant of the standard Land Speeder used by the Adeptus Astartes. The Land Speeder Tempest forgoes the standard Land Speeder's usual role of long-range reconnaissance and fast attack craft and instead is used as a pure gunship and attack craft.
The Land Speeder Tempest is slightly larger than the standard Land Speeder, and the increased size is provided by the vehicle's additional armour plating and more powerful engines.
The Land Speeder Tempest, unlike all other known Land Speeder variants including the Land Speeder Tornado, Land Speeder Typhoon, and Land Speeder Storm, is fully enclosed with armour plating to protect the vehicle's pilot and sensitive electrical systems from enemy fire.
The Land Speeder Tempest's armour plating and heavy weaponry require a set of more powerful engines in order to propel the craft forwards. These engines, VF-33-SD afterburning ramjets, are capable of propelling the Tempest up to 350 kilometres per hour, and while the craft is not as fast as a conventional aircraft, it is extremely fast for a low-level, anti-gravitic skimmer.
The Tempest is capable of flying very low to the ground, allowing it to quickly approach and engage unprepared enemies. The Tempest, like all Land Speeders, is capable of using its anti-gravitic plates to reach altitudes of up to 100 metres.
The Tempest can use this capability as a way to attack enemy forces from the air. The Land Speeder Tempest is able to make high speed maneuvers at this height due to the inclusion of an actual set of wings, while other Land Speeder variants possess only small stabiliser fins.
Armament
The Land Speeder Tempest forgoes the standard Land Speeder's usual role as a long-range reconnaissance and fast attack craft and instead is used as a pure gunship. As such, the Land Speeder Tempest is the most heavily armed and armoured variant of the standard Land Speeder.
The vehicle is armed with a nose-mounted Assault Cannon and a set of Tempest Salvo Launchers located on the sides of the vehicle. The Tempest Salvo Launchers are able to hold up to 8 missiles, and are a mixed load of Frag and Krak Missiles.
Due to the added weight of both the weapons and the armour plating that covers the vehicle, the vehicle's gunner is replaced with an advanced targeting system that is slaved to both the vehicle's Machine Spirit and the pilot, which helps to reduce the effect of the vehicle's additional tonnage. Unlike many other Imperial vehicles, the Land Speeder Tempest has no upgrades or attachments that can be equipped.
Next up, we have the Land Speeder Pattern Vengeance.
The Land Speeder Vengeance is a variant of the standard Land Speeder used only by the Dark Angels and their Unforgiven Successor Chapters.
It is the deadliest weapon available in the arsenal of the Ravenwing, the elite 2nd Company of the Dark Angels, and serves as a larger variant of the standard Land Speeder that is armed with the devastating Plasma Storm Battery, with which it lays down a blistering barrage to support the Dark Angels' attack.
The Land Speeder Vengeance couples a larger chassis and four powerful anti-gravitic lifter-engines with a ferocious heavy weapons load-out, providing the Ravenwing with a highly mobile and deadly support battery to aid them in their hunt for the Fallen.
Armament
The Land Speeder Vengeance is normally armed with its Plasma Storm Battery and a Heavy Bolter.
Some variants of the Land Speeder Vengeance have the Chapter's Techmarines replace the Heavy Bolter with an Assault Cannon to further maximise the vehicle's firepower.
Next up, we have the Arquitor Bombard.
The Arquitor was designed to operate at the forefront of a Space Marine advance and was equipped with a reinforced chassis and brutal short range firepower. It was usually called upon to break the most stubborn enemy fortifications or to annihilate massed infantry and armor. As an infantry support platform, it lacked the speed of some other armor employed by the Space Marines but this was intentionally designed in order to allow it to be locked in formation with the warriors it supports.
Armament
The Bombard could be equipped with a variety of weapons, most notably the Graviton Charge Cannon, Morbus Heavy Bombard, or Spicula Rocket System. It also wielded sponson-mounted Heavy Bolters or Autocannons and a pintle-mounted twin-linked Bolter, Havoc Launcher or Combi-Weapon.
Next up, we have the Whirlwind Hunter Pattern.
The Hunter, also known as the Whirlwind Hunter, is a variant of the standard Space Marine Whirlwind Artillery Tank and serves as the Space Marines' primary surface-to-air combat unit. Armed with a potent Skyspear Missile Launcher, the Hunter has proven its worth in countless war zones, scouring the skies of enemy bombers and fighter craft.
The Hunter is the primary surface-to-air combat vehicle of the Adeptus Astartes and is the first known dedicated anti-aircraft platform fielded by the Astartes. Prior to the discovery of the Standard Template Construct (STC) data for the Hunter, many Space Marine Chapters had attempted to retrofit the Whirlwind in various ways, with mostly negative results.
The vehicle's design is based on STC data which is much older than the much more recent Whirlwind Hyperios anti-air tank. Though the Whirlwind Hyperios is a stable pattern of anti-air combat vehicle and is becoming widely adopted by many Chapters, there are still many Chapters that have continued to use the Hunter on the battlefield, including during the recent Third War for Armageddon, where the Hunter was used in great numbers by Astartes Chapters like the Black Templars who participated in that conflict.
The Hunter also features improved front and side armour over the standard Whirlwind, and is outfitted with hydraulic stabilisers that anchor the vehicle to the ground so that when it fires its anti-aircraft artillery it suffers no recoil.
Space Marine battle tanks are not permanently attached to any one company. Instead they form a vehicle pool, and individual tanks are available for deployment to Space Marine commanders as required.
Upon its creation, a Space Marine battle tank is assigned a name that reflects its role as a protector of the Chapter's brethren. From that point onwards, the vehicle is as much a part of the Chapter as the Space Marines themselves, and over the years its many deeds and victories will be celebrated as greatly as the Chapter's flesh and blood heroes.
Armament
The Hunter is a variant of the standard Adeptus Astartes Whirlwind Artillery Tank. The Hunter replaces the Whirlwind's Whirlwind Multiple Missile Launcher with a Skyspear Missile Launcher.
The Skyspear Missile Launcher fires pre-blessed savant warheads, each a relic in its own right, housing the entombed remains of a distinguished Chapter Serf.
The Servitor's mummified brain augments the missile's auto-targeters, allowing it to second-guess enemy pilots or home in on the heretical emissions of their debased aircraft's Machine Spirit.
Against the dogged pursuit of a savant warhead and its entombed pilot, there is little chance of escape, while the vehicle's servo-loaders maintain a steady rate of fire.
The Hunter can also be outfitted with a Dozer Blade, Extra Armour Plating, a Hunter-Killer Missile Launcher, improved communications equipment, a Pintle-mounted Storm Bolter, a Searchlight, and Smoke Launchers.
Next up, we have the Fellblade Super Heavy Tank.
The Fellblade was a highly advanced pattern of Imperial super-heavy main battle tank. It was based upon the same Standard Template Construct (STC) design as the mighty Baneblade and Deathhammer super-heavy tanks that formed the mainstay of the vast armoured brigades of the Legiones Astartes and the Imperial Army during the Great Crusade and later, the Horus Heresy.
The Fellblade was by far the more advanced design of the three, featuring many technologies that were unique to its construction, such as compact Mechanicum Atomantic Arc-reactor technology, a reinforced metaplas alloy chassis that provided protection superior to that of nearly all other Imperial armoured vehicles, and an advanced Accelerator Cannon as its primary armament.
Many of the technologies used in the construction of the Fellblade were all fruits of archeotech first developed during the Dark Age of Technology and restored to humanity by the later conquests of the Emperor of Mankind's Great Crusade. The Fellblade was most widely used by the Space Marine Legions, yet also saw limited use by the Imperial Army and other Imperial forces like the Mechanicum. Along with its sister tank, the Falchion, the Fellblade was one of the most powerful and most feared weapons used during this ancient time.
In this era, the Space Marines operated very differently than in the late 41st Millennium. The Space Marine Legions fought as the Imperium's front-line forces and used massive amounts of overwhelming firepower to achieve their goals, rather than acting as their modern-era counterparts who are primarily elite shock infantry that make use of surgical strikes against enemy weak-points as the much smaller Space Marine Chapters of the present era prefer.
During the Great Crusade, the Space Marines fought on an unimaginable scale, fighting wars with tens, or even hundreds of thousands of elite warriors who could conquer entire planets in mere solar days, or even hours. These massive armies of Astartes were given the very best technology constructed by the Mechanicum of Mars, and one of the greatest of their works of war was the Fellblade.
The Fellblade was piloted by a trained crew of humans either from the Mechanicum or by Serfs of the Legion it was assigned to, but could also be fully crewed by the Astartes themselves. These war-machines were used as unstoppable line-breaker tanks, siege tanks, siege-breaker tanks, tank killers, and mobile command fortresses. It is thought that some Space Marine Legions, such as the Iron Warriors, Ultramarines, and Imperial Fists, made extensive use of the Fellblade, while others, like the Night Lords, White Scars, and the Raven Guard, who preferred hit-and-run tactics, may have eschewed their use altogether. During the Horus Heresy these tanks were used by both Traitor and Loyalist forces alike.
Once, such mighty engines of war were commonplace in the arsenals of the Adeptus Astartes, but since the Legions of old were divided into smaller Chapters during the Second Founding, few new super-heavy tanks have been brought into service. The Second Founding deliberately curtailed the power of individual Space Marine formations so that any future rebellion would be limited in scale and incapable of bringing the Imperium to its knees ever again. The need and scope for the use of heavy tanks like the Fellblade and its kin receded, but some Chapters, in particular those of the First and Second Founding, retain examples still.
Such venerable engines of war see occasional use when the Chapter makes war against the most potent of enemy forces, in particular their erstwhile brethren in the Traitor Legions as well as the fallen Titan Legions. It is unknown exactly how many active Fellblades are still in service during the late 41st Millennium.
Armament
The Fellblade is armed and equipped with a panoply of weapons all but unknown to the late 41st Millennium. The tanks' primary weapon is a turret-mounted twin-linked Accelerator Cannon, a vacuum-based system that uses a complex overpressure mechanism to propel heavy shells with greater force than would be possible in a conventional cannon. So efficient is this system that very little recoil is produced, making the weapon extremely accurate and stable. Furthermore, the Accelerator Cannon is served by an advanced loading mechanism that allows the tank's commander to switch ammunition types at a moment's notice. The Accelerator Cannon fires two types of munition. The first is an anti-armour shell with a super-dense core that is capable of penetrating any known class of physical armour. The second, is a heavy, high explosive munition with a fragmentation core capable of scything down dozens of foes with single shot. Both shell types are targeted using a complex logis engine system slaved to the vehicle commander's strategium terminal, enabling him to track and switch between dozens of targets.
