Rogal Dorn Battle Tank
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"Imagine naming a main tank after a Primarch – but not the one who masterminded the defence of the Imperium in its darkest hour. The time has come to correct this grievous error."
- – Warhammer Community
The Churchill, T-14, M6 Heavy Tank, M26 Pershing Rogal Dorn Battle Tank is a new Imperial Guard AFV, revealed as part of their big 2022 refresh. More akin to a Heavy Tank than an MBT, it is a chonkier and shootier big brother of the old reliable Leman Russ and seems to be a non-Forge World alternative to the Macharius Heavy Tank as a second-generation Baneblade. It's in universe provenance is as yet unknown.
Overview
Like its namesake it seems to specialize in siege work, both breaking and anchoring defensive lines with its wide variety of guns. Its main turret can carry either two Battle Cannons or an Oppressor Cannon, an anti-armour gun that can supposedly one-shot anything up to and including a Chaos Knight. It can also carry a hull-mounted Castigator Gatling Cannon or Pulveriser Cannon, a baby version of the Demolisher cannon, along with the usual array of extra weapons: hull-mounted Heavy Stubbers or Meltaguns, sponson-mounted Heavy Bolters or Multi-Meltas, and last of all a pintle-mounted Heavy Stubber in case you feel like reenacting the last twenty minutes of Fury with Your Dudes. Some of them have side sponsons, some don't. The previews of its datasheet reveal that it's got a little more Toughness and four more Wounds than the Leman Russ, all the better for keeping it going in a firefight.
It's larger than a Leman Russ but smaller then a Baneblade, so we're in Malcador Heavy Tank territory. Probably meant to be used as a budget Lord of War.
Inspiration
The Rogal Dorn is a direct copy of the T14, with tracks and other bits from the Churchill and ARL-44 to make it more 40k. The design of its turret is inspired by the Pershing, while its upper-glacis also takes cues from the experimental AC-IV Sentinel, down to the position of the hull gun. Even the twin-cannons of the battle cannon loadout is lifted from the Sentinel, though in the Sentinel's case they just wanted to make sure the chassis could handle the stress of high-caliber ammunition. The unfortunate turret gunner that has to stand on a platform behind the turret to man the heavy stubber probably comes from the factory-mounting of the M2 Browning machine gun on an M4 Sherman forcing its gunner to stand on top of the tank behind its turret, though in that case, the M2 had to go there because it was intended for pointing the gun upward to shoot at low-flying aircraft because the Yanks were afraid of the Luftwaffe. In the Imperium's case, standing out in the open serves two purposes: against certain opponents, standing in the open where they can shoot at you is the safest place to be; and in the other case, it's so you can stab people with your sword. It also looks more like a proper tank in scale than the Russ. The Leman Russ has always had a notably tiny turret (just note the size of the commander's hatch compared to the overall size of the turret), whereas this thing looks like you could have an actual crew in there.
Gallery
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Armed with standard loadout.
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Armed with big FUCK OFF Oppressor Cannon.
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Top of the tank.
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Comparison to a Leman Russ and the Baneblade.
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