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Adeptus Mechanicus

2019-08-30T22:34:26Z

2001:56A:F829:9000:ADC3:1D30:369A:26C0: /* Why Everything is so Grimdark */

{{awesome}}
{{Infobox 40k Nations
|name= Adeptus Mechanicus
|image= [[Image:AdMech_Flag.jpg ‎|300px|center]]
|bgcolor=
|fgcolor=
|Capital=[[Mars]]
|Official Languages=Lingua-technis, Low Gothic, High Gothic
|Power=Galactic Superpower
|Size=Galactic <br> 125 Known Forgeworlds <br> totals presumably in the tens-of-thousands <br> Numerous outposts and research stations
|Head of State=[[High Lords of Terra#Members|Fabricator-General of Mars]]
|Head of Government=[[High Lords of Terra#Members|Fabricator-General of Mars]], Martian Parliament
|Governmental Structure=Totalitarian Theocratic Technocracy (''Before Great Crusade'') <br> Semi-Autonomous Corporatocratic Theocratic Technocracy (''Great Crusade-41st Millennium'')
|State Religion/Ideology=Cult Mechanicus / [[Omnissiah]] worship
|Demographic=[[Humans]], various [[Servitors]], assorted Transhumans and Cyborgs
|Military Force=[[Skitarii]], [[Titan (Warhammer 40,000)|Collegia Titanica]], [[Ordinatus|Centurio Ordinatus]], [[Legio Cybernetica]], [[Imperial Knight|Knight Houses]]
}}
{{Topquote|War is the science of destruction.|John Abbott}}
{{Topquote|Go go gadget Rocket boots!|an Ancient Terran Skitarii protector, code name "Gadget", seen as a living saint among the early Mechanicum}}
{{Topquote|I am... a machine|An ancient Terran Cybernetic law officer, serial numbers "R080-C0P" defended Hive City Detroit from those who would abuse the Omnissiah's subjects}}
{{Topquote|Technology is a gift of God. After the gift of life it is perhaps the greatest of God's gifts. It is the mother of civilizations, of arts and of sciences.|Freeman Dyson}}
{{Topquote|Sometimes I wonder why you submitted to the changes."<br>"Improvements! I submit to no one. I chose them.|A-4D & General Grievous, in a galaxy far far away... }}
{{Topquote|1=[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wy-sVTaZRPk Our Wrath Has Come Online]|2=War Cant of Mars}}

Basically what happens when you combine the extreme technophilia and cyborg-fetishism of the [[Cyberpunk]] Genre with the religiosity and aesthetics of Medieval Catholicism, the '''Adeptus Mechanicus'''; [https://youtu.be/7p3H5avBJs0 Formerly] known as the '''Mechanicum''' and often shortened as '''AdMech''', is an organization in the [[Imperium of Man]] (In the loosest sense of the word) that simultaneously operates as a government ministry, religious organization and Technology Corporation, responsible for science, technology, engineering, manufacturing and most of the Imperium's Industrial production, as well as the operation of the [[Titan (Warhammer 40,000)|Titan]] Legions.

The Adeptus Mechanicus, whose individual members are known as [[Techpriest]]s, own dozens, maybe hundreds of heavily polluted planet-factories known as [[Forge World#Planet|forge worlds]], which are covered in massive manufactoria or, as they are known to speakers of Low Gothic, 'work'. The largest forge world of the Adeptus Mechanicus is its homeworld [[Mars]], on which the most badass weapons ever known to man are made. Despite being part of the Imperium, the AdMech was actually its own nation and a respectable superpower in its own right throughout the Great Crusade and largely is to this day. The 'being-part-of-the-Imperium' shtick was a symbolic gesture of goodwill signed by the Treaty of Mars, but was codified when they became the "Adeptus Mechanicus" after their former leader fell to chaos. They still secured quasi-independence and private property rights though, courtesy of [[Awesome|marching an Imperator titan into the senate chamber and holding them at building-sized gunpoint]].

The Adeptus Mechanicus is basically the definition of a Mega-Corporation, or a [[Monopoly]], similar to Apple, Microsoft and Google Inc. in real life. Though they are still politically part of the United States, they are simply so rich and powerful, and have totally privatised the production and manufacturing of technology for themselves, that they can basically buy the government and its politicians. Similarly, the Imperium may hate the AdMech for being Heretics, they have private claim to all the various Forgeworlds, Manufactoria, Mining worlds and Research Stations needed for the production of Imperium war machines. Where else can you even buy a new cellphone or have repair maintenance for your servitors, if not your local Techpriest? Because of this privatised monopoly, the AdMech has become an Empire within an Empire, and can ''possibly'' survive without the Imperium, while the Imperium cannot.

They have a monopoly on [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TvN5lCVkRk all the really cool shit for themselves (aside from the overpowered DAOT artefacts in the emperors basement)]—like Titans, [[Ordinatus]], and other wonderful stuff—only letting the Imperials have it when absolutely necessary or if they're threatened personally, with the justification of keeping the good shit away from [[Chaos]] in case an army rebels. They have two armies of their own, which are not anything like the [[Imperial Guard]], as they are mostly composed of badass angry technogrunge cyborgs that are more violent than ED209, [[Servitor|lobotomized minions]] manufactured out of clones and heretics, and [[Titan (Warhammer 40,000)|giant, world-devastating Super Robots]]. They are also technological rivals with the [[Tau|space weeaboos with transforming mecha]] and potentially have made a few advances beyond the [[Eldar]], though the Eldar are much more advanced in psionic technology.

Only the [[Necrons]], an entire race of robots whose race-wide robotization was not their most advanced feat, eclipse them technologically. The Adeptus Mechanicus are conflicted on how to perceive the Necrons; some see them as perverse because it's alien, some are envious of the Necrons, others revere them as agents of the Machine-God and tend to kill themselves attempting to [[Looted|loot]] Necron tombs (though [[Void Dragon|there may be truth to this]]).

They typically look like a cross between [[Star Wars|Jawas]] and [[/co/|Doctor Octopus]] with a healthy dose of [[Dune|The Bene Tleilax]], as well as wearing the sort of re-breather masks that you'll typically see on riot police.

==The Commandments of the Mechanicus==
The Mechanicus have some ideas that they abide by:

'''The Mysteries:'''
#Life is directed motion.
#The spirit is the spark of life.
#Sentience is the ability to learn the value of knowledge.
#Intellect is the understanding of knowledge.
#Sentience is the basest form of Intellect.
#Understanding is the True Path to Comprehension.
#Comprehension is the key to all things.
#The Omnissiah knows all, comprehends all.

'''The Warnings:'''
#The alien mechanism is a perversion of the true path.
#The soul is the conscience of sentience.
#A soul can be bestowed only by the Omnissiah.
#The Soulless sentience is the enemy of all.
#The knowledge of the ancients stands beyond question.
#The machine spirit guards the knowledge of the ancients.
#Flesh is fallible, but ritual honors the machine spirit.
#To break with ritual is to break with faith.

== What the Mechanicus does ==
[[Image:Mechanical-man.jpg|thumb|300px|right|[[Awesome|"You may say, it is impossible for a man to become like the Machine. And I would reply, that only the smallest mind strives to comprehend its limits."<br>- Fabricator General Kane.]]]]
The main role of the Adeptus Mechanicus is to maintain the advanced equipment of the Imperium; which despite stereotypes, they are actually very good at. Most of their rituals to appease machinery are pretty much the same methods we would use to repair our machinery with a whole bunch of religious iconography mixed in. The terms used by the Mechanicus are quite similar to our engineers if you swap some of the words (replace machine spirit with A.I, sacred oils with lubricant etc.) Because of its religious nature some of the components of the rituals are unnecessary but almost all Tech-Priests skip or abandon the unnecessary stuff in dire situations. It's also implied that the so-called holy chants are really them repeating instructions to themselves-useful for remembering what you're doing. The cases where chanting is actually necessary is where they are working with something like a [[Land Raider]] or Titan - both of which have a temperamental machine spirit - that you don't want to piss off.