The Accelerator Cannon is far from the Fellblade's only weapon, for it mounts several more, any one of which would be counted a main weapon on a lesser tank. In particular, the vehicle carries a pair of side sponson-mounted quad Lascannons, a system held by many veteran commanders to offer the ultimate balance between rate of fire, accuracy and armour penetration. Or the side sponsons could have two Laser Destroyer Arrays mounted. In addition to the vehicle's sponson-mounted weapons, the tank was also armed with either a hull-mounted set of twin-linked Heavy Bolters or Heavy Flamers for anti-infantry fighting, and also a single hull-mounted Demolisher Cannon for destroying enemy fortifications. The Fellblade was always equipped with a searchlight and smoke launchers, but could be further upgraded with a Hunter-Killer Missile Launcher for added firepower or armoured ceramite plating for even better protection from enemy fire, especially energy-based weapons.
The vehicle could be outfitted with a variety of Pintle-mounted weapons, including twin-linked Combi-Bolters or other Combi-weapons, a Havoc Missile Launcher, and either a single Heavy Flamer, Heavy Bolter, or a Multi-Melta. There are some known variants to the standard Fellblade armament, such as replacing the turret-mounted twin-linked Accelerator Cannons with a Mega Battle Cannon and co-axial Autocannon such as those used by the Baneblade, and also replacing the sponson-mounted weapons with Heavy Bolter boxes. These were armoured pill-boxes with a Heavy Bolter placed on three sides. It is unknown if this was an officially recognised weapons loadout, a customised weapons loadout, or the result of field repairs which replaced damaged weapons with those from a Baneblade.
As advanced as its weapons undoubtedly are, the Fellblade's armour and other systems are equally as formidable. The tank's armour is constructed of a reinforced metaplas alloy matched only by the armour utilised on the God-machines of the Collegia Titanica, while its engine and systems are powered by an Atomantic Arc-reactor, a system the Adeptus Mechanicus has been all but unable to replicate for many generations. Additional heavy ceramite plating fitted to a Fellblade allowed it to withstand extremes of heat and radiation. Plating of this kind was commonly fitted to orbital strike craft to enable them to withstand the rigours of "crash" re-entry from space into a planet's atmosphere, and also to certain siege vehicles to protect them from thermal energy weapons.
The Fellblade was at one time often crewed by Legion Serfs, many of them individuals who were rejected during the Space Marine implantation and indoctrination process, but who were nonetheless superior to the rank and file of the Emperor's fighting forces. In the late 41st Millennium, however, such venerated war engines are only ever crewed by Space Marines, invariably the most experienced and honoured brethren serving directly under the Master of the Forge. It is only ever at the direst behest and concordance of the Chapter Master and the Master of the Forge that a Fellblade is deployed, and only in the direst of circ*mstances, and in almost all cases, heavy damage is all but irreparable and the loss of a Fellblade a tragedy for the entire Chapter.
Next up, we have the Cerberus Heavy Tank Destroyer.
The Cerberus Heavy Tank Destroyer is a super-heavy tank destroyer that was used in limited numbers by the Space Marine Legions during the Great Crusade and later during the Horus Heresy of the late 30th and early 31st Millennia. The Cerberus was a rare and experimental variant of the super-heavy Spartan Assault Tank also used by the Space Marine Legions, both of which made use of the same hull, armour, and chassis design.
While the Spartan Assault Tank was developed by the Mechanicum in response to the Space Marine Legions demanding a vehicle as powerful and versatile as the Land Raider Proteus yet also having the ability to carry Terminators into combat, the Cerberus was designed near the end of the Great Crusade by the Mechanicum of Mars as a way to field test archeotech weaponry that was recovered during the Great Crusade known as the Neutron Laser Projector.
The Cerberus Heavy Tank Destroyer is an example of one of the many classes of war machines that rose to prominence and was used by several of the Space Marine Legions during the Great Crusade and the Horus Heresy, only to fall from common use amongst the Adeptus Astartes as the Age of the Imperium ground on.
One of the reasons for this fall was the drastic change in the way Space Marines were utilised after the Legions were broken down into Chapters during the Second Founding. Only a small number of the newly-formed Space Marine units retained several of these vehicles in their armouries.
There were other contributing factors as well, not least amongst these is that the Imperium simply could not maintain the arcane systems many of these potent engines of destruction utilised. Countless Tech-priests have made it their life's work to recover even a fraction of these long-lost treasures, such as the legendary and ill-understood Flare Shields once utilised by certain classes of armoured vehicles.
Others hold that such technologies are the echoes of earlier, darker times and fear that to resurrect them is to call forth the horrors of the distant past and to invite the return of forces that should be left well alone. It is unknown if the Adeptus Mechanicus is able to build new Cerberus tanks in the late 41st Millennium or if the technology has been lost like so much else from the Great Crusade era.
Armament
The Cerberus Heavy Tank Destroyer is armed with a hull-mounted, forward-firing Neutron Laser Projector, an experimental weapon retro-engineered from the battlefield remains of Dark Age of Technology wreckage.
The Neutron Laser Projector was an extremely misunderstood weapon whose secrets were known only by the highest circles of the ancient Mechanicum of Mars that is more powerful than any weapon system of its size, comparable only to Titan-sized weaponry. The weapon fires a powerful directed energy beam capable of crippling or outright destroying most armoured vehicles, up to and including Battle Titans.
Unfortunately, the weapon is highly unstable and if the weapon's energy beam fails to penetrate its target, it is prone to dangerous feedback that can cause serious harm to its operators and the vehicle's crew. The weapon itself and the Atomantic-Arc Reactors required to power it are capable of erupting in an apocalyptic explosion if damaged or destroyed.
This explosion is capable of seriously damaging or destroying nearby vehicles and buildings, along with disintegrating any remaining trace of the Cerberus itself.
The Cerberus can also be outfitted with sponson-mounted Heavy Bolters or Lascannons and a Pintle-mounted twin-linked Bolter (Combi-Bolter) or other Combi-Weapon, a Heavy Flamer, a Heavy Bolter, a Multi-Melta, or a Havoc Missile Launcher for added firepower and defence.
The vehicle can also be equipped with a Hunter-Killer Missile Launcher, armoured ceramite plating, Smoke Launchers, or a Searchlight.
Due the instability of the vehicle's main weapon and power source, the vehicle is always equipped with a Flare Shield for extra protection from enemy fire.
Next up, we have the Kratos Heavy Support Tank.
The Kratos Heavy Assault Tank is based on an ancient Terran pattern fielded during the Unification of Old Earth, redesigned after the Emperor signed the Treaty of Mars with the Tech-priests of the ancient Mechanicum to serve as the spearhead of the Great Crusade. It was intended to be a line-breaker and foe hammer extraordinaire. This grinding main battle tank is all but impervious to enemy fire, and its steady, inexorable advance provided an indomitable core to any assault by the Legiones Astartes, enforced by a barrage of overwhelming firepower.
The Kratos originally served as a dedicated infantry support tank and the powerful shells of its heavy Kratos Battlecannon could quickly open a path through massed enemies for any Astartes or mortal support infantry that followed in its wake. However, the Kratos was determined to be obsolete in the final years of the Great Crusade and was later retired from active service when the Legiones Astartes began to favour faster, more multi-purpose armoured vehicles such as the ubiquitous Predator tank. Yet some Kratos remained in the reserve armouries of the Legions even after their replacement. During the Signus Campaign early in the Horus Heresy, the Blood Angels Legion made heavy use of the Kratos at the Battle of Signus Prime.
Armament
The Kratos Heavy Assault Tank is a nigh-impenetrable war machine bristling with heavy armaments. In terms of sheer power, the Kratos was intended to sit between the Sicaran Battle Tank and the Fellblade in the arsenal of the Space Marine Legions. This impressive vehicle can be built with one of three powerful turret weapons -- the versatile Kratos Battlecannon, tank-busting Melta Blast-gun, or the searing thermal rays produced by the Volkite Cardanelle. If armed with the Kratos Battlecannon, it can be loaded with high-explosive shells intended to kill large numbers of enemy infantry, armour-piercing shells to eliminate enemy armour or transports and assault well-defended fortifications or flashburn shells that are most effective when used against super-heavy enemy tanks.
The Kratos also sports a co-axial Autocannon, a pair of hull-mounted anti-infantry weapons with a choice of 2 Autocannons, Heavy Bolters, Lascannons, or Volkite Calivers -- and a separate pair of sponson weapons -- 2 Heavy Bolters, Heavy Flamers, Lascannons, or Volkite Culverins.
The Kratos Heavy Assault Tank can be upgraded to carry a pintle-mounted weapon -- a Havoc Missile Launcher, Heavy Bolter, Heavy Flamer, Multi-melta, or a Combi-weapon with five configurations (Combi-bolter, Combi-flamer, Combi-melta, Combi-plasma, or Combi-volkite) -- as well as a searchlight, a Dozer Blade, and a Hunter-Killer Missile.
Next up, we have the Jetbike.
A Jetbike is a fast and highly maneuverable vehicle that is powered by advanced anti-gravitic technology that allows it to hover above any surface while being propelled by powerful jet or rocket engines.
These sleek vehicles can be used to carry a passenger into the air above the maelstrom of battle or to carry out missions like reconnaissance or hit-and-run attacks that require a high degree of speed and mobility.
There were several different patterns of Jetbike used by the Imperium of Man over the centuries, and the most common patterns are usually armed with some type of anti-personnel weapon such as a Heavy Bolter or a set of twin-linked bolters that are synchronised to fire simultaneously. These weapons can lay down a withering hail of fire against lightly armoured targets.
In the 41st Millennium, this archaic technology is virtually extinct within the Imperium, only recently being revived by the actions of Archmagos Dominus Belisarius Cawl in the Era Indomitus, but Jetbikes are still widely employed by the Aeldari and their Drukhari kin.
Jetbikes are a nearly extinct form of archeotech that dates back to the earliest days of the Imperium of Man. During the Horus Heresy, many Space Marine Legions as well as other Imperial military forces, such as the Legio Custodes and the Sisters of Silence, also fielded Jetbikes.
These gravity-impellor assisted, jet engine-propelled hovercraft were more akin to compact aircraft than ground-based Assault Bikes and were able to maintain great speeds for extended periods of low-altitude flight. Their lift-strength was sufficient not only to carry a heavily armoured Space Marine and his wargear aloft, but also to transport a variety of heavy weapons mounts and stocks of ammunition, giving the Astartes and other Imperial personnel who used them extremely potent firepower as well as excellent maneuverability.
The Jetbike patterns in service with the Legiones Astartes were modifications of designs which considerably predated the Imperium and given the materials required to make and maintain them (such as the iridium-calicite alloys needed to fabricate the hyper-efficient anti-gravitic suspensor/repulsor plates required for flight), demand for them by the Legions always outstripped the supply provided by the Mechanicum.
The last known Jetbike pattern that was built by the Imperium was the Mark XIV Bullock Pattern Jetbike, which was equipped with an integrated auto-drive as well as other additional specialised capabilities such as auto-targeters linked to the vehicle's weapons, an auspex, and an extensive suite of sensors capable of differentiating between biological lifeforms and inorganic energy emissions.
Imperial Jetbikes were capable of both in-flight and hover modes. In combat, Imperial Jetbikes could be deployed by aerial-drop separation, a technique where a Jetbike would be dropped from a Stormbird while the aircraft was still in the sky.
