Basilisk Artillery Gun

It's almost as fuckawesome as the Baneblade.

This article is about the Imperial Guard artillery tank. For the creature, see Basilisk.

The Basilisk Artillery Gun is the iconic Imperial Guard self-propelled artillery piece. It is based on the versatile Chimera chassis, and it carries a massive Earthshaker cannon. It dates at least as far back as the Great Crusade, where it was used by the artillery batteries of the Space Marine Legions and Imperial Army; though they were too slow for the slimmer, faster post-Codex Astartes Space Marines, they could move at just the right pace to keep up with an Imperial Guard siege operation.

Of course, given its tremendous range, it doesn't need to move very fast to keep pounding the enemy, and it's not supposed to be at the front line -- rather, the Basilisk crews get told where to shoot, they launch great quantities of shells in that direction, and then they move away before they get hit by counter-battery fire.

Variants

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Armageddon Pattern

Because Armageddon is a desert world irradiated, poisonous shithole, they developed a Basilisk pattern that fully enclosed the entire tank, sheltering the loading mechanism (and, coincidentally, the loader and gunner) from the harsh environment.

Basilisk Magnus

A variant of the Basilisk fielded by Vance Motherfucking Stubbs. It's like a regular Basilisk, except it can strike targets anywhere within the Imperial Dussala Precinct base, fires an absurdly powerful Earthshaker shell, and has styrofoam for armor. However along with the 100 Baneblades, Stubbs lost the targeting matrix for the thing and so it requires a spotter every time it shoots. Its size compared to the turret and crew suggest it would also be as well proportioned for mounting on a Macharius tank chassis as a normal Earthshaker is on a chimera chassis. Dis gon b gud.

Legion Basilisk

Before the Codex Astartes reforms, the Space Marine Legions operated some artillery of their own, including the Basilisk. The gunshield and crew compartment looks beefier, and the engine exhausts run out the sides of the tank.

Vanaheim Pattern

It's the same as the original Basilisk, with a less goofy-looking gun shield.

Tabletop

The Basilisk's Earthshaker has the longest finite range of any Imperial Guard weapon (exceeded only by the infinite-range hunter-killer missile and Deathstrike missile), able to drop an S9 AP3 large blast anywhere within 20 feet (which is pitifully small when scaled up to real-world dimensions...but so are all 40K weapon ranges). A single IG army can have up to nine of these monsters (three per Heavy Support slot, times three Heavy Support choices) for just over 1000 points, which will rapidly turn the entire field into a moonscape. It only gets worse in Apocalypse games, when the force organization chart limitations are lifted and units start getting vaporized from across the room.

The Basilisk's only weakness is its 36" minimum range. Sixth Edition rules for barrage weapons mean that it can hit targets that are in closer, but unless you roll a hit, it will scatter a full 2d6", which just might be far enough to hit the Basilisk itself.

In Second Edition, where it first appeared, the Basilisk featured epic levels of bullshit since it rolled a D3 for damage to vehicles even if it didn't penetrate armour, and since the template usually hit every location on the vehicle it was statistically likely that anything hit by a Basilisk would be crippled or destroyed even if all AP rolls failed. Thanks to the preliminary barrage rule, it also got to fire a battle cannon round (somehow) before the game had actually started.

Notable Basilisks

Fluffy

The personal attack vehicle/pet of Commissar Dan. Being the retard that he is, he uses the thing as a front line assault tank instead of a full-time artillery piece.

Why A Basilisk is The Best Place To Be In The Whole Goddamn Imperium

• You're ten miles from the front lines and whatever fanged horrors or berserk supersoldiers are invading the Imperium this week.
• It's one of the best artillery weapons in the galaxy, able to mow down whole swathes of armies in minutes. Thus, the Tyranids numerical superiority is irrelevant.
• All the commissars (save one) are also at the front lines, seeing as that is where the business of executing cowards is most wanting.
• You're probably in a depopulated area far away from Inquisitorial interest.
• If your regiment is commanded by Creed, you're one of a select few that knows how it is possible to deploy a dozen pieces of mobile artillery inside an impenetrable Ork stronghold.
• You can probably even get away with complaining about the High Lords of Terra and their general not giving a shit, seeing as there are no senior officers, no Inquisitors, and no fucking commiss*BLAM*(Who let the commissar loose again?)
• You get to fire a MASSIVE fucking gun and blow shit up.
• You're not at risk of being blown up when your commander tells the artillery to shoot right in front of his own troops.
• Canon says you're going to go deaf, but whatever right? Hearing problems are the least grimdark thing in the entire setting.
• Not just anybody can drive one of these, therefore you are not as expendable as other Guardsmen, and Commissars are less likely to shoot you if you start fleeing (which is frankly what you SHOULD do if the enemy comes close to your artillery).