They spend a lot of time traveling across the galaxy looking for some old laptops called "[[Standard Template Construct]]s" that have all the info necessary for the first human colonist do their job well (mostly a mix of Ikea and "high-tech for dummies" manuals). This is the reason why you will end up selling groxburgers if you study to be a scientist (unless you have balls or are a spess mehreen artificer who might make something really good) in the [[Imperium]]: everything was already done by the ancients in the Dark Age of [[Cyberpunk|William Gibson]] and recorded in these STCs. Thanks to glitches, lack of maintenance, and Chaos corruption, nearly all the STCs found by the Mechanicus are more fucked up than Windows Vista. While the recoverable STCs are often useless or incomplete, there are rare instances where they are functional, such as the STC data of the Land Raider and the Land Speeder as well as Centurion armour. Another nice example is the one found in the novel Skitarius by [[Rob Sanders]], where the badass protagonist helps the Adeptus Mechanicus priests to find a sort of "Empyrean Bomb", capable of dissipating warp phenomena (this bomb's utilization would've negated the cause of the post-Iron War part of the Age of Strife, which was caused by humanity's worlds being cut-off by Warp storms). More often than not STC data comes from print-outs from fragmented STCs, or copies of these print-outs. These printouts, when discovered, are studied, translated and argued over for centuries before any useful products are made from them. If they ever find an undamaged complete STC, this would likely cause a schism within the Mechanicus and tear the Imperium asunder. It's worth noting that different writers seem to have different ideas of what an STC is. Some depict them as a single blueprint for some high-tech equipment, some depict them as a database of those blueprints, and on at least one occasion an STC was portrayed as a massive 3-D Printer. The Adeptus Mechanicus also sometimes attempt to loot [[Necron]] tombs and will gladly put an entire world at risk for this, and act like it's blasphemy of the most serious kind when people wall it off because of the goddamn killer robot skeletons! The idiots. The Priests of Mars also will not mind getting their hands on Xenos artifacts to see how such "blasphemies" can work, and maybe give a hint of how a [[Orky|"pure" design should have been.]]

[[Image:MECHANICUS.jpg|thumb|500px|left|The faculty of engineering never looked so cool!]]
Very rarely does the Mechanicus actually invent something. While they do adapt designs occasionally, the only things they actually invented from scratch is the [[Lascannon]], the Dunestrider perpetual motion machine (whose creator was promptly executed and all designs lost upon creation), as well all the [[Titan (Warhammer 40,000)|Titans]], except for the Reaver and Apocalypse Classes, which were invented during the Age of Strife and the Dark Age of Technology respectively. Which is pretty odd, until you realize they invented them [[Horus Heresy|pre-heresy]]. Even things like [[Land Raider]]s and [[Land Speeder]]s, which were said to have been given critically important parts by the famous Mr. Land himself, were actually just made from really old bits Land found in the galaxy's third biggest library/archive/warehouse (the one on Terra). Well, they also invented the Infernus pattern Predator. Sure they built it on the [[Rhino Transport|Rhino]] chassis, but they created a pattern without killing everyone involved. Of course, they aren't ''actually'' "inventing" it; they are using "divinely inspired reason" to create something that has always existed, implicit in the logical structure of the universe. This is, interestingly, not a new idea, traceable back to philosophers like Plato. Conveniently, the Mechanicus will play to no end with the meaning of the word "invent" if they must get job done, as too often and despite /tg/'s cartoonish flanderization your average techpriest has the common sense to "feel divinely inspired" whenever his/her neck is on the line, you know, desperation is the mother of all inven... Ahem, I mean, "divinely inspired reason". More recently, several of the cogboys under the influence of Archmagos [[Belisarius Cawl]] have relearned actual innovation, producing entirely new designs like the [[Repulsor Tank]]. If they'll produce something that isn't a ripoff of crappier franchises is another thing else entirely. Most in universe and out just wish they could recreate mass Volkites in 40k and other 30k era shit that hasn't been ported over yet, as well as [[Plasma#Phased_Plasma_Fusil|Plasma that doesn't explode when overcharged or requiring such a thing.]]

Also important to mention is what they ''do not do.'' The Mechanicus by and large are the greediest gits in the galaxy, on top of being feudal as fuck. They hoard technology like it is going out of style, which would be fine, if they didn't hoard and defend it, but that isn't the point. The point ''is'' that each and every Forge World will basically [[Monopoly|try to own, buy, sell and take by force any existing technology]] while mostly paying lip service to Mars, and they're sure as hell not giving that STC of paperweight they found the other day to a neighboring Forge World. Getting a part, gun, computer, vehicle, schematic, program, eyepatch, cookie recipe, or even a [[Miniatures|tiny plastic model]] that wasn't specifically mass-produced and shipped to the [[Departmento Munitorum]] so ''they'' can give it to you, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TvN5lCVkRk is nearly impossible.] Anything with any kind of passing significance or interest to the Mechanicus is guarded by 7-foot cyborg death machines. Anything in the private possession of a Mechanicus operative that ''might be'' harder to make than a bolt or nut is treated like the holy grail. I dare you to try and [[rage|take a 8,000 year-old flash drive from a techpriest who just found it.]] It's worse than taking little plastic models from [[tg|fat men]] [[neckbeards|with beards]].

=== Mechanicum Understanding of Science ===
There's the common misconception that the AdMech don't really understand science and approach all tech with ritual and superstition. That's arguably wrong. In the "Mechanicum" novel they demonstrate theoretical knowledge of physics. Yes, that's 31st millennium, but it's quite clear that even in the 41st they know "normal" sciences like mechanics, thermodynamics, biology, optics, quantum physics, etc. The AdMech definitely has as much scientific knowledge as we have today, and probably more. And they are quite happy to play with it. What they don't really understand, and don't like to play with (unless absolutely forced to), is the hyper-advanced tech from the Dark Age of Technology.

Take the Lasgun as an example. There are almost infinite patterns of lasguns, many developed after the great crusade as the lasgun wasn't that common back then. They understand materials and mechanics well enough to create different stocks and triggers. They understand optics as they can focus the las beam with different barrel lengths. What they won't modify is the power pack, because the power pack is a scary super advanced piece of technology that not only will hold enough energy for a hundred las shots powerful enough to kill an armored man, but it will be easily rechargeable thousands of times. And they don't have a clue on how that works.

There's a quite good reason to that. The ultra advanced science used in the Dark Age of Technology was developed with the aid of AIs and super advanced computers. It's entirely possible that even the scientists of that time didn't fully understand their science and a lot of r&d was done automatically by artificial intelligence far superior to humans, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9OHn5ZF4Uo&t with programing so complex no human actually knew how the damn thing was thinking]. Now you can't do this anymore because you know that AIs will try to kill you. In the "Mechanicum" novel the Dragon Caretaker says that the Emperor engineered the creation of the Mechanicum. Why the atheist Emperor would create a machine cult if not because it was the only way to retain a technology that the humanity would have no possibility to comprehend anymore once that the AIs would be wiped out?

This is interesting because it's said that the Emperor defeated the [[Void Dragon|Dragon]] during the late Roman Empire, for this purpose. This means that he foresaw the rebellion of the machines and the long night and allowed it as a means to develop a technology that could then be salvaged after. Or just realized that a monster capable of controlling machines locked a stone's throw from Earth was really, really bad and decided to hedge his bets. If no AI rebellion, hyper-advanced cult of scientists dedicated to humanity. If AI rebellion, salvation for mankind. Either way, Man wins.

Then the Horus Heresy fucked up everything. And yes, the cult mentality of AdMech involved probably more than should have been. But the real reason that they don't go around innovating and creating new stuff, it's that it doesn't pay off. The real "power" of their technology comes from the Dark Age of Technology stuff and they are not able to touch that.

And this is not all. The lack of AIs and uber computational power hinders understanding advanced science to a point. it also absolutely wrecks your ability to produce practical applications of said advanced science. Let me make an example. You are fifty years in the future and fusion energy is an everyday reality from fusion power plants. ITER worked after all. You are transported on to a desert island and you have all the scientific knowledge of humanity in your brain. You are asked to build a practical fusion based power source. You can use any tool and component but you don't have access to computers. Can you do it?

Nah. You can understand perfectly how the thing should work and how to design one. But without computers you don't have the ability of run the extremely complex calculations and simulations to optimize the reactor to the point that it produces more energy than it consumes. So they hand you a blueprint of a currently working reactor. Can you build it now? Sure. You have a blueprint and the theoretical knowledge to understand what you are doing, so you build the damn thing.