These formidable and sleek grav-craft allowed their riders to soar at great speed across the battlefield, held aloft by archaic anti-gravitic technology lost to the Tech-priests of the Adeptus Mechanicus in the 41st Millennium save for a few patterns of vehicles like the Land Speeder which were manufactured according to ancient patterns of a technology the tech-priests no longer understood. Only with the opening of the Great Rift and the resurrection of Primarch Roboute Guilliman, were tech-priests like Archmagos Dominus Belisarius Cawl allowed to pursue the technological innovation that made it possible to create new anti-gravitic vehicles for the first time in millennia.
In the present of the 41st Millennium's Era Indomitus, Jetbikes are rarely, if ever, utilised by the Chapters of the Adeptus Astartes and their use is now entirely unknown to the units of the Astra Militarum. Those few Chapters that are fortunate enough to maintain some examples of this bygone technology are privileged to ride to war on ancient machines painstakingly maintained since the days of the Great Crusade.
Armed with ferocious twin-linked bolters or a Plasma Cannon, the Imperial Jetbike is feared by the Space Marines' foes. One of the last known examples of an Imperial Jetbike is maintained by the elite Ravenwing (2nd Company) of the Dark Angels Chapter, which possesses a single Venerable Jetbike which is utilised by its Grand Master Sammael. Sammael is able to launch lightning fast assaults and ride down the enemies of the Chapter from astride his ancient steed.
Next up, we have the Javelin Attack Speeder.
The Javelin Attack Speeder, also known simply as the Javelin, is an advanced pattern of anti-gravitic skimmer vehicle dating back to the 30th Millennium that is similar to the Land Speeder commonly employed in the late 41st Millennium by the Adeptus Astartes.
The Javelin is larger and more heavily armed and armoured than the more common Land Speeder. The Javelin's gravitic nullification plates, the secret of whose production and maintenance have long since been lost, allow the vehicle to mount an array of heavy weaponry more akin to that found on a heavy tank destroyer rather than a nimble skimmer.
These advanced anti-gravitic plates allow the Javelin to make pinpoint strikes on enemy armour or infantry with devastating Lascannon or missile barrages.
Armament
The Javelin is a fast attack anti-gravitic skimmer used by the Adeptus Astartes in a role similar to that of the more common Land Speeder. However, unlike the Land Speeder, the Javelin mounts heavy anti-armour weaponry that it uses to engage enemy armoured vehicles and heavy infantry.
The Javelin is armed with either a set of twin-linked Cyclone Missile Launchers or Lascannons as its main weapons. These weapons are located on the vehicle's flanks. The Javelin is also armed with a pintle-mounted Heavy Bolter that is used for close-range protection from enemy infantry.
The pintle-mounted Heavy Bolter can be replaced with either a Heavy Flamer or a Multi-Melta. The Javelin can also be outfitted with a searchlight and up to two Hunter-Killer Missile Launchers for added firepower.
Next up, we have the Cataphractii Pattern Terminator Armour.
The technology for Exo-armour was originally developed during Mankind's Dark Age of Technology. These sealed environment suits enabled maintenance crews of spacecraft to operate in extremely hazardous environments such as hard vacuum or in other adverse atmospheric conditions. During the Great Crusade era of the late 30th and early 31st Millennia, the Mechanicum was receiving a steady influx of new and rediscovered technologies from each planet brought to Imperial Compliance.
In an effort to stem the horrendous loss of Legionary lives resulting from the ferocious conquests, the Mechanicum attempted to design the "ultimate" pattern of Power Armour which would render a Space Marine virtually invulnerable. The design emerged from a hybrid of standard Legionary Power Armour, the cybernetic shell of a Dreadnought and the armoured hostile environment suits long worn by Terran engineers who worked in difficult environments like debris-plagued orbital space and the radioactive engine cores of interstellar spacecraft. Tactical Dreadnought Armour, as it was called, would turn the Astartes warrior within it into a living tank.
The eventual result of the Mechanicum's travails was only a partial success: the first suits of Terminator Armour did, as intended, afford a level of protection previously unattainable for its wearer. Like Power Armour, these suits were equipped with fibre-bundle synthetic muscles and imposed few movement restrictions upon the wearer despite their immense weight.
But they were also too bulky, and their massive weight made running difficult despite built-in auto-balancers. The suits suffered from voracious power demands and few existing armaments could be carried as the armour's sheer bulk made handling and reloading impossible. But most importantly, the sheer amounts of raw materials and manpower required to craft Terminator Armour were so great that retrofitting the whole of the existing Space Marine Legions with it was simply not feasible for the already thinly stretched logistics of the nascent Imperium of Man.
Several patterns of Terminator Armour evolved in parallel from the Forge Worlds of the Mechanicum and the armouries of the Space Marine Legions. The Mechanicum refined their concept, and developed weapons specially adapted for it, like Combi-weapons and the Reaper Autocannon. Terminator Armour was then presented in limited numbers to the crusading Legions, who quickly found a use for them.
Massively armoured, sealed against any hostile environmental conditions and incorporating their own heavy ranged or close combat armament, Terminator Armour designs soon proved their worth. Terminator Armour, with its ability to maximise the firepower and protection for a Space Marine, became standard on missions in extremely confined spaces like the corridors of a hive city, or during a boarding action on a Space Hulk where Dreadnoughts and armoured vehicles could not operate because they were too large to fit.
Anecdotal evidence of the adaptability and willingness to embrace new weapons of warfare can be found in the Warmaster Horus' vocal backing of the Tactical Dreadnought Armour project, with the result that his Luna Wolves Legion was one of the first and most widely equipped with Terminator Armour and at the forefront of the development of tactics for its use in assaults. By the time the Horus Heresy erupted and the Arch-traitor Horus first struck a blow against the Emperor during the Istvaan III Atrocity, these heavily armoured suits had become widely available to the Space Marine Legions.
Cataphractii Pattern Terminator Armour was one of the first issued Tactical Dreadnought Armour patterns. The Cataphractii suits were even more heavily protected than their contemporaries, with slab-like ceramite pauldrons housing additional shield generators. This design had the unfortunate side effect of overstraining the armour's exoskeleton and slowing the wearer dangerously. This difference led to the pattern's declining use with some Legions at the outbreak of the Horus Heresy and the shift to the use of the Indomitus Pattern most widespread among the Space Marine Chapters of the present 41st Millennium.
Next up, we have the Tartaros Pattern Terminator Armour.
Tartaros Pattern Terminator Armour was originally developed concurrently with several other patterns of Tactical Dreadnought Armour towards the closing years of the Great Crusade.
The extreme rarity of these suits means that at present, these invaluable suits of armour are reserved only for the most well-regarded Veterans of a Chapter's already highly-skilled 1st Company.
Perhaps the most advanced form of Terminator Armour ever designed, the Tartaros Pattern shares many systems with the Mark IV Maximus Pattern of power armour, and provides an incredible range of movement for its wearer compared to the Indomitus Pattern, with no loss in durability or protection.
Of the shared characteristics between the Tartaros and Maximus Pattern armours, the most obvious is the helmet, though there are other more subtle ones such as the design of the armour on the back of the Tartaros' legs or the vambrace and gauntlets.
The Tartaros Pattern also seems to share design characteristics with the Contemptor Dreadnought, most especially in the design of the torso plates. There are also characteristics inherited or derived from the venerable Cataphractii Pattern Terminator Armour, the pauldrons being the more obvious of these.
Next up, we have the Aegis Pattern Terminator Armour.
The Aegis Terminator Armour used by the Space Marines of the Grey Knights Chapter is similar to the standard Indomitus Pattern Terminator Armour, but is inscribed with a complex suite of protective prayers, runes and other wards which are psychically charged by a psychoconductive matrix to provide better protection for a Grey Knight Astartes from the sorcerous powers of Daemons and other servants of Chaos.
The only major difference between Aegis Terminator Armour and the standard Indomitus Pattern besides the extra layer of psychic protection is the suit's Crusader Helmet, which has been constructed to be very similar to that used by the ancient Mark III Iron Pattern suit of power armour to provide even more protection.
Next up, we have the Whirlwind Stalker Pattern Tank.
The Stalker, also known as the Whirlwind Stalker, is a specialised, mobile anti-air platform and variant of the Whirlwind Hunter, itself a variant of the Whirlwind Artillery Tank.
The Stalker is an adaptation of the Hunter Standard Template Construct (STC) that was unearthed by the Adeptus Mechanicus only a few standard millennia ago. Mounting a pair of independently tracking Icarus Stormcannons, the Stalker can target multiple enemy contacts, stitching the skies with a hail of armour-piercing death.
The Stalker is a relatively new addition to the armouries of the Adeptus Astartes, having only been put into production relatively recently after its STC data was rediscovered.
The Stalker is a vital part of a Space Marine Chapter's armoury and it is deployed as a rapid-firing anti-aircraft platform that is able to track and engage multiple enemy targets simultaneously.
The Stalker's front and flank armour is thicker than most other Rhino-chassis-based vehicles, allowing the Stalker to deflect or absorb more incoming enemy fire.
The Stalker's sides also feature hydraulic stabilisers that anchor the vehicle to the ground so that when it fires its anti-aircraft artillery it suffers no recoil and loss of accuracy.
Space Marine battle tanks are not permanently attached to any one company. Instead they form a vehicle pool, and individual tanks are available for deployment to Space Marine commanders as required.
Upon its creation, a Space Marine battle tank is assigned a name that reflects its role as a protector of the Chapter's brethren. From that point onwards, the vehicle is as much a part of the Chapter as the Space Marines themselves, and over the years its many deeds and victories will be celebrated as greatly as the Chapter's flesh and blood heroes.
Armament
The Stalker is an anti-air variant of the standard Astartes Whirlwind Artillery Tank. The Stalker replaces the Whirlwind's Whirlwind Multiple Missile Launcher with an Icarus Stormcannon Array. Unsubtle and devastating, the Icarus Stormcannons are a twinned array of multi-barrelled ballistic cannons that have the capacity to track multiple targets at once.
Each cannon is shackled to separate servo-minds that direct the cannon independently of each other. The weapons can fire upon separate targets, or if needed they can both fire upon the same target.
Each salvo fired from the Stormcannons fills the air with hundreds of rounds of ammunition that are capable of tearing even the greatest winged Tyranid beast or potent enemy flyer from the sky.
The Stalker can also be outfitted with Dozer Blades, Extra Armour Plating, a Hunter-Killer Missile Launcher, improved communications equipment, a Pintle-mounted Storm Bolter, a Searchlight, and Smoke Launchers.
Next up, we have the Falchion Super-Heavy Tank Destroyer.
The Falchion Super-Heavy Tank Destroyer, or simply the Falchion, was a super-heavy tank destroyer used by the Space Marine Legions, and in limited numbers by the Imperial Army and military forces of the ancient Mechanicum, during the time of the Great Crusade and the Horus Heresy in the late 30th and early 31st Millennia.
Along with its sister super-heavy tanks, the Fellblade and the Glaive, the Falchion was one of the most powerful and most feared weapons used during this time.