Then they ask you if you can build another but slightly different. Bigger? Smaller? More powerful? Less powerful? Doesn't matter. Can you do that?

Well... maybe? You have the blueprints of a working design and you have the theoretical understanding on how it works, so you can try to modify it. But you still don't have the computational power to validate your modifications so... you can try? Best case scenario, it works. Worst case scenario? You nuke the whole fucking island. On the average? It will kinda work but it will less efficient/polished/optimized than the original design.

So you don't really like to modify the original (standard) template (construct), unless you are '''really''' forced to. That's the mechanicum mindset. People who think they're better than this almost always become examples demonstrating that the Mechanicum and later Mechanicus have the right idea.

== History of the Adeptus Mechanicus ==
[[File:Techpriests_are_still_human_deep_inside.jpg|thumb|200px|left|Who said they are not human or lack the human factor? And thanks to Priests of Mars this is canon.]]
The Mechanicus was established in the distant past, when a bunch of <s>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elon_Musk machine worshiping technophiles]</s> normal people terraformed Mars during mankind's dominating of the Solar System and colonizing of the galaxy. Thus Mars became an extremely technologically advanced society of astronauts, scientists, engineers, manufacturers, and miners wherein they could pursue advances in technology and power the [[Dark Age of Technology]]. During the [[Age of Strife]], their precious atmosphere was punctured, and solar radiation <s>beat down on their filthy heads</s> burned the land, boiled the seas, and took the sky from them, nuking all life. Everybody either died, hid underground, or turned feral. After hundreds of years of living from half-working mechanical bunker to partially-pressurized archaic hab spire; people began to look upon technology as a saviour and way to return to the former heights of glory. Thus, a new cult spread amongst the people of Mars, wherein they paid reverence to the Machine God. [[Just as planned]]. And then they joined the [[EMPRAH]] because they saw him as an aspect of the Machine God called the '[[Omnissiah]]'. As if the parallels aren't already tremendously clear at this point.

Except it's giant load of bullshit. The Tech-priesthood were FORCED to acknowledge the Big E as an incarnate of Machine God at gunpoint. This happened after they sent pretty much their entire fleet and army to Terra to prevent the Unification of meatbags, so they can continue to raid ancient Terran tombs and libraries once or twice a century. The Emperor's fleet fucked them so hard only one in ten returned to Mars to tell the tale, so the Fabricator-General was very cooperative when the Emprah's armada arrived in Mars' orbit. At least they managed to get a special exemption from the "no religions" rule, possibly because the Emperor already knew about the Dragon of Mars (see below; though it wouldn't be the first time a head of state was a hypocrite or practiced double standards). In exchange for giving the Imperium all the guns and tanks they needed, the Emperor promised the Fabricator-General full autonomy on all Forge Worlds, access to Navigators and Astropaths for space travel, and all Archeotech found during the [[Great Crusade]]. Naturally, this smoothed things over between the two factions, resulting in the Treaty of Mars and the beginning of the Imperium; As a sign of their alliance, the Emperor changed his sigil from the lightning bolt, as used by the [[Thunder Warriors]], to the two-headed Aquila.

Hilariously, the "Machine God" may actually be the [[Void Dragon]], one of the ancient [[C'tan]] Star Gods. The Void Dragon is actually one of the most powerful of the C'tan, controlling all machines. All those techpriests are going to have serious problems when it wakes up...It's on Mars because the EMPRAH roofied it and turned it into an angry cave on Mars. It's now guarded by the Mechanicus in their Noctys Labyrinth. This point of view is not certain, so the Machine God may be anything like the collective mass of all machines or the sum of all knowledge, neither would all Mechanicus accept a C'Tan as their lord (but that's the point, they don't know it's a C'tan if it is). But it's a more [[Grimdark|fun]] version, isn't it?

The Mechanicum only lasted till midway through the Heresy. Loyal tech magi were evacuated from Mars when the Death of Innocence hit the planet and a new Fabricator General was elected. This posed a bit of a problem for the Mechanicum as a whole as the previous Fabricator General was technically still the head of the Mechanicum and still held Mars. Various allied and vassal parts of the Mechanicum had a legal meltdown as to who they were supposed to be loyal to - the nation they were a part of and technically still subordinate to or the overarching Empire they had sworn fealty to by proxy. Martian loyalists suggested the creation of a new Adeptus to put the Mechanicum on a level playing field with the other sections of the council of Terra, gaining a voice in the running of the Imperium as a whole. The other sections weren't keen on the idea but took the opportunity to roll other Martian assets into Terra's direct control. The Martian ambassador resolved the complicated Binary Succession issue by literally walking an Imperator Titan right outside the council chambers until the council agreed. Thus the modern Adeptus Mechanicus was formed.

They also created a [[Steel Confessors|Chapter]] of [[Space Marines]] meant to be loyal to them over the rest of the Imperium once. The Imperium actually reacted rather well, only taking their toy away instead of smashing the fuck out of every Forge World and mind-raping every Tech-Priest and servitor involved, which the Imperium is fully capable of doing but it wouldn't be worth nearly the effort unless something extremely stupid happened.

== The Machine Spirits ==
[[Image:Magos Dominus.jpg|thumb|300px|right|Your average Magos]]
{{topquote|If you run from technology, it will chase you.|Robert M. Pirsig}}

The "[[Machine Spirit]]" is the Imperium's version of Artificial Intelligence, mainly because after the reunification of [[Earth|Terra]]; the Emperor forbade the use of AI in machinery (partly because of the ancient rebellion of the [[Men of Iron]], but mostly to prevent Chaos-corrupted AIs from skullfucking them, Skynet style).

For all the importance of Machine Spirits to the Mechanicus, it's not entirely clear what they actually are. One theory holds that there is actually a semi-sentient AI fragment in virtually everything electronic, a leftover from the Age of Strife. These "ghosts in the machine" must be appeased, or else they'll fuck with the targeting systems in your Bolter at the worst possible moment, start doing doughnuts with your Land Raider, and generally act like [[dick]]s. All the ritual and apparent silliness of the Cult Mechanicus, then, is actually necessary to keep the machines operating.

The prevailing theory within the Mechanicus itself seemingly holds is that a Machine Spirit is a fragment of the Machine God itself. Whether this is simply rhetoric (you need to keep your gun oiled, or it'll backfire, and the cogboys are really picky about how you oil it) or the actual truth (the Machine God extends its awareness to literally every machine in the universe, which is disturbingly more possible than one might think), the fact remains that Machine Spirits are real enough to severely ruin your day (or your continent, in the case of an itinerant Titan). The ritual and mysticism surrounding the Cult Mechanicum's everyday activities is far more important to them than even the Imperial Creed.

The Techpriests of Mars got around the restrictions against "Abominable Intelligence" in true WH40K [[grimdark]] fashion: cut out the "Artificial" part and make it organic, and vice versa. Nearly every piece of sophisticated machinery in the Imperium operates via a cogitator, analogous to a modern-day microchip, which is basically the cloned or recycled brain of a human converted to function like a horrific cyborg CPU. This interpretation of the "Machine Spirit" is particularly disturbing, to be sure, but is necessary because the Iron Men incident and Age of Strife in general made the Imperium fear the "Silica Animus". The only true difference between a semi-organic cogitator and a true AI is that their machine spirits cannot learn or improve on their own, and therefore must be manually programmed by their operators if they need to learn or do anything that is outside their current programming. Thus, it is now ''nearly'' impossible for machines to rebel on their own, quelling the fears of the Imperium.

In any of these cases, it can be easily understood why machines are revered by the Mechanicus and why they are treated like sentient beings. Although, the AdMech is a bit fuzzy just ''how'' sentient machines are; are they somehow capable of thought like organics or no more sentient than your bread toaster at home?

== Forge Worlds ==


See [[Forge World#Planet]] for a comprehensive list of all Forge Worlds.

Forge Worlds are all based on Mars. Literally so -- the AdMech so revere the nuke blasted hellscape of Mars that they intentionally terraform other planets into it. Filled with a combination of research labs, libraries, churches, forges, warehouses and factories, the Forge Worlds provide the Imperium with the vast majority of their equipment. However this didn't stop the Mechanicum from setting up shop anywhere they could during Old Night and the Great Crusade, including the volcanic Mezoa and frozen Altus Ferro.