Armament
The Falchion was used as a super-heavy tank destroyer, and as such it lacks some of the features of the Fellblade such as a turret-mounted main gun, instead its main weapon is fixed to the vehicle's forward hull and is only capable of slight movements. The Falchion is armed with a full-sized twin-linked Volcano Cannon, a weapon that is usually mounted on Imperial Titans. This is one of the most powerful vehicle-mounted, anti-tank weapons in the Imperium's arsenal and it requires such an investment in resources to construct just a single example that its use was limited to the Legiones Astartes.
Even then, the Falchion was so rare that most Legions maintained but a handful, reserved for use against the largest of enemy war machines. The Falchion is also armed with two sets of sponson-mounted Quad-Lascannons, and could be outfitted with Smoke Launchers, Searchlights, an auxiliary drive system, Extra Armour Plating, and a Hunter-Killer Missile Launcher. The vehicle was normally crewed by experienced Legion Serfs, however they could be replaced with superior Astartes crewmen if needed.
Next up, we have the Glaive Super-Heavy Special Weapons Tank.
The Glaive, also known as the Fellglaive, the Legion Glaive or the Glaive Super-Heavy Special Weapons Tank, was a variant of the highly-advanced Fellblade super-heavy battle tank fielded by the Space Marine Legions during the Great Crusade of the late 30th Millennium and later during the Horus Heresy and Great Scouring in the early 31st Millennium.
The Glaive was designed by the ancient Mechanicum as a special weapons vehicle that makes use of the Volkite Carronade, one of the largest known Volkite Weapons ever used by the Imperium. This massive weapon was designed to destroy xenos beasts and incinerate enemy light vehicles in a single fell sweep.
During the Great Crusade the Glaive was issued to all eighteen of the Legiones Astartes in limited quantities, with several of the Legions, most notably the Dark Angels and the Salamanders, having long fielded Glaives as a matter of course. It is known that by the time of the 41st Millennium, only the Dark Angels and Salamanders Chapters are still able to field these ancient engines of war, the former due to their traditional seniority and honour as the successors of the Ist Legion and the latter due to their possession of highly-skilled artificers who are still able to maintain and replicate the ancient and arcane technology used by the Glaive.
It is not known whether any other Loyalist Chapters or Chaos Space Marine warbands are still able to field these ancient relics of destruction.
Armament
The Glaive's main armament consists of a turret-mounted Volkite Carronade, a massive Volkite Weapon that is capable of destroying enemy vehicles in a single shot. Volkite Weapons produce a deflagrating attack, in which subsonic combustion caused by a beam of thermal energy is propagated through the target by thermodynamic heat transfer, so that hot burning material heats the next layer of cold material and ignites it. The Volkite Carronade used by the Glaive was able to make short work of all but the most heavily armoured enemy vehicles and structures.
The Glaive was also armed with other secondary weapons systems, including sponson-mounted Quad-Lascannons and hull-mounted twin-linked Heavy Bolters or twin-linked Heavy Flamers. The sponson weapons could also be replaced with a set of Laser Destroyer Arrays.
The Glaive was also usually outfitted with both Smoke Launchers and a searchlight, but could be equipped with a Hunter-Killer Missile Launcher and Armoured Ceramite Plating when necessary.
Next up, we have the storm and combi bolter types.
The Storm Bolter is a double-barrelled version of the standard .75 calibre bolter. As it is heavier and causes more recoil than a normal bolter, it is even more rarely used than the bolter by the regiments of the Astra Militarum.
Instead, Storm Bolters are the standard weapons employed by Space Marine Terminators or as a pintle-mounted weapon on an Imperial main battle tank.
Storm Bolters are also used by the Astartes of the Grey Knights Chapter as a gauntlet-mounted weapon with its feed located on the rear of their armour.
The Storm Bolter also sees limited use amongst the Orders Militant of the Adepta Sororitas, where it is considered a specialist weapon, and favoured by those squads of Dominions, the Sororitas' heavy-weapons troops, who prefer to engage in mid-range, anti-infantry combat.
Due to its high munitions consumption, and the lack of dexterity available to the wearer of Terminator Armour, most Storm Bolters are fed from a large box magazine, carrying approximately 100 bolts. These bolts are identical to those fired from Bolt Pistols and bolters.
Before the Storm Bolter was created by the Tech-priests of the Adeptus Mechanicus after the end of the Horus Heresy, Terminators were often equipped with two separate bolters outfitted with advanced targeting equipment and restricted firing rates to allow them to operate in tandem.
These were called "Combi-Bolters" and they were less effective than the first true Storm Bolter design. They are now only used by the Chaos Space Marines of the Traitor Legions, many of whom still have access only to the pre-Heresy technology.
Next up, we have the Psychannon.
The Psycannon is a weapon created specifically by the Imperium to combat daemons and the other entities of the Immaterium. The Psycannon is a more powerful version of the Bolter, equivalent to a Heavy Bolter utilising high-calibre, psychically-charged, ritually-inscribed silver-tipped bolts.
The weapon's bolt, called a "psybolt," is devastating to the psyches and material bodies of psychic creatures, such as psykers, daemons, and Daemonhosts, those individuals who have been possessed by the daemonic entities of the Warp.
The negative psychic charge and anti-daemonic ritual inscription on every Psycannon bolt allows them to pass through any defensive shielding, whether it is created by direct psychic energies or generated by manipulation of the Warp, technology employed by Void Shields or Conversion Fields.
The weapon has an anti-gravitic suspensor incorporated into its mechanism to offset the weight and this allows it to be fired on the move although at the cost of a reduced effective range.
The Psycannon is a weapon exclusively used by the agents of the Ordo Malleus of the Inquisition and its Chamber Militant, the Grey Knights Chapter of Space Marines.
There are a few notable exceptions to this general rule, such as the Inquisitor Gideon Ravenor of the Ordo Xenos, whose armoured grav chair was fitted with a pair of such weapons.
The Psycannon is generally wielded with both hands by the Grey Knights who are assisted in making use of it through the efforts of their Power Armour. It is used with two hands by most other operators as well, although members of the Grey Knights' Terminator Squads mount the Psycannons on their arm instead.
The method of feeding ammunition is similar to that of the Heavy Bolter used by the Space Marines, which uses an ammunition belt running from the ammunition store located within the operators' armoured backpack.
The Psycannon can also be used in conjunction with a device called a Mind Impulse Unit. The Psycannon is linked to the mind of the user and is fired by his or her mental volition.
This has the advantage of allowing the user to fire the weapon while keeping both hands free, and allowing the user a greater intimacy with his weapon's internal workings, such as its current amount of remaining ammunition or its barrel temperature.
Also, if the user is a psyker, they can infuse their own power into the weapon, adding to its already devastating effect. This is a common technique used by the Grey Knights, the only Astartes Chapter comprised entirely of psykers.
High-ranking members of the Ordo Malleus may use Bolt Pistols and standard Bolters which fire down-sized versions of the Psycannon's ammunition.
These psybolts are less effective than the standard Psycannon's bolts, but more powerful than the same-sized bolts of a non-psychically charged weapon.
Next up, we have the Frag Cannon.
The Frag Cannon is a heavy Imperial anti-infantry ballistic weapon that produces explosive blasts of armour-piercing shrapnel. It is used in both a man-portable format by the Space Marines of the Deathwatch and as a primary weapon on the Furioso Dreadnought deployed by the Blood Angels Chapter and their Successors. The Frag Cannon is a short-ranged, indiscriminate weapon, somewhat capricious in nature since the shrapnel it produces can be stopped by light armoured vehicles, while simultaneously being able to rip through Power Armour.
Next up, we have the Ravenwing Grenade Launcher.
A Ravenwing Grenade Launcher is a specially customised Grenade Launcher commonly utilised by the elite Ravenwing Black Knights of the Dark Angels Chapter's 2nd Company, commonly called theRavenwing. Ravenwing Black Knights employ Grenade Launchers adapted to fire even at the high speeds at which they race across the battlefield upon their Mark IV Raven Pattern Assault Bikes. These Grenade Launchers can also fire specialised shells utilising ancient technologies in addition to the standard Krak and Frag Grenades. Rad Shells spread contaminated, radioactive fragments that have a toxic and debilitating effect on a foe, while Stasis Shells are impregnated with an ancient and now poorly understood technology that when detonated, momentarily freezes the flow the space-time continuum, causing the reaction times of any enemies nearby to be dramatically slowed if they are caught in the area of effect.
Next up, we have the Stasis Grenade.
A Stasis Grenade is an unusual Imperial weapon that can create a stasis field effect. Developed by the Adeptus Mechanicus, Stasis Grenades are extremely rare and expensive to acquire. This and their specialised nature means their issue is limited to only special agents of the Imperium rather than common soldiers of the Astra Militarum or even the Adeptus Astartes.
On activation, the grenade emits a stasis-loop field around itself. Everything within the field exists in the same moment of space-time repeated over and over. Eventually the grenade's power source is expended and the field collapses. As the grenade's power source is small, the stasis field caused by an activated Stasis Grenade does not normally last for a long period of objective time, though the duration is long enough to cause a significant amount of battlefield disruption for those caught within the projected stasis field.
Since they are rather bulky and possess delicate internal mechanisms, it is not possible to fire a Stasis Grenade from a Grenade Launcher. Instead, they are typically deployed in a manner similar to Melta Bombs.
Next up, we have the Stasis Bomb.
The Stasis Bomb is a deadly archaic weapon only utilised by the Dark Angels Space Marine Chapter and the Successor Chapters of the Unforgiven.
The Stasis Bomb is an archaic holdover from the Age of Technology, and is deployed by the deadly and much feared aircraft known as the Ravenwing Dark Talon that is a part of the armoury of the Dark Angels' elite 2nd Company, known as the Ravenwing.
In the workshops of The Rock, the Chapter's Techmarines labour lovingly over the construction of each bomb, using a STC template dating back to before the founding of the Imperium of Man that they have repeatedly denied owning to the Adeptus Mechanicus.
The blast of a Stasis Bomb causes a degree of damage but, more importantly, will momentarily halt the flow of time.
While the actual suspension of the normal flow of the space-time continuum is measured in mere milliseconds, this unnatural disruption to the time stream has lingering effects on those in close proximity to such a blast, causing gut-wrenching disorientation and slowing their reaction times.
The victims of a Stasis Bomb attack are then ripe to be finished off by nearby Astartes squads; typically Ravenwing Attack Squadrons or Deathwing Terminators.
Next up, we have the Vortex Grenade.
The Vortex Grenade is an extremely rare and advanced type of specialised grenade used by a few, select individuals in the Warhammer 40,000 universe. The grenade opens a "hole" to the Warp in realspace, which destroys any troops caught in its area of effect.
The Vortex Grenade is also an unpredictable weapon because it not only destroys anything that it comes into contact with, but also that the Warp vortex it creates drifts randomly after activation, slaying friend and foe alike.
Vortex Grenades, as a result of the ancient arcane technology used in them, are very difficult to produce, as might be imagined. Only the most specialised and advanced Adeptus Mechanicus Forge Worlds still retain the technical knowledge required to manufacture them.
As a result, these unpredictable weapons are only made available to the most high-ranking of Imperial servants, such as the senior officers of Space Marine Chapters, agents of the Officio Assassinorum and Inquisitors.
Tactical Role
The Vortex Grenade takes the form of a weighty sphere, approximately the size of a man's fist, which consists of an outer shell which encases a delicate and temperamental Warp field generation mechanism. The designs of the device date back to the Age of Technology.
When the grenade is activated, it creates a tiny rift between realspace and the Warp, a rift that becomes a vortex in the very fabric of space-time. In appearance the vortex is a ball of glowing blackness like a small black hole. Everyone and everything encompassed by the vortex is destroyed; all matter and energy present is drawn through the vortex and consumed by the psychic energy of the Empyrean.
Warp vortices are incredibly dangerous, as once they are created they behave in an unpredictable and uncontrollable manner. They may shrink, expand, vanish, remain for long periods of time, move or even divide. For this reason, Vortex Grenades can prove as deadly to their user as to their intended target.
Next up, we have the Rad Grenade.
A Rad Grenade is a potent and dangerous radioactive anti-personnel weapon used by the military forces of the Imperium of Man.
Rad Grenades detonate in a shower of tiny, radioactively-contaminated fragments. Each fragment's ionising radioactive emissions have only a millisecond half-life, ensuring that the wielder can charge in without exposing themself to radioactive contamination.
Nevertheless, those enemies caught in the initial blast will feel the Rad Grenade's debilitating influence for some time afterwards as they suffer the horrific effects of lethal radiation sickness.
This makes the victims of the Rad Grenade a burden upon their comrades if they manage to survive the initial explosion of the grenade.
Rad Grenades have been used by Inquisitors of the Ordo Xenos and their Acolytes, by the Space Marines, and the Grey Knights.
Next up, we have the Grav Pistol.
A Grav-pistol, also called a Graviton Pistol, is the hand-held pistol version of a Grav-weapon employed by the Adeptus Astartes. Its effect is not quite as powerful as that of its larger counterparts, but it can still do enormous damage to targets possessed of a large mass. Grav-weapons are devastating graviton-based weapons employed by the Adeptus Astartes based on ancient and forgotten technology dating back to the time of the Dark Age of Technology. Manipulating the very nature of gravity itself, Grav-weaponry turns a target's mass against it, crushing it to pulp under its own weight. This is especially shocking when used against heavily armoured infantry like Terminators, as the hapless warrior is brutally crushed by the bulk of their ceramite plates until only a crimson trickle remains. Space Marine Chapters are among the few warriors of the Imperium to be gifted with the use of Grav-weaponry, and it is considered a sacred honour to wield such a potent weapon.
All Grav-weaponry fires a stream of graviton particles which affects the local gravitational field of a target area, making the targeted object either far heavier or lighter depending on the weapon's setting. The Grav-weapon also creates a bass rumble as the waves affect the local air pressure, causing the air to vibrate. The effect is generally non-lethal and can be used to incapacitate foes who need to be captured alive, but the power of the Grav-weapon's highest settings is sufficient to rupture organs and crack bones even inside armour. Some living targets will be affected more variably; a very large creature may be killed under excessive weight, but most targets will either be slowed or completely immobilised. A Grav-weapon is very useful when fighting in a voidship or a null-gravity environment, as well as during demolition and siege work. This is because it is particularly effective against massive objects such as bunkers or fortifications, where the building's great mass can be used against it, causing it to collapse.
Next up, we have the Grav-Gun.
Grav-Gun, also known as a Graviton Gun, is a devastating weapon employed by the Adeptus Astartes based on ancient and forgotten technology dating back to the time of the Dark Age of Technology. Manipulating the very nature of gravity itself, a Grav-Gun turns a target's mass against it, crushing it to pulp under its own weight. This is especially shocking when used against heavily-armoured infantry like Terminators, as the hapless warrior is brutally crushed by the bulk of his ceramite plates until only a crimson trickle remains. Space Marine Chapters are among the few warriors of the Imperium to be gifted with the use of Grav-Guns, and it is considered a sacred honour to be able to wield such a potent weapon.
Next up, we have the Grav-Cannon.
A Grav-cannon, also called a Graviton Cannon, is a large, vehicle-mounted type of Grav-weapon used by the Adeptus Astartes. The power of the Grav-cannon is sufficient to rupture organs and crack bones even inside armour, but its primary use is to counter enemy machinery without the risk of secondary explosions. Grav-cannons have been seen mounted on Rapiers and Centurion heavy infantry. Graviton Weapons like the Grav-cannon are devastating graviton-based weapons employed by the Adeptus Astartes based on ancient and forgotten technology dating back to the time of the Dark Age of Technology. Manipulating the very nature of gravity itself, Grav-weaponry turns a target's mass against it, crushing it to pulp under its own weight. This is especially shocking when used against heavily armoured infantry like Terminators, as the hapless warrior is brutally crushed by the bulk of their ceramite plates until only a crimson trickle remains. Space Marine Chapters are among the few warriors of the Imperium to be gifted with the use of Grav-weaponry, and it is considered a sacred honour to wield such a potent weapon.
Next up, we have the Combi-Grav.
This relatively rare Combi-weapon variant incorporates a single-shot Grav-Gun, allowing the wielder a potent graviton attack when the fighting is fiercest without sacrificing the formidable wrath of the standard Astartes bolter. The Combi-grav incorporates a standard Astartes bolter with a Grav-Gun as the secondary weapon.
Next up, we have the combined types of Bolter ammunition.
Hellfire Rounds
Hellfire Rounds have devastating results on organic matter, as the rounds were developed to combat the Tyranids. The core and tip are replaced with a vial of mutagenic acid with thousands of needles that fire into the target upon the shattering of the vial, pumping the acid into the foe.
Hellfire Rounds house a crystalline reservoir of tailored bio-corrosives that douse their targets in voracious bio-acids that are particularly good at dissolving Tyranid chitin and other xenos from the inside out.
They were originally developed to be fired as single specialised rounds by a Heavy Bolter with an area of effect, but have also been downsized for standard calibre bolters, where they function as direct-impact penetrators instead.
Stalker Silenced Rounds
Stalker Silenced Shells are Bolter Rounds that possess low sound signatures, intended to be used for covert combat and sniping. These rounds are best used in conjunction with an M40 Targeting System and an extended barrel on a Stalker-pattern Bolter, to produce an effective sniping weapon system.
A solidified mercury slug replaces the mass-reactive warhead for lethality at subsonic projectile speeds. A gas cartridge also replaces both the propellant base and main charge for silent firing.
Inferno Bolt Rounds
Inferno Bolts are designed to immolate their targets and destroy them with superheated chemical fire. The dense core of the standard bolt is replaced with an oxy-phosphorous gel, derived from promethium.
It should be noted that despite having the same name, Imperial Inferno Bolt rounds are unrelated to the Inferno Bolts used by the Chaos Space Marines of the Thousand Sons Traitor Legion, which are actually psychically-bound slugs that release arcane energies upon impact. These energies react explosively with a living target, but not against psychic Blanks or inanimate objects.
Ulysses Bolts
Ulysses Bolts are bolts which contain a tracking device. Fired into large objects, this type of bolt will accurately report the target's relative position to a hand-held tracking device.
Metal Storm Frag Rounds
Metal Storm Frag Rounds are best used against multiple lightly-armoured targets. They detonate before impact and spray shrapnel, shredding their victims.
A proximity detonator replaces the mass-reactive cap of the bolt, and the diamantine tip and dense metallic core are replaced with an increased charge and fragmentation casing. They are similar to flak rounds and are used against large clusters of enemies.
Kraken Pattern Penetrator Rounds
Kraken Penetrator Rounds, also called Kraken Bolts, are powerful armour-piercing rounds. The dense metallic core is replaced by a solid adamantium core and uses a heavier main detonator charge.
Kraken Bolts utilise their adamantium core to provide them with additional weight and stopping power and also possess an improved propellant to penetrate the thickest xenos hides.
Upon impact, the outer casing peels away and the high velocity adamantium needle accelerates into the victim, where the larger detonator propels shards of super hardened metal further into the wound. These rounds are effective against heavily-armoured infantry, xenos monstrosities and lightly-armoured vehicles.
The main charge is increased to enable a larger explosion.
The standard dense metallic core is replaced by a core of pure adamantium to optimise the penetration of reinforced armour.
Psybolts
Psybolts are used by the Inquisition, primarily the Ordo Malleus and the daemon-hunting Space Marines of the Grey Knights.
Psybolts are psychically-charged, ritually-inscribed silver-tipped bolts fired by the weapon known as a Psycannon. The negative psychic charge and anti-daemonic ritual inscription on every Psycannon bolt allows them to pass through any defensive shielding, whether it is created by direct psychic energies or generated by manipulation of the Warp, technology employed by Void Shields or Conversion Fields.
Bolt Pistols and standard Bolters can also fire down-sized versions of the Psycannon's ammunition. These psybolts are less effective than the standard Psycannon's bolts, but more powerful than the same-sized bolts of a non-psychically charged weapon.
When fired, each bolt can be imbued with a portion of a Grey Knight's innate psychic power, causing it to glow with an eerie blue light and strike home with significantly greater force than an ordinary bolt of its type.
Psybolts are difficult to produce and incredibly wearing on a Bolter's inner mechanisms.
But psybolts provide the Grey Knights with a relatively straightforward method of enhancing the power of standard pattern weaponry without resorting to the need to extensively retrofit the weapon itself.
Banestrike Bolt Rounds
These mysterious variant bolt shells, believed to have been designed in secret within the armouries of the Alpha Legion long before the outbreak of the Horus Heresy, had it seems a sole purpose; to breach the Ceramite Power Armour of Space Marines.
Used openly for the first time at the Drop Site Massacre on Istvaan V in 006.M31, their dense explosive cores and firing stresses reduced their range and swiftly degraded the firing weapon, but their effect against the betrayed Loyalist Legions were devastating.
Fortunately for the Loyalists, supplies of these difficult to manufacture munitions were limited, and only the Alpha Legion and the Sons of Horus were able to field them in substantial numbers beyond that incident of brutal treachery during the Heresy. These shells were primarily utilised by the Legion Seeker Squads of the Alpha Legion or the Reaver Attack Squads of the Sons of Horus.
Bloodshard Bolt Rounds
Bloodshard Shells are large, bolt-shaped shells intended to be fired only by the Angelus Pattern Bolter used by the Sanguinary Guard of the Blood Angels Chapter and their Successor Chapters. Each Bloodshard contains a payload of razor-filament that can shred most known forms of armour upon impact.
Dragonfire Bolt Rounds
Dragonfire Bolts are hollow-shelled bolts used by Sternguard Veterans and the Deathwatch that unleash a gout of superheated, volatile gas that explodes moments later.
Dragonfire Bolts are highly pressurised hollow shells that contain a violently combustible, super-heated gas that explode to saturate foes in cover. Designed to detonate in pyrotechnic air bursts, these bolts make a mockery of cover and slaughter large masses of lightly armoured foes en masse.