Each Forge World has their own color scheme, themes, and specialties, similar to Space Marine chapters or Imperial Guard regiments.

=== 8th Edition's Forge Worlds of choice are: ===
* '''Mars''': The original. Likely has a C'tan (The [[Void Dragon]]) buried inside it. Mars is a radioactive desert wasteland where factories and other forge world bits are built on top of kilometer deep ruins of previous bits, all infested with insane robots, sentient demonic warp viruses, and other things that go bump in the night that have been dicking around since the Horus Heresy. Immediately after the Dark Age of Technology they went full ''Kin-Dza-Dza'' and devolved into atmosphere-less techno-barbarianism until the Emperor showed up after he conquered Earth.
* '''Lucius''': Teleportation and Armor specialists, as well as known for a strange "solar blessed" metal called Luciun. Lucius is hollow, with an artificial star inside. Was attacked by Hive Fleet Leviathan, they survived by hiding inside their planet and sending out hordes of Servitors, letting them get eaten, then using Servo-skulls to pull the techy bits back underground and put them on new cloned bodies before the biomass could be absorbed, effectively starving the Leviathan forces to death. Had a civil war called the Inculcata Schism that almost caused the planet to ''implode'' (teleportation specialists is a nice way of saying "experiments with warp tech"), so they wear red as a way to kiss up to Mars. This is a common theme among forge worlds.
* '''Agripinaa''': Right outside of and now the front line to the Eye of Terror. After Cadia fell all the refugees fled to Stygies VIII and Agripinaa... who forcibly conscripted them into their Skitarii and Servitor forces. They effectively blackmailed millions of desperate refugees, trapped on their planet and in orbit, and turned them into various flavors of mindless or brainwashed combat cyborgs. Also known for sending incursions around and occasionally ''into'' the Eye of Terror.
* '''Stygies VIII''': Had '''two''' Titan legions based on it during the Horus Heresy, '''both''' of which turned traitor. They were saved at the last minute by the [[Eldar]], leading to them having a soft spot for Xenos. Home to the Xenarite faction, a faction that believes in studying Xenos technology, officially to better understand why Humanity's technology is superior. Stygies is also home to the "Runic Priests," (No, [[Space Wolves|not those]]), a faction of AdMech specialized in intuition, speculation, and improvisation. Ultimately considered "too big to fail," the High Lords of Terra declared they were to be left alone, despite flirting with Xenos crap and Heretekal science. Eventually the Inquisition found out and decided to purge the planet anyway, in the '''Xenarite Schism'''. Stygies VIII responded by unleashing a computer virus that constantly purges the Administratum and the Ordo Xenos' computer systems of any evidence or discussion of how Stygies VIII is technically a Heretek world, while the Xenarites went mostly underground. [[Deathwatch]] Kill Teams still frequently attack them, alongside various Xenos forces who want their tech back. Stygians are stealth specialists, which they will deny whenever asked; they're also known for pretending to be from Mars when needed due to their color scheme. Currently invading the Eldar Webway in an attempt at raiding the [[Black Library]].
* '''Graia''': Even more aspie than normal AdMechs, Graia are nearly immune to psykers due to being too logical to manipulate. Notable for their space station that covers a huge portion of their planet, which is actually a space ''ship'' which Graia move around, and even take through the warp! Both Chaos and the Necrons target them for it. The whole Forge World lives on this <s>yellow submarine</s> space thing due to opening some sort of portal to ''somewhere'' on the planet's surface long ago. Known for refusing to retreat even when losses are guaranteed because to do so would mean their logical predictions were wrong. Red on their uniform is ostensibly because they are loyal to Mars, but actually because [[Blood Angels|they like blood]].
* '''Metalica''': Metalica is a completely sterile world, no atmosphere, no life, no anything but ''metal''. This may or may not be due to an [[retcon|ancient copyright scouring]] by a musical group bearing a similar name. Their Titan Legion was nearly destroyed during the Second War for Armageddon; their Princeps was ordered by Planetary Governor and notorious incompetent boob [[Herman von Strab]] to attack a horde of Gargants that outnumbered them three-to-one with no support like suicidal maniacs, and when that predictably failed the Legion then [[Death Korps of Krieg|''became'' suicidal maniacs]] by [[Astral Knights|self-destructing]] in the heart of the Ork forces because they weren't allowed to retreat. Totally ''not'' the noise AdMech -- their guns are intentionally loud to ''proclaim the glory of the Omnissiah.'' Metalica is also known for being the first Imperium force to go on a Tyranid safari. That's right, they're '''[[Awesome|actively hunting Hive Fleet Leviathan.]]''' They are, in fact, ''so metal.''
* '''Ryza''': Energy shield and plasma specialists, who have nothing to do with the [[Tau]] because they managed to remain relatively unmolested until the Mechanicus found them again during the Great Crusade. They have been invaded by [[Orks]] repeatedly, to the point that most of their Forge World's output goes directly to its own self defense. The more red on a Ryzan's robe, the more important they are. Led an aborted invasion of the Maelstrom in an attempt to go after the DarkMech world of Sarum. Ryza has a sect of Ruststalkers that have gone rogue, but still worship the Omnissiah so whatevs, it's all good. Known for being very ''enthusiastic'' towards melee combat, may or may not be due to Ork influence.

=== 8th Edition was nice enough to flesh out several back-canon Forge Worlds as well: ===
* '''Triplex Phall''': Isolated, on the far east side of the galaxy, Triplex Phall has recovered a ton of STC and Archeotech but refused to give it to Mars. Basically AdMech Protestants. Mars now has a Skitarii Legion following them around with express instructions to warn Mars if Triplex Phall forces find anymore secret tech. Invaded by Hive Fleet Kraken, attacked by Typhus, and invaded by Daemons.
* '''Deimos''': The moon of Mars, gifted to the [[Grey Knights]] of [[Titan]] at the end of the Horus Heresy. Originally responsible for building the favored patterns of [[Rhino]] and [[Predator]] during the Great Crusade, they now make Grey Knight wargear and use Servitors to transfer the material between the Grey Knights and Deimos, mindscrubbing them at each end, allowing both organizations to keep their secrets. Deimos has ''three'' different Knight houses, because apparently the Grey Knights aren't enough knights for Deimos.
* '''Voss Prime''': The most Mars-fanboyish of the Mars Fanboys, has a focus on Legio Cybernetica robots. Closest Forge World to Armageddon. Voss has a huge asteroid field that repelled an Ork [[Waaagh]] merely on accident. Known for good tanks, but crappy plasma weapons. Not to be confused with Voss, which is another Forge World not too far away from Voss Prime. During the [[Great Crusade]] they made enough [[lasgun]]s to ''arm the entire [[Solar Auxilia]] with''. Builds weird ships the Imperial Navy didn't ask for, like slow light cruisers and frigates with torpedos.
* '''Gryphonne IV''': The lost Forge world. They are responsible for a lot of Imperial Guard support-tank patterns, thanks to the real-life [[Forge_World#Company|Forge World]]. The Tyranids ate their planet after they refused to listen to Inquisitor Kryptman, so they have become the first nomadic Forge "World": a space fleet actively seeking out a planet they can terraform into a new Mars. Whether or not Gryphonnians want to terraform said world into (degenerate-biome barren world) present-day Mars, or a (lush and properly-terraformed) Dark Age of Technology Mars is anyone's guess. Gryphonne IV is ''definitely not'' [[Craftworld|copying anything]].

The "big" Forge World remains Mars, with [[Cawl]] being the only unique character in the AdMech force. (Hieronomus Tezla says hello.) Lucius and (Metalica or Ryza depending on the current Edition) round out as the "main three" Forge Worlds, fluff wise.

However, each world has their own rules and details in the fluff, although the new ones remain somewhat intentionally vague for [[your dudes]] purposes -- Triplex Phall lends itself to odd conversions because "It's Archeotech!"; Deimos lends itself to borrowing some Grey Knights aesthetic and allies; Gryphonne IV being nomadic lends itself to battle damage and the like. Even the "old" forge worlds get some additional flavor in the new fluff -- Stygies VIII lends itself well to sneaky types or Xenos conversions and allies; Agripinaa force-conscripting refugees encourages Servitors / Skitarii converted from Imperial Guard (or even Ecclesiarchy and Necromunda). Metalica going on a ''fucking safari'' for Hive Fleet Leviathan splinter fleets just screams "Nid Hunter" Skitarii.