The use of Dragonfire Bolts can eliminate the value of cover for enemy troops as any targets struck receive full damage even when partially protected by cover.
Scorpius Bolts
During the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy eras of the late 30th and early 31st Millennia, Scorpius Bolts were individually hand-crafted by the Techmarines of a Space Marine Legion's armoury.
These specialised shells utilised a two-stage warhead which contained a micro-guidance system and a needle-like sabot dart which vaporised when striking an armoured target, providing enhanced armour penetration effects.
Scorpius Bolts were rare and temperamental munitions which were hand loaded into a Bolter for firing.
Seeker Bolts
Seeker Bolts are unique, hand-crafted rounds created by Chaplain Boreas of the Dark Angels Chapter. Each bolt contains a miniaturised Cogitator that detects the infrared heat signature of a target and then steers the bolt unerringly towards it.
Shrapnel Bolts
Shrapnel Bolts were modified Heavy Bolter rounds utilised exclusively by the Iron Warriors Legion during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy eras. This speciality ammunition was utilised as a potent anti-personnel weapon and is believed to be the precursor to the Metal Storm Frag Rounds (see above) developed in later millennia.
The mass-reactive cap and diamantine tip of Shrapnel Bolts are replaced with a blunt percussive trigger plate, and the dense metallic core is substituted with an additional explosive flechette cluster. The trigger plate in the tip caused the bolt to explode on impact, spraying the target and nearby area with a directed blast of shrapnel from the flechette cluster.
This ammunition was available as an option for all units in the Iron Warriors Legion equipped with Heavy Bolters, twin-linked Heavy Bolters or Quad Heavy Bolters.
Tempest Bolts
Seething with barely-constrained voltaic wrath, Tempest Bolts detonate in a crackle of coruscating electrical energy that worms its way into every delicate system of enemy war engines.
These heavier rounds, however, lack range compared to standard bolt shells. Produced only on Mars, Tempest Bolts were designed to be particularly effective at incapacitating machines and other electronic devices.
Such bolts are highly effective against targets like combat robots and cyborgs whose bodies are now more machine than organic tissue.
Vengeance Rounds
As their name suggests, Vengeance Rounds were developed for use against the Heretic Astartes of the Traitor Legions. Vengeance Rounds employ unstable flux core technology that makes them hazardous to use, but incredibly effective against heavily armoured targets, whether Chaos Space Marines or xenos alike.
They are equivalent to the ancient Banestrike rounds developed and utilised by the Alpha Legion against the Loyalist Space Marine Legions during the Drop Site Massacre on Isstvan V.
Antiphasic Shells
Utilised by Deathwatch Kill-teams, these precious rounds were developed using an unknown technology to help prevent Necrons from "phasing out" and returning to their Tomb complexes. In this way Imperial forces can ensure that even their undying foes stay dead.
Implosion Rounds
The result of early experiments with alternative krak technology, an implosion shell replaces its explosive core with an infinitesimally small amount of antimatter; this creates a violently decompressing vacuum when exposed to matter.
Like the standard bolt shell, these rounds activate via their mass-reactive core, meaning they embed partially in their target before the implosion takes effect. The round's force is therefore not directed at cracking open armour, but to collapsing the unfortunate victim's body from the inside out -- enough to debilitate even a Space Marine.
Witch Bolts
Based on a Black Templars design, these bolts release a small core of neuro-inhibitors laced with Warp-reductive compounds that disrupt a creature's connection to the Warp and can prove to be a potent weapon against psychic opponents.
Hyperfrag Rounds
Hyperfrag rounds are used only in the Mark III Shrike Pattern Bolt Sniper Rifle used by Eliminator Squads. Hyperfrag rounds detonate in a shower of shrapnel, sending out a cloud of lacerating shards that devastates closely-packed infantry.
Executioner Rounds
Executioner rounds are used only in the Mark III Shrike Pattern Sniper Bolt Rifle used by Eliminator Squads.
Executioner rounds are sophisticated self-guiding missiles slaved to a miniaturised cogitator that can seek their target behind cover, even changing direction mid-flight with tiny bursts of ballistic propellant.
Mortis Bolts
Mortis bolts are used only in the Mark III Shrike Pattern Bolt Sniper Rifle used by Eliminator Squads. Mortis bolts spew self-replicating mutagenic toxins into the flesh of the target, causing the rapid and complete collapse of all vital biological systems while making for a horrifying spectacle in the bargain.
Derevenant Shells
Developed by Deathwatch survivors from Fort Volossia, these bolts contain a cyclic temporal core found to disrupt Necron reanimation long enough for their remains to vanish entirely, removing them from the fight.
Helspears Rounds
Many are the entities -- xenos and otherwise -- that hide behind the Warp's corrupting power. Sheathed in a proscribed material, these bolts can pierce their hellish psychic defences.
Thermic Pentrator Rounds
Supplemented by thermic acceleration, these bolts are released at hyper-velocities that result in near-instant hits, increasing their accuracy and armour-penetration capabilities.
Inertial Fusion Bolts
A series of micro vacuum wells collapse on detonation of this bolt. Like a crushing fist, they violently implode and cause horrendous, gaping craters in whatever they penetrate. This is particularly useful against xenos who possess regenerative capabilities or of a particularly large size.
Next up, we have the Combi-Bolter.
Combi-Bolter (Twin-linked Bolter)
Similar to the Storm Bolter, the Twin-linked bolter or Combi-bolter is simply two standard bolters that have been mechanically combined into a single weapon, rather than having been constructed that way in the first place like a Storm Bolter.
The Combi-bolter was much more common during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy eras than at present in the Imperium and Chaos Space Marine Attack Bikes and Chaos Terminators are still often equipped with the older and less efficient Combi-bolter, though the Storm Bolter has replaced it in standard Imperial usage.
Next up, we have the Combi-Flamer.
Combi-Flamer
A standard bolter with a flamer attached to the side, useful for close combat in an anti-infantry role.
Next up, we have the combi-Grenade Launcher.
Combi-Grenade Launcher
A standard bolter with an underslung Grenade Launcher that is most useful for assaulting or defending against a large group of foes.
Next up, we have the Combi-Melta.
Combi-Melta
A standard bolter with a Meltagun attached to its side, used as an anti-armour weapon.
Next up, we have the Combi-Plasma.
Combi-plasma
A standard bolter with a Plasma Gun attached that is useful for a variety of tactical necessities.
Next up, we have the Combi-Volkite.
Combi-volkite
A Combi-volkite is a Volkite Charger integrated with a standard Astartes bolter as the secondary weapon. This extremely rare Combi-weapon was only wielded during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy eras by Space Marine Legion officers of the rank of praetor.
Next up, we have the Infernus Heavy Bolter.
An Infernus Heavy Bolter is a specialty weapon developed for use by the alien-hunting Deathwatch Chapter of the Adeptus Astartes.
Standard Heavy Bolters fire huge, mass-reactive bolts, each more comparable to an explosive shell than a bullet. The Deathwatch mag-clamps rare anti-gravitic suspensor discs onto their Infernus Heavy Bolters that reduce the weapon's effective weight considerably. Such weapons are further bolstered by underslung Heavy Flamers that can incinerate those enemies that make it through the hail of explosive bolts.
Next up, we have the Melta-Bomb.
A Melta Bomb is a type of explosive device that makes use of Melta technology to unleash potent blasts of thermal energy and is employed by bothImperial and Aeldari military forces. Typical examples have dimensions analogous to that of a Imperial or Aeldari grenade, but can be manufactured larger with a resulting increase in explosive force. When activated, a Melta Bomb explodes with an intense blast of thermal energy, literally "melting" the target away.
A Melta Bomb works by inducing a minute, uncontrolled, sub-molecular reaction within a highly-pressurised pyrum-petrol fuel mix located within an metallic casing, which rapidly reaches a critical stage and unleashes a blast of incredible heat.
Like all Melta Weapons, Melta Bombs are especially useful to breach voidships' hulls and heavily armoured vehicles and fortified emplacements. Melta bombs are used by magnetically attaching them to a wall, hull, or bulkhead where they emit a furious, high-intensity melta beam when they detonate that instantly cuts through even the thickest armour.
While they are not designed to serve as anti-personnel mines, anyone unfortunate enough to be on the other side of a surface that a Melta Bomb is attached to will still take possibly mortal wounds from the searing heat as the unleashed Melta beam blasts through into the room or compartment. Melta Bombs come with an integral timer that can be set for one Terran hour.
Next up, we have the Conversion Beamer types.
The Conversion Beamer, also called a Conversion Beam Projector, is an incredibly rare and deadly antimatter-based pre-Horus Heresy archeotech weapon most likely developed during the Age of Technology. It fires a directed energy beam of antimatter particles which cause a matter-antimatter explosion in its target. It is a powerful, long-ranged weapon whose beam intensity actually becomes stronger the farther the range to its target, up to a terminal distance point where the beam finally begins to lose coherence.
In the 41st Millennium, a Conversion Beamer as a man-portable weapon is usually only wielded by a Space Marine Chapter's Master of the Forge or, in rare cases, agents of the Inquisition or the Adeptus Mechanicus. Upscaled versions of the weapon with greater terminal range and damage output are used by Imperial Dreadnoughts, Knights and Titans.
Next up, we have the Conversion Beam Cannon.
The Conversion Beam Cannon is a much larger and more powerful relic version of the Conversion Beamer that was deployed as the primary weapon of the massive Acastus Knight Asterius during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy eras.
The Asterius was armed with two twin-linked versions of this weapon. They were used for long-ranged firepower and were particularly suited to destroying fortifications.
Next up, we have the Heavy Conversion Beamer.
The Heavy Conversion Beamer is an ancient relic-weapon of incredible and poorly-understood power that only the advanced systems of the Horus Heresy-era relic Contemptor Dreadnought or a relic Deimos Predator Executioner can hope to accurately direct and control.
As the Heavy Conversion Beamer is a scaled-up version of the standard Conversion Beamer, its beam can affect a wider area, possesses a longer range and can do more damage.
Next up, we have the Balefire Gun.
Balefire Gun - Brutally effective against Orks and other xenos with natural regenerative capabilities, this Flamer uses highly refined Promethium fuel mixed with a number of radioactive compounds to both burn and irradiate foes. Only rarely deployed due to the collateral environmental damage it causes, Balefire Guns are used solely by the Deathwatch to cleanse particularly resilient xenos. They are particularly effective in controlling and eradicating Ork infestations.
Next up, we have the Incinerator.
Incinerator - Utilised by the mysterious and highly secretive Grey Knights Chapter, the Chamber Militant of the Inquisition's Ordo Malleus, Incinerators are actually Heavy Flamers that use a psychically impregnated form of Promethium that burns hotter and more fiercely and is particularly damaging to daemons. These weapons are fuelled by the purest consecrated Prometheum, and, like Psycannons, are useful against Warp entities. These weapons are among the most effective in the imperial arsenal, as they are capable of forgoing the enemy's heretical armour, their cowardly cover, and their Warp-spawned magics.