== The Religion of the Adeptus Mechanicus ==

''The Mysteries

''01. Life is directed motion.

''02. The spirit is the spark of life.

''03. Sentience is the ability to learn the value of knowledge.

''04. Intellect is the understanding of knowledge.

''05. Sentience is the basest form of Intellect.

''06. Understanding is the True Path to Comprehension.

''07. Comprehension is the key to all things.

''08. The Omnissiah knows all, comprehends all.

There's definitely variation in the creed between forgeworlds and different cults-- even post Heresy, Mars is not unified-- but a lot of them operate on this sort of platonic/hermeticist logic. Regardless of whether they believe all knowledge already exists or that the disciplined mind can create new things, the religion is trying for union with some perfect being. Whether that's taken to mean "become a robot because the flesh is weak", "find salvation in logic", or even "cultivate the Omnissiah within you" (which would lead to radical differences in practice, from penitent cyberization cults to contemplative engineering orders, which we see in the many faces of the Mechanicum, [[Koriel Zeth]], Forgeworld Mezoa, the [[Myrmidon]] Orders, etc), it all leads back to a cautious quest to be the best you can be with logic as your guide.

===The Void Dragon===
A lot of their tech stuffs come from the Void Dragon that the Emperor bested and imprisoned on Mars ages ago as so humanity could gain mastery over machines. While it might have worked pretty well back when the Imperium wasn't the festering portaloo of a grimdark shitpit it is today, it's pretty much a matter of time it escapes. The Necrons already attempted to raid Mars - they got vaporized before they could really even do anything, but the fact they managed to even land proved a point the High Lords of Terra had been turning a blind eye towards for ages.

If the T-800s get what they want and party on Mars long enough to wake the Void Dragon up, it's going to be a pretty goddamned bad day for just about any human not [[Feral World|wearing loincloths and still bashing rocks together]]. The few Mechanicus agents who have figured this out have either gone rogue, blammed or gone totally bonkers, ripping all the implants from their flesh. And when you're a member of the Mechanicus, that's about 80% of your body.

Of course, the even worse possibility is that the void dragon enjoys this situation, as every time the tech-priests remove their flesh and place more machine into it, they could be feeding him a fraction of their soul. As there are quite a few tech-priests out there, and humanity being the rabbits they are, this would give him a lifetime of souls to be eating, and a personal army that is very much willing. Ironically, given this, it could mean the Void Dragon might side with humanity as an endlessly increasing supply of soul-stuff. The Mechanicus gets its implants and technology and does not lose enough of their souls to not pass on when they die, the Void Dragon gets a bit of soul from each of them and their numbers endlessly increase with humanity's ever growing population. Everyone wins and, as we all know, Dragons are rather protective of their hoards....

By the way, the "Void" Dragon is actually only called "The Dragon" in the official fluff, probably as a reference to Metropolis. <s>But for God knows what unreasonable reason, /tg/ insists on calling him the "Void Dragon", thus confusing him with an Eldar aircraft, or with an Eldar pirate warband. Unless it's an obscure vidya reference. Whatever, maybe it just sounds cooler.</s> The [[Eldar]] refer to it as the "Void Dragon", and the aircraft and pirate warband take their names from it.

'''UPDATE:''' The new Codex: Necrons written by our [[Matt Ward|Spiritual Liege]] reveals the necrons are no longer enslaved by the C'tan, instead they are their sworn enemies for tricking them into giving up flesh. They were probably going to Mars to capture the Imperial held C'tan shard of the Void Dragon as they won't see humans reliable, or perhaps they were under control of another shard, and wanted to liberate it, oh whatever, for what we know it may have been [[Trazyn the Infinite|Trollzyn]] trying to loot Mars. Or, maybe they simply realize that having a C'tan that can control technology on a planet-sized machine-scape is a ''bad'' idea. It is unlikely that the Void Dragon would have been shattered, though. Because it is hard to do that to something with technology when that something has complete control over all technology. Yeah. Which, in hind-sight, might be part of the reason why the Necrons went into hibernation. Because when you are a living machine and you just pissed off something that controls machines... it is a good time to ''run away'' really fast.

The only thing that changes as a result of that is once the Void Dragon (shard or whole, who knows?) wakes up, it will be the only C'tan with ready access to an army, and a pretty damn huge one at that- so it's not only going to be a real bad day for the Imperium, but the Necrons as well.

'''UPDATE 2:''' And now it seems the World Engine of [[Astral Knights]] fame was supposed to be en route to Mars in order to allow his usurper Phaeron to get himself a new Void Dragon Pokémon, good thing he got sabotaged.

== On the Tabletop ==
''See also [[Warhammer_40,000/Tactics/Adeptus_Mechanicus(8E)|AdMech 8E Tactics]]''

8th Edition has landed, and the AdMech are resurgent. Having Cult Mechanicus and Skitarii merged together into one list was good enough, but they also merged Imperial Knights as "Questor Mechanicus" -- AdMech aligned Imperial Knight houses. Imperial Armor: Fires of Cyraxus is coming out "real soon now" which will have AdMech vs Tau and promises a bunch of new stuff, as well.

The biggest change, outside of the Knights now being part of AdMech (which means they can be repaired~!) is the promotion of the Enginseer from Elite to HQ, allowing for a cheap HQ option if a tax is needed.

The Mechanicus received an entire army's worth of new plastic models and rulebook! Praise the Omnissiah!

At the moment, the Admech is divided into a number of different mini-factions. Currently, the [[Skitarii]] and the Cult Mechanicus army have been fully released. There is also the "Titan Guard" Secutarii on the way, but they're a Forge World army. The [[Legio Cybernetica]] is also part of the Adeptus Mechanicus, though aside from the Kastelan, they're [[Horus Heresy]] only. There's also the Taghmata, which are like feudal troops, but they're not as much of a thing in the lore of 40K (though they have a HH dex, see below).

The current releases include Skitarii, who are like if the Guard were badass technogrunge medievalpunk super-soldiers with access to all the good shit, spider-tanks, scout walkers that are basically the Sentinel if it was good, Servitors on tank treads that will wreck your shit, giant crazy-tough robots that will wreck your shit harder, and a plastic Magos HQ unit! Truly, venerate the Omnissiah, and He will provide. The Cult Mechanicus, meanwhile, consists mainly of half-naked tech-priests with a fetish for electricity and some battle servitors, including the aformentioned Kastelan. Tech-Priest Magos are also the only figures in modern 40k that carry [[Volkite]] weapons. The upcoming Titan Guard are divided into Peltasts and Hoplites, which are fitting descriptions as the former look to be ranged skirmishers, while the latter are heavily armored spearmen (the spears happen to shoot electricity).

== Notable Members ==
* [[Archmagos]] [[Belisarius Cawl]]: Creator of the Primarines, their wargear, and Big G's current armor.
* [[Arkhan Land]]: An archivist who discovered STC fragments which brought about anything [[Land Raider|with the]] [[Land Crawler|name "Land"]] [[Land Speeder|in it]].

==Gallery==
{{Promotions}}
<gallery>
image:Adeptus_Mechanicus.jpg
Image:TechpriestChiyo.jpg|D'awwww.
Image:Mechanicuuuuus.jpg
Image:AdMech_Couple.jpg|D'awwww. By the way this is canon.
Image:CircleA_AdMech.jpg|PRAISE THE OMNISSIAH!
Image:rave_heretek_by_psykerscum.jpg|Someone got Chaos on my Mechanicus, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbAUwi4D3Ew now with theme music!]
image:1318818198286.gif.jpg|We're not sure if that's tech-heresy or an actual activation ritual. Ask your local Magos for clarification.
Image:Leokadia chernabog by mr culexus-d3hxqx2.jpg|showin' a little augmented leg
Image:AdMech Scientific Method.jpg|Science in the 41st Millennium.
Image:Madonna mechanicae by sexual yeti-daubney.jpg|TECHPRIESTESS TITTIES
Image:T girl by skeenlangly-d2y4n3p.png
Image:Time to technical inspection by SkeeNLangly.jpg
</gallery>

==See Also==
*[[Warhammer_40,000/Tactics/Adeptus_Mechanicus(8E)|Mechanicus Tactics.]] - [[Awesome|Yes, they have rules now.]]
*[[Warhammer_40,000/Tactics/Mechanicum_(30k)|Heresy Era Mechanicum Tactics.]] - 6th/early 7th edition rules. Very different from either of the 40k versions.
*[[Warhammer_40,000/Tactics/Mechanicum:_Taghmata_(30k)|Mechanicum: Taghmata (30k)]] - Current 7th edition rules. Still very different to the 40k versions.
*[[Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus]] - The official Vidya Gaem

==Links==
*[https://store.steampowered.com/app/673880/Warhammer_40000_Mechanicus/ The Mechanicus video game,] an [[XCOM]]-style game where you play as a bunch of tech-priests raiding a [[Necron]] tomb. It's definitely one of the better 40k games to come out in the past few years.
*[https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLyLLeKcxw24U8s8C24FyUQ0EVS30stymM The soundtrack from the Mechanicus video game,] which is easily some of the best 40k music out there.
*The Adeptus Mechanicus are [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17PM-UMVud8 avid music lovers.]
*This is [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ecvLRxb3MU their theme] done by [[HMKids]].
*And one for [https://youtu.be/Jb8J1zx2Lrg the Machine Cult].
*And their [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wy-sVTaZRPk War Cant], play it the next time your Techpriest needs to get pumped before a battle.

{{Mechanicus}}
{{Imperium}}
{{WH40k-Factions}}
{{Template:40k-Governments}}

Adeptus Mechanicus

2019-08-30T22:34:05Z

2001:56A:F829:9000:ADC3:1D30:369A:26C0: /* The Religion of the Adeptus Mechanicus */

{{awesome}}
{{Infobox 40k Nations
|name= Adeptus Mechanicus
|image= [[Image:AdMech_Flag.jpg ‎|300px|center]]
|bgcolor=
|fgcolor=
|Capital=[[Mars]]
|Official Languages=Lingua-technis, Low Gothic, High Gothic
|Power=Galactic Superpower
|Size=Galactic <br> 125 Known Forgeworlds <br> totals presumably in the tens-of-thousands <br> Numerous outposts and research stations
|Head of State=[[High Lords of Terra#Members|Fabricator-General of Mars]]
|Head of Government=[[High Lords of Terra#Members|Fabricator-General of Mars]], Martian Parliament
|Governmental Structure=Totalitarian Theocratic Technocracy (''Before Great Crusade'') <br> Semi-Autonomous Corporatocratic Theocratic Technocracy (''Great Crusade-41st Millennium'')
|State Religion/Ideology=Cult Mechanicus / [[Omnissiah]] worship
|Demographic=[[Humans]], various [[Servitors]], assorted Transhumans and Cyborgs
|Military Force=[[Skitarii]], [[Titan (Warhammer 40,000)|Collegia Titanica]], [[Ordinatus|Centurio Ordinatus]], [[Legio Cybernetica]], [[Imperial Knight|Knight Houses]]
}}
{{Topquote|War is the science of destruction.|John Abbott}}
{{Topquote|Go go gadget Rocket boots!|an Ancient Terran Skitarii protector, code name "Gadget", seen as a living saint among the early Mechanicum}}
{{Topquote|I am... a machine|An ancient Terran Cybernetic law officer, serial numbers "R080-C0P" defended Hive City Detroit from those who would abuse the Omnissiah's subjects}}
{{Topquote|Technology is a gift of God. After the gift of life it is perhaps the greatest of God's gifts. It is the mother of civilizations, of arts and of sciences.|Freeman Dyson}}
{{Topquote|Sometimes I wonder why you submitted to the changes."<br>"Improvements! I submit to no one. I chose them.|A-4D & General Grievous, in a galaxy far far away... }}
{{Topquote|1=[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wy-sVTaZRPk Our Wrath Has Come Online]|2=War Cant of Mars}}

Basically what happens when you combine the extreme technophilia and cyborg-fetishism of the [[Cyberpunk]] Genre with the religiosity and aesthetics of Medieval Catholicism, the '''Adeptus Mechanicus'''; [https://youtu.be/7p3H5avBJs0 Formerly] known as the '''Mechanicum''' and often shortened as '''AdMech''', is an organization in the [[Imperium of Man]] (In the loosest sense of the word) that simultaneously operates as a government ministry, religious organization and Technology Corporation, responsible for science, technology, engineering, manufacturing and most of the Imperium's Industrial production, as well as the operation of the [[Titan (Warhammer 40,000)|Titan]] Legions.

The Adeptus Mechanicus, whose individual members are known as [[Techpriest]]s, own dozens, maybe hundreds of heavily polluted planet-factories known as [[Forge World#Planet|forge worlds]], which are covered in massive manufactoria or, as they are known to speakers of Low Gothic, 'work'. The largest forge world of the Adeptus Mechanicus is its homeworld [[Mars]], on which the most badass weapons ever known to man are made. Despite being part of the Imperium, the AdMech was actually its own nation and a respectable superpower in its own right throughout the Great Crusade and largely is to this day. The 'being-part-of-the-Imperium' shtick was a symbolic gesture of goodwill signed by the Treaty of Mars, but was codified when they became the "Adeptus Mechanicus" after their former leader fell to chaos. They still secured quasi-independence and private property rights though, courtesy of [[Awesome|marching an Imperator titan into the senate chamber and holding them at building-sized gunpoint]].

The Adeptus Mechanicus is basically the definition of a Mega-Corporation, or a [[Monopoly]], similar to Apple, Microsoft and Google Inc. in real life. Though they are still politically part of the United States, they are simply so rich and powerful, and have totally privatised the production and manufacturing of technology for themselves, that they can basically buy the government and its politicians. Similarly, the Imperium may hate the AdMech for being Heretics, they have private claim to all the various Forgeworlds, Manufactoria, Mining worlds and Research Stations needed for the production of Imperium war machines. Where else can you even buy a new cellphone or have repair maintenance for your servitors, if not your local Techpriest? Because of this privatised monopoly, the AdMech has become an Empire within an Empire, and can ''possibly'' survive without the Imperium, while the Imperium cannot.

They have a monopoly on [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TvN5lCVkRk all the really cool shit for themselves (aside from the overpowered DAOT artefacts in the emperors basement)]—like Titans, [[Ordinatus]], and other wonderful stuff—only letting the Imperials have it when absolutely necessary or if they're threatened personally, with the justification of keeping the good shit away from [[Chaos]] in case an army rebels. They have two armies of their own, which are not anything like the [[Imperial Guard]], as they are mostly composed of badass angry technogrunge cyborgs that are more violent than ED209, [[Servitor|lobotomized minions]] manufactured out of clones and heretics, and [[Titan (Warhammer 40,000)|giant, world-devastating Super Robots]]. They are also technological rivals with the [[Tau|space weeaboos with transforming mecha]] and potentially have made a few advances beyond the [[Eldar]], though the Eldar are much more advanced in psionic technology.

Only the [[Necrons]], an entire race of robots whose race-wide robotization was not their most advanced feat, eclipse them technologically. The Adeptus Mechanicus are conflicted on how to perceive the Necrons; some see them as perverse because it's alien, some are envious of the Necrons, others revere them as agents of the Machine-God and tend to kill themselves attempting to [[Looted|loot]] Necron tombs (though [[Void Dragon|there may be truth to this]]).

They typically look like a cross between [[Star Wars|Jawas]] and [[/co/|Doctor Octopus]] with a healthy dose of [[Dune|The Bene Tleilax]], as well as wearing the sort of re-breather masks that you'll typically see on riot police.

==The Commandments of the Mechanicus==
The Mechanicus have some ideas that they abide by:

'''The Mysteries:'''
#Life is directed motion.
#The spirit is the spark of life.
#Sentience is the ability to learn the value of knowledge.
#Intellect is the understanding of knowledge.
#Sentience is the basest form of Intellect.
#Understanding is the True Path to Comprehension.
#Comprehension is the key to all things.
#The Omnissiah knows all, comprehends all.

'''The Warnings:'''
#The alien mechanism is a perversion of the true path.
#The soul is the conscience of sentience.
#A soul can be bestowed only by the Omnissiah.
#The Soulless sentience is the enemy of all.
#The knowledge of the ancients stands beyond question.
#The machine spirit guards the knowledge of the ancients.
#Flesh is fallible, but ritual honors the machine spirit.
#To break with ritual is to break with faith.