Next up, we have the Pyroclast Flame Projector.
Pyroclast Flame Projector - These unique and complex flame weapons were wielded during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy eras by specialist warriors of the Salamanders Legion known as Pyroclasts. They were a type of design created by the Primarch Vulkan himself, and were both more elegant and far more potent than the standard Flamer wielded by the other Space Marine Legions. These weapons could be used to incinerate a swathe of targets in the manner of a standard Flamer, but could also focus their jet into searing cutting flames, difficult to aim, but able to slice through the most durable armour.
Next up, we have the Astartes Incinerator
Astartes Incinerator - Utilised by the mysterious Grey Knights Chapter, the Chamber Militant of the Inquisition's Ordo Malleus, Incinerators are actually Heavy Flamers that use a psychically impregnated form of Promethium that burns hotter and more fiercely, and is particularly damaging to Daemons. These weapons are fueled by the purest consecrated Promethium, and, like Psycannons, are useful against Warp entities. These weapons are among the most effective in the Imperial arsenal, and are capable of forgoing the enemy's heretical armour, their cowardly cover, and their Warp-spawned magics.
Next up, we have the Nemesis Daemonhammer.
The most common Nemesis Force Weapon to be used by non-Grey Knights, the Nemesis Daemonhammer is often used by high-ranking Inquisitors of the Ordo Malleus.
The Nemesis Daemonhammer combines the crushing impact of a more traditional Thunder Hammer and magics of destruction -- few entities of the Warp can survive the impact of a Nemesis Daemonhammer.
This weapon was developed by the Ordo Malleus as the ultimate weapon in daemonic destruction.
Next up, we have the Nemesis Doomfist.
A variant of the Astartes Power Fists found on Dreadnoughts, the Nemesis Doomfist is a massive weapon augmented by Nemesis psychic projection circuitry, easily able to crush a man in its grip.
Nemesis Doomfists are only found as part of the Dreadknight battle suit. Those struck by a Nemesis Doomfist swiftly discover that though the occupant of a Dreadnought may be crippled in body, his psychic might is as formidable as ever.
Next up, we have the Nemesis Falchions.
Wielded as a pair, Nemesis Falchions resemble shorter versions of a Nemesis Force Sword, with a much smaller hook-ended blade. Nemesis Falchions can be carried by a Grey Knight with a Storm Bolter thanks to the Storm Bolter's wrist mounting.
When the weapon's monofilament Nemesis circuitry is triggered, a Grey Knight can wield these blades with incredible speed, striking multiple blows in the time it would normally take for only one to fall.
Next up, we have the Nemesis Force Halberd.
As ancient in design and purpose as the Grey Knights themselves, Nemesis Force Halberds are finely crafted polearms with long, curved blades and sturdy hafts. A Nemesis Force Halberd comprises an iron and silver blade set atop a long adamantium haft.
This extra reach is invaluable to a Grey Knight, often allowing him to land a telling blow before he is within reach of the enemy's own melee weapons. A Grey Knight can easily use such a weapon one-handed in short deadly chops. However the weapon becomes even more dangerous should he wield it two-handed.
Next up, we have the Nemesis Force Sword.
The most common type of Nemesis weapon, the Nemesis Force Sword exemplifies an amalgamation of sorcery and science. A lighter version of the force halberd, a force sword can take many forms. Force swords are crafted using arcane magicks and complex scientific formulae and incorporates a power field like all Nemesis Force Weapons.
The blade is tempered iron, flecked with shards of silver and inset with ancient runes of Daemon-slaying.
In contrast to these primitive materials, the haft and hilt of the sword contain advanced Nemesis power field generators. The balanced grips and nearly indestructible construction of these weapons makes them perfect for parrying the attacks of even the most powerful daemonic foe.
Next up, we have the Nemesis Greatsword.
Wielded only by the formidable Nemesis Dreadknights, the colossal, Dreadnought-sized Nemesis Greatsword consists of a massive blade of silver and iron so large that not even an Adeptus Astartes in power armour can lift it. Despite its immense size, it is perfectly balanced in the hands of a Dreadknight, and is a powerful tool against even a Greater Daemon.
Next up, we have the Nemesis Warding Stave.
A Nemesis Warding Stave's abilities are defensive, rather than aggressive. Designed as a defensive tool, the Nemesis Warding Stave can be used in melee combat to protect a bearer from attacks that would breach even the armour of a Terminator.
The hollowed-out haft of the stave contains several Refractor Field generators, which the wielder can prime with a charge of psychic energy. Thus activated, the stave projects a zone of protective force similar to a Conversion Field around its wielder, granting him enhanced resilience against his enemies' attacks.
Next up, we have the Nemesis Daemon Greathammer.
A massive version of the Nemesis Daemon Hammer used by Dreadknights.
Next up, we have the Nemesis Doomglaive.
This weapon resembles the huge sword psychically attuned to one arm of the Mk IV Dreadnought. It is one of the weapon of the Doomglaive Pattern Dreadnoughts of the Grey Knights. It is a best weapon to confront large hordes of enemies, its cunningly articulated mount and long blade proved to make a devastating scything strikes.
Next up, we have the Psilencer.
A Psilencer is a type of psychic ranged weapon of xenos origin employed by the Grey Knights Chapter of elite Space Marines. A Psilencer fires nothing less than the focused and amplified psychic might of its own wielder.
The Psilencer does not have a triggering mechanism as such -- it is activated when the Grey Knight sends a bolt of psychic force into the weapon's containment core.
The resultant energy pulse is then channelled by a series of focusing crystals into a refined, directed energy beam of irresistible azure force that has a particular propensity for destabilising a Daemon's physical form.
It is unknown how the Psilencer came to become part of the Grey Knights' arsenal. The technology is surely of alien origin, for it is unlike almost anything else that can be found in the armouries of the Imperium.
It is unknown whether the psilencer was constructed from technology stolen, or technology given freely to the Chapter. The Grey Knights remain silent on this matter.
Next up, we have the Gatling Psilencer.
A Gatling Psilencer is a more powerful version of the standard Psilencer that is able to fire a series of psychic bolts of directed energy in rapid succession.
Next up, we have the Inferno Pistol.
An Inferno Pistol, also called an Infernus Pistol amongst the Space Marines of the Blood Angels Chapter, is a small hand-held Melta Weapon that has an overall effective range that is only about 25% that of its counterparts, the Meltagun and the Multi-Melta. These rare and often exquisitely-crafted pistols are capable of cutting through almost any known type of armour.
Next up, we have the Beamer Melta
The Beamer style of Meltagun was an attempt to create a longer-range Melta Weapon that was still light enough to be easily carried into combat. Using fragments of decaying scrolls describing several ancient design patterns (and after much divination and prayer) the Zepherus Pattern was developed.
Though it still uses specialised gases melded and ignited into a sub-molecular thermal state, this weapon features a longer barrel with a radiation beam surrounding the gaseous discharge. This low-level radiation acts as a harmonic wavefront for the super-hot release, allowing it to strike at longer distances.
The necessary tuning for the beam to match the discharge proved impractical in the field, however, and only those willing (or able) to spend solar many hours of difficult correction after prolonged use still stand by the weapon. Almost no Imperial fighting units still utilise them despite the superior range, and their manufacture ceased after the first production run. Now prized as trophy weapons, some still see use as part of elite mercenary groups or Inquisitorial Kill-teams. This weapon may be equipped with any type of Meltagun canister ammunition.
Next up, we have the Firestorm Multi-Melta.
The Firestorm Multi-melta are Multi-melta that were created millennia ago by a forgotten Deathwatch Techmarine as a field modification of a damaged Maxima-pattern multimelta. They trade higher energy consumption and shorter range for higher damage yield and the ability to fire short bursts.
Next up, we have the Corvus Blackstar.
At a single thought-impulse from the Techmarine pilot, these prow and wing-mounted weapons can be calibrated for strafing runs. In such circ*mstances, auxiliary grenade launchers mounted at the rear enable the aircraft to rain down a hail of explosive projectiles -- either Infernus Grenades that detonate in clouds of burning promethium, or Frag Grenade charges that hurl deadly shrapnel over a wide area. A full squadron of Blackstars can clear a beachhead amongst a Tyranid swarm in a matter of moments before their passengers descend to deliver the killing blow.
The Blackstar has advanced systems to ensure its survival from the inevitable reprisal. Its robust construction can shrug off even a direct hit from enemy flak, and when fitted with an Infernum Halo-Launcher it becomes extremely difficult to land a telling blow. Should an enemy missile, drone warhead or similar explosive device close in on the Blackstar, high-calibre Auspicator arrays will detect its aura of hostility, and send a wide spread of decoys, interceptors and flares to thwart the incoming munitions. It appears as if the Blackstar spreads wings of smoke and fire behind it, a sight known to the Chapter's warriors as the Wings of the Sky Angel. Many a primitive culture, saved from the predations of the alien, has seen the Blackstar that brought their deliverance as a mechanical seraph and worshipped it for generations afterwards.
On the strategic scale as well as the tactical, the Deathwatch are noted for their use of advanced technologies. They strike with clockwork precision, whether their assault numbers a single Kill-team or several Watch Companies working together. The Watch Captains ensure each team reaches its target at the critical moment, their fine-tuned war plan a series of overlapping attacks from which there can be no salvation. The Corvus Blackstars soar from the clouds, disembarkation doors wide to allow the Deathwatch within to drop directly into combat.
The Corvus Blackstar burns through the skies with a scream of engines, guns spitting death as it strafes the xenos below. Though it bears similarities to other Imperial aircraft, it is far more advanced in form and function, and the heavy weapons it shares with its sister machines are optimised for alien-hunting. As the Corvus arrows towards its mission-critical target, its heavy weapons tear the foul aircraft and bioforms of the enemy from the skies. Any incoming fire sent its way is baffled with Infernum Halo-Launchers that fan out to blur the Blackstar's outline and detonate missiles well before impact. Once in position, it swoops down with impressive agility, the twin hatches on either side of its nose-cone slamming open to allow the Deathwatch team within to charge directly into the fray.
Armament
A standard Deathwatch Corvus Blackstar is armed and equipped with:
Twin-linked Assault Cannon
Blackstar Cluster Launcher- The Corvus Blackstar has two rear-mounted Grenade Launchers, allowing the pilot to sow a hailstorm of munitions in his wake as he strafes his primary targets. The launcher is capable of firing either crater-chewing Frag Grenade clusters or a matrix of Infernus Grenades that leave burning promethium in the Blackstar's wake.
2 Stormstrike Missile Launchers
Ceramite Plating
Machine Spirit (Artificial Intelligence)
A Deathwatch Corvus Blackstar may replace its set of nose-mounted twin-linked Assault Cannons with the following:
Twin-linked Godhammer Pattern Lascannon
A Deathwatch Corvus Blackstar may replace its two wing-mounted Stormstrike Missile Launchers with the following:
2 Blackstar Rocket Launchers - The pugnacious silhouette of the Corvus Blackstar heralds a barrage of missiles, each selected the moment before firing to maximise the destruction it wreaks. Whether air-to-air missiles guided to blast enemy aircraft from the skies or warheads designed to turn a strafing run into a violent visitation of hellfire, these munitions are delivered with pinpoint accuracy and perfect timing.
A Deathwatch Corvus Blackstar may take the following additional weaponry:
Hurricane Bolter
A Deathwatch Corvus Blackstar may take the following additional vehicle equipment:
Searchlight
Smoke Launchers
Extra Armour Plating
Locator Beacon
Infernum Halo-launcher - When a Corvus Blackstar comes under attack from enemy flak, missiles or their biological equivalents, the pilot will deploy a complex spread of sanctified flares and decoys from its Infernum Halo-Launcher. These fan out around the Blackstar like the white-feathered wings of an angel from Terran myth, baffling and intercepting incoming xenos munitions.
Auspex Array - The Corvus Blackstar bears arrays of sensor equipment that contain Vigilus-class Machine Spirits. Acting much as the auspexes borne by those Space Marines that hunt the alien across the battlefields of the Imperium, these arrays use wide spectrum strafe readers to detect the presence of hostile life forms and war engines.
Next up, we have the Plasma Blaster.
A Plasma Blaster is a type of archaic, dual chamber Plasma Weapon dating back to the Great Crusade era of the 30th and early 31st Millennia. Once a common sight during that bygone era when plasma technology was better understood by the Mechanicum, in the late 41st Millennium there are very few examples of this archaic weapon remaining as the secrets of its production seem to have been lost or restricted.
Plasma Blasters differ from Plasma Guns in that they have a shorter range, but a higher rate of fire due to their double-barrelled design which made them more suited to be used on the move. Plasma Blasters were primarily used by Legion Terminator Squads, though on rare occasions Contemptor Pattern Dreadnoughts have been known to be fitted built-in versions of these potent weapons within their Dreadnought Close Combat Weapons instead of the usual Storm Bolter or Heavy Flamer.
Next up, we have the Plasma Burner.
A Plasma Burner was a powerful type of Imperial Plasma Weapon used by the Interemptors of the Dark Angels Legion's Dreadwing Hexagrammaton formation during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy.
A dangerous offshoot of more common plasma technology, these weapons vent plasma gas through a magnetic bottle in high-speed jets. Any enemy caught in the path of such a jet is quickly reduced to molten slag, annihilated by pressurised torrents of raw plasma, leaving no trace of its presence.
However, the magnetic fields that keep the superheated gas contained are fragile and emit a low-intensity field of radiation, and as such the average Interemptor remains combat-viable for only a few short solar decades before requiring augmetic replacements or reassignment to a Dreadnought sarcophagus.
Next up, we have the Barrage Plasma Pistol
The Barrage Plasma Pistols are deadly side arms and are a variant of the standard Plasma Pistol that is unique to the Jericho Reach Deathwatch, and few exist even within their hallowed armouries. Barrage Plasma Pistols feature a higher rate of fire than standard Plasma Pistols at the cost of increased energy consumption and chance of overheating.
Next up, we have the Plasma Grenade.
Imperial Plasma Grenades are an exceedingly rare form of grenade used by the armed forces of the Imperium that most likely originated when a wielder improperly handled a Plasma Flask. Plasma Grenades are most commonly only used by those who are able to acquire them, such as Deathwatch Space Marines, high ranking Space Marines and Inquisitors. These highly lethal grenades use a deliberate plasma containment field failure so that they erupt into blasts of white-hot energy. The dense plasma core of an Astartes Plasma Grenade is designed to not be fully consumed in the initial explosion, so it leaves a glowing, energised orb that continues to sear the area like a miniature sun. This tiny stellar body can continue to cause great damage to the immediate area for some time. It is of note that Imperial Plasma Grenades are cruder, although more potent, than the Eldar Plasma Grenades commonly used by Eldar assault troops.
Next up, we have the Barrage Plasma Gun.
Barrage Plasma Guns are rare and venerated weapons that are jealously guarded by the Techmarines of the Jericho Reach Deathwatch, and issued only to the most honoured Space Marines. Barrage Plasma Guns are highly tuned, rapid-fire weapons that can lay down incredible volumes of devastating plasma energy. While their ability to fire in semi-automatic and automatic modes make them both versatile and deadly, they use an immense amount of energy and are more prone to overheating than a typical Plasma Weapon. Deathwatch Space Marines see this as a small price to pay for the ability to spray volleys of plasma energy into charging bands of xenos.
Next up, we have the Plasma Talon.
The Dark Angels and their Unforgiven Successor Chapters utilise a unique form of relic Plasma Weapon known as the Plasma Talon. The Dark Angels Ravenwing Black Knights make use of them, for their Mark IV Raven Pattern Bikes have their twin-linked Bolters replaced with twin-linked Plasma Talons. With a range in between a Plasma Pistol and a Plasma Gun, a Plasma Talon gives the Black Knights a significant boost in power. With these weapons affixed to their metallic steeds, the Black Knights can tear holes in the enemy lines before they ride into combat to smash apart the foe.
Next up, we have the Missile Launcher Plasma Missile.
A larger incarnation of the Imperial Plasma Grenade, a salvo of Plasma Missiles can easily turn enemy troops into a smoking crater. Indeed, a soldier must take care when firing one of these rare and dangerous weapons to make sure his own squad and friendly forces are sufficiently out of harm's way. Plasma Missiles have the same continuing effect as an Imperial Plasma Grenade. However, in addition to this, they pose an additional threat to vehicles. The plasma core of a Plasma Missile can become fused with the hull of a target vehicle, leaving no escape whilst the plasma core burns its way inside.
Next up, we have the Heavy Thunder hammer.
The Heavy Thunder Hammer is the largest man-portable Thunder Hammer that is used by the Adeptus Astartes of the Deathwatch Chapter -- a giant, crushing tool of destruction so heavy even a Space Marine cannot use it one-handed.
Swathed by a powerful disruption field, the Heavy Thunder Hammer is capable not only of cracking open a Tyranid Carnifex's exoskeleton, but also of smashing through its midsection to break the creature in two.
Next up, we have the Power Flail.
Like all flails, the power flail is a blunt, jointed apparatus capable of inflicting significant harm upon anyone unfortunate enough to be within its arc even without its power field.
With the seething power field activated, however, it is a true instrument of destruction, shattering armour and defences with a crushing, inexorable swing. This is a two-handed melee weapon.
Next up, we have the Relic Blade.
A Relic Blade is a large, two-handed power weapon often resembling a sword, axe or glaive that is surrounded by the same matter-disrupting energy field as other power weapons. They are large and unwieldy in combat and are required to be wielded two-handed.
The Relic Blades are almost equivalent in quality to Artificer Armour for power weapons. Many were constructed during and just after the Horus Heresy. As a result, only a Space Marine of great and faultless service may wield one. They provide a strength bonus that is not as great as a power fist's but makes up for it by being faster than the unwieldy power fist.
Relic Blades are only used by Space Marines, the most famous being Vulkan He'stan with the Spear of Vulkan, which is actually a highly ornate and well crafted Relic Blade.
Space Marine Honour Guards use Relic Blades the most (in some instances whole squads wield them), due to their long and distinguished military careers. Certain Space Marine Veterans and Captains have also managed to earn the right to wield a Relic Blade.
Next up, we have the Burning Blade.
What started as a series of malfunctioning power swords from the disreputable Clovis Munitorum became a new weapon type after users discovered the swords' faulty field conduits raised the temperature of their blades to over 600 degrees Celsius.
Loi Metalworks investigated and created what are now known as "Burning Blades," power swords that deliberately create intense heat along their blade so as to burn flesh to the bone with each strike.
Heavily insulated so that the user feels little of the inferno raging inches from their palm, these swords are nevertheless extremely dangerous to the wielder as well as their opponents.
Targets hit with this weapon are likely to be set aflame. A commonly employed variant of this weapon is known as the Loi Pattern.
Next up, we have the Null Rod.
A Null Rod is an anti-psyker Power Weapon employed by the Grey Knights and the agents of the Inquisition. This obsidian rod perpetually crackles with anti-psychic energy, nullifying the Warp-spawned powers of psykers.
Even a glancing blow from such a weapon can provoke a cataclysmic neuron failure in a sorcerer or mystic, leading to instant death. At the end of each battle, the Null Rod must be drained of the energy it has absorbed, lest its captured power open a Warp rift.
Additionally, the wielder of a Null Rod and their nearby allies cannot be affected by psychic powers or the emanations of the Warp in any way.
Next up, we have the Volkite Culverin.
The Volkite Culverin is a type of Volkite Weapon, and is the heaviest man-portable Volkite Weapon known to have been available to Imperial forces during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy-eras.
Volkite Weapons are a class of powerful thermal ray weapons whose technology is pre-Imperial in origin and dates back to the Age of Strife. These weapons were always difficult for the Imperium of Man to manufacture; even the most able of the Mechanicum's forges had difficulty keeping up with the demand, and as the expanding Great Crusade in the late 30th Millennium swiftly overwhelmed the supply of these relic-weapons, they became increasingly uncommon on the battlefield.
Once relatively common within the fledgling Space Marine Legions, Volkite Weapons had fallen largely from favour by the time the Horus Heresy began in the early 31st Millennium. They were superseded by the far more easy to produce Bolter.
The loss of Forge Worlds during the Horus Heresy sped the decline of Volkite weapons in the Imperium. The technology, difficult to manufacture even by the most able of the Mechanicum's forges, was rendered scarce in the aftermath of the great interstellar civil war.
The Volkite Culverin is the heaviest and most potent man-portable iteration of known Volkite technology, and was used by the ancient Legiones Astartes Legion Heavy Support Squads and their Contemptor Pattern Dreadnoughts. The Volkite Culverin, like all Volkite Weapons, was a thermal ray weapon of ancient and unknown provenance, with its beam having a devastating effect on organic matter, explosively burning flesh into ash and jetting fire.
Next up, we have the Volkite Caliver.
The Volkite Caliver was a Volkite heavy weapon variant carried by Space Marine and Mechanicum infantry forces. A Volkite rifle with a devastating effect on flesh and bone, the Volkite Caliver was often employed by mobile Legion Tactical Support Squads, utilising firepower superior to that of the more common bolter that would eventually replace it as the standard infantry weapon of the Space Marine Legions.
Next up, we have the Volkite Charger.
The Volkite Charger is a type of Volkite Weapon that was used during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy by the Legiones Astartes and Mechanicum.
Whilst not benefiting from the range or power of its larger cousins, the charger retains the volkite beam's deflagrating effects and allows its wielder a greater degree of movement. Volkite chargers were often employed by Legion Tactical Support Squads.
And finally, at long last we have the Volkite Serpenta.
The pistol variant of a Volkite Weapon wielded single-handed, the Volkite Serpenta was sometimes carried by high-ranking soldiers of the Imperial Army, space marine legions, and Tech-priests of the ancient Mechanicum during the Great Crusade era.