== What the Mechanicus does ==
[[Image:Mechanical-man.jpg|thumb|300px|right|[[Awesome|"You may say, it is impossible for a man to become like the Machine. And I would reply, that only the smallest mind strives to comprehend its limits."<br>- Fabricator General Kane.]]]]
The main role of the Adeptus Mechanicus is to maintain the advanced equipment of the Imperium; which despite stereotypes, they are actually very good at. Most of their rituals to appease machinery are pretty much the same methods we would use to repair our machinery with a whole bunch of religious iconography mixed in. The terms used by the Mechanicus are quite similar to our engineers if you swap some of the words (replace machine spirit with A.I, sacred oils with lubricant etc.) Because of its religious nature some of the components of the rituals are unnecessary but almost all Tech-Priests skip or abandon the unnecessary stuff in dire situations. It's also implied that the so-called holy chants are really them repeating instructions to themselves-useful for remembering what you're doing. The cases where chanting is actually necessary is where they are working with something like a [[Land Raider]] or Titan - both of which have a temperamental machine spirit - that you don't want to piss off.

They spend a lot of time traveling across the galaxy looking for some old laptops called "[[Standard Template Construct]]s" that have all the info necessary for the first human colonist do their job well (mostly a mix of Ikea and "high-tech for dummies" manuals). This is the reason why you will end up selling groxburgers if you study to be a scientist (unless you have balls or are a spess mehreen artificer who might make something really good) in the [[Imperium]]: everything was already done by the ancients in the Dark Age of [[Cyberpunk|William Gibson]] and recorded in these STCs. Thanks to glitches, lack of maintenance, and Chaos corruption, nearly all the STCs found by the Mechanicus are more fucked up than Windows Vista. While the recoverable STCs are often useless or incomplete, there are rare instances where they are functional, such as the STC data of the Land Raider and the Land Speeder as well as Centurion armour. Another nice example is the one found in the novel Skitarius by [[Rob Sanders]], where the badass protagonist helps the Adeptus Mechanicus priests to find a sort of "Empyrean Bomb", capable of dissipating warp phenomena (this bomb's utilization would've negated the cause of the post-Iron War part of the Age of Strife, which was caused by humanity's worlds being cut-off by Warp storms). More often than not STC data comes from print-outs from fragmented STCs, or copies of these print-outs. These printouts, when discovered, are studied, translated and argued over for centuries before any useful products are made from them. If they ever find an undamaged complete STC, this would likely cause a schism within the Mechanicus and tear the Imperium asunder. It's worth noting that different writers seem to have different ideas of what an STC is. Some depict them as a single blueprint for some high-tech equipment, some depict them as a database of those blueprints, and on at least one occasion an STC was portrayed as a massive 3-D Printer. The Adeptus Mechanicus also sometimes attempt to loot [[Necron]] tombs and will gladly put an entire world at risk for this, and act like it's blasphemy of the most serious kind when people wall it off because of the goddamn killer robot skeletons! The idiots. The Priests of Mars also will not mind getting their hands on Xenos artifacts to see how such "blasphemies" can work, and maybe give a hint of how a [[Orky|"pure" design should have been.]]

[[Image:MECHANICUS.jpg|thumb|500px|left|The faculty of engineering never looked so cool!]]
Very rarely does the Mechanicus actually invent something. While they do adapt designs occasionally, the only things they actually invented from scratch is the [[Lascannon]], the Dunestrider perpetual motion machine (whose creator was promptly executed and all designs lost upon creation), as well all the [[Titan (Warhammer 40,000)|Titans]], except for the Reaver and Apocalypse Classes, which were invented during the Age of Strife and the Dark Age of Technology respectively. Which is pretty odd, until you realize they invented them [[Horus Heresy|pre-heresy]]. Even things like [[Land Raider]]s and [[Land Speeder]]s, which were said to have been given critically important parts by the famous Mr. Land himself, were actually just made from really old bits Land found in the galaxy's third biggest library/archive/warehouse (the one on Terra). Well, they also invented the Infernus pattern Predator. Sure they built it on the [[Rhino Transport|Rhino]] chassis, but they created a pattern without killing everyone involved. Of course, they aren't ''actually'' "inventing" it; they are using "divinely inspired reason" to create something that has always existed, implicit in the logical structure of the universe. This is, interestingly, not a new idea, traceable back to philosophers like Plato. Conveniently, the Mechanicus will play to no end with the meaning of the word "invent" if they must get job done, as too often and despite /tg/'s cartoonish flanderization your average techpriest has the common sense to "feel divinely inspired" whenever his/her neck is on the line, you know, desperation is the mother of all inven... Ahem, I mean, "divinely inspired reason". More recently, several of the cogboys under the influence of Archmagos [[Belisarius Cawl]] have relearned actual innovation, producing entirely new designs like the [[Repulsor Tank]]. If they'll produce something that isn't a ripoff of crappier franchises is another thing else entirely. Most in universe and out just wish they could recreate mass Volkites in 40k and other 30k era shit that hasn't been ported over yet, as well as [[Plasma#Phased_Plasma_Fusil|Plasma that doesn't explode when overcharged or requiring such a thing.]]

Also important to mention is what they ''do not do.'' The Mechanicus by and large are the greediest gits in the galaxy, on top of being feudal as fuck. They hoard technology like it is going out of style, which would be fine, if they didn't hoard and defend it, but that isn't the point. The point ''is'' that each and every Forge World will basically [[Monopoly|try to own, buy, sell and take by force any existing technology]] while mostly paying lip service to Mars, and they're sure as hell not giving that STC of paperweight they found the other day to a neighboring Forge World. Getting a part, gun, computer, vehicle, schematic, program, eyepatch, cookie recipe, or even a [[Miniatures|tiny plastic model]] that wasn't specifically mass-produced and shipped to the [[Departmento Munitorum]] so ''they'' can give it to you, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TvN5lCVkRk is nearly impossible.] Anything with any kind of passing significance or interest to the Mechanicus is guarded by 7-foot cyborg death machines. Anything in the private possession of a Mechanicus operative that ''might be'' harder to make than a bolt or nut is treated like the holy grail. I dare you to try and [[rage|take a 8,000 year-old flash drive from a techpriest who just found it.]] It's worse than taking little plastic models from [[tg|fat men]] [[neckbeards|with beards]].

=== Mechanicum Understanding of Science ===
There's the common misconception that the AdMech don't really understand science and approach all tech with ritual and superstition. That's arguably wrong. In the "Mechanicum" novel they demonstrate theoretical knowledge of physics. Yes, that's 31st millennium, but it's quite clear that even in the 41st they know "normal" sciences like mechanics, thermodynamics, biology, optics, quantum physics, etc. The AdMech definitely has as much scientific knowledge as we have today, and probably more. And they are quite happy to play with it. What they don't really understand, and don't like to play with (unless absolutely forced to), is the hyper-advanced tech from the Dark Age of Technology.

Take the Lasgun as an example. There are almost infinite patterns of lasguns, many developed after the great crusade as the lasgun wasn't that common back then. They understand materials and mechanics well enough to create different stocks and triggers. They understand optics as they can focus the las beam with different barrel lengths. What they won't modify is the power pack, because the power pack is a scary super advanced piece of technology that not only will hold enough energy for a hundred las shots powerful enough to kill an armored man, but it will be easily rechargeable thousands of times. And they don't have a clue on how that works.

There's a quite good reason to that. The ultra advanced science used in the Dark Age of Technology was developed with the aid of AIs and super advanced computers. It's entirely possible that even the scientists of that time didn't fully understand their science and a lot of r&d was done automatically by artificial intelligence far superior to humans, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9OHn5ZF4Uo&t with programing so complex no human actually knew how the damn thing was thinking]. Now you can't do this anymore because you know that AIs will try to kill you. In the "Mechanicum" novel the Dragon Caretaker says that the Emperor engineered the creation of the Mechanicum. Why the atheist Emperor would create a machine cult if not because it was the only way to retain a technology that the humanity would have no possibility to comprehend anymore once that the AIs would be wiped out?

This is interesting because it's said that the Emperor defeated the [[Void Dragon|Dragon]] during the late Roman Empire, for this purpose. This means that he foresaw the rebellion of the machines and the long night and allowed it as a means to develop a technology that could then be salvaged after. Or just realized that a monster capable of controlling machines locked a stone's throw from Earth was really, really bad and decided to hedge his bets. If no AI rebellion, hyper-advanced cult of scientists dedicated to humanity. If AI rebellion, salvation for mankind. Either way, Man wins.

Then the Horus Heresy fucked up everything. And yes, the cult mentality of AdMech involved probably more than should have been. But the real reason that they don't go around innovating and creating new stuff, it's that it doesn't pay off. The real "power" of their technology comes from the Dark Age of Technology stuff and they are not able to touch that.

And this is not all. The lack of AIs and uber computational power hinders understanding advanced science to a point. it also absolutely wrecks your ability to produce practical applications of said advanced science. Let me make an example. You are fifty years in the future and fusion energy is an everyday reality from fusion power plants. ITER worked after all. You are transported on to a desert island and you have all the scientific knowledge of humanity in your brain. You are asked to build a practical fusion based power source. You can use any tool and component but you don't have access to computers. Can you do it?

Nah. You can understand perfectly how the thing should work and how to design one. But without computers you don't have the ability of run the extremely complex calculations and simulations to optimize the reactor to the point that it produces more energy than it consumes. So they hand you a blueprint of a currently working reactor. Can you build it now? Sure. You have a blueprint and the theoretical knowledge to understand what you are doing, so you build the damn thing.

Then they ask you if you can build another but slightly different. Bigger? Smaller? More powerful? Less powerful? Doesn't matter. Can you do that?

Well... maybe? You have the blueprints of a working design and you have the theoretical understanding on how it works, so you can try to modify it. But you still don't have the computational power to validate your modifications so... you can try? Best case scenario, it works. Worst case scenario? You nuke the whole fucking island. On the average? It will kinda work but it will less efficient/polished/optimized than the original design.

So you don't really like to modify the original (standard) template (construct), unless you are '''really''' forced to. That's the mechanicum mindset. People who think they're better than this almost always become examples demonstrating that the Mechanicum and later Mechanicus have the right idea.

== History of the Adeptus Mechanicus ==
[[File:Techpriests_are_still_human_deep_inside.jpg|thumb|200px|left|Who said they are not human or lack the human factor? And thanks to Priests of Mars this is canon.]]
The Mechanicus was established in the distant past, when a bunch of <s>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elon_Musk machine worshiping technophiles]</s> normal people terraformed Mars during mankind's dominating of the Solar System and colonizing of the galaxy. Thus Mars became an extremely technologically advanced society of astronauts, scientists, engineers, manufacturers, and miners wherein they could pursue advances in technology and power the [[Dark Age of Technology]]. During the [[Age of Strife]], their precious atmosphere was punctured, and solar radiation <s>beat down on their filthy heads</s> burned the land, boiled the seas, and took the sky from them, nuking all life. Everybody either died, hid underground, or turned feral. After hundreds of years of living from half-working mechanical bunker to partially-pressurized archaic hab spire; people began to look upon technology as a saviour and way to return to the former heights of glory. Thus, a new cult spread amongst the people of Mars, wherein they paid reverence to the Machine God. [[Just as planned]]. And then they joined the [[EMPRAH]] because they saw him as an aspect of the Machine God called the '[[Omnissiah]]'. As if the parallels aren't already tremendously clear at this point.

Except it's giant load of bullshit. The Tech-priesthood were FORCED to acknowledge the Big E as an incarnate of Machine God at gunpoint. This happened after they sent pretty much their entire fleet and army to Terra to prevent the Unification of meatbags, so they can continue to raid ancient Terran tombs and libraries once or twice a century. The Emperor's fleet fucked them so hard only one in ten returned to Mars to tell the tale, so the Fabricator-General was very cooperative when the Emprah's armada arrived in Mars' orbit. At least they managed to get a special exemption from the "no religions" rule, possibly because the Emperor already knew about the Dragon of Mars (see below; though it wouldn't be the first time a head of state was a hypocrite or practiced double standards). In exchange for giving the Imperium all the guns and tanks they needed, the Emperor promised the Fabricator-General full autonomy on all Forge Worlds, access to Navigators and Astropaths for space travel, and all Archeotech found during the [[Great Crusade]]. Naturally, this smoothed things over between the two factions, resulting in the Treaty of Mars and the beginning of the Imperium; As a sign of their alliance, the Emperor changed his sigil from the lightning bolt, as used by the [[Thunder Warriors]], to the two-headed Aquila.

Hilariously, the "Machine God" may actually be the [[Void Dragon]], one of the ancient [[C'tan]] Star Gods. The Void Dragon is actually one of the most powerful of the C'tan, controlling all machines. All those techpriests are going to have serious problems when it wakes up...It's on Mars because the EMPRAH roofied it and turned it into an angry cave on Mars. It's now guarded by the Mechanicus in their Noctys Labyrinth. This point of view is not certain, so the Machine God may be anything like the collective mass of all machines or the sum of all knowledge, neither would all Mechanicus accept a C'Tan as their lord (but that's the point, they don't know it's a C'tan if it is). But it's a more [[Grimdark|fun]] version, isn't it?

The Mechanicum only lasted till midway through the Heresy. Loyal tech magi were evacuated from Mars when the Death of Innocence hit the planet and a new Fabricator General was elected. This posed a bit of a problem for the Mechanicum as a whole as the previous Fabricator General was technically still the head of the Mechanicum and still held Mars. Various allied and vassal parts of the Mechanicum had a legal meltdown as to who they were supposed to be loyal to - the nation they were a part of and technically still subordinate to or the overarching Empire they had sworn fealty to by proxy. Martian loyalists suggested the creation of a new Adeptus to put the Mechanicum on a level playing field with the other sections of the council of Terra, gaining a voice in the running of the Imperium as a whole. The other sections weren't keen on the idea but took the opportunity to roll other Martian assets into Terra's direct control. The Martian ambassador resolved the complicated Binary Succession issue by literally walking an Imperator Titan right outside the council chambers until the council agreed. Thus the modern Adeptus Mechanicus was formed.

They also created a [[Steel Confessors|Chapter]] of [[Space Marines]] meant to be loyal to them over the rest of the Imperium once. The Imperium actually reacted rather well, only taking their toy away instead of smashing the fuck out of every Forge World and mind-raping every Tech-Priest and servitor involved, which the Imperium is fully capable of doing but it wouldn't be worth nearly the effort unless something extremely stupid happened.

== The Machine Spirits ==
[[Image:Magos Dominus.jpg|thumb|300px|right|Your average Magos]]
{{topquote|If you run from technology, it will chase you.|Robert M. Pirsig}}

The "[[Machine Spirit]]" is the Imperium's version of Artificial Intelligence, mainly because after the reunification of [[Earth|Terra]]; the Emperor forbade the use of AI in machinery (partly because of the ancient rebellion of the [[Men of Iron]], but mostly to prevent Chaos-corrupted AIs from skullfucking them, Skynet style).

For all the importance of Machine Spirits to the Mechanicus, it's not entirely clear what they actually are. One theory holds that there is actually a semi-sentient AI fragment in virtually everything electronic, a leftover from the Age of Strife. These "ghosts in the machine" must be appeased, or else they'll fuck with the targeting systems in your Bolter at the worst possible moment, start doing doughnuts with your Land Raider, and generally act like [[dick]]s. All the ritual and apparent silliness of the Cult Mechanicus, then, is actually necessary to keep the machines operating.

The prevailing theory within the Mechanicus itself seemingly holds is that a Machine Spirit is a fragment of the Machine God itself. Whether this is simply rhetoric (you need to keep your gun oiled, or it'll backfire, and the cogboys are really picky about how you oil it) or the actual truth (the Machine God extends its awareness to literally every machine in the universe, which is disturbingly more possible than one might think), the fact remains that Machine Spirits are real enough to severely ruin your day (or your continent, in the case of an itinerant Titan). The ritual and mysticism surrounding the Cult Mechanicum's everyday activities is far more important to them than even the Imperial Creed.

The Techpriests of Mars got around the restrictions against "Abominable Intelligence" in true WH40K [[grimdark]] fashion: cut out the "Artificial" part and make it organic, and vice versa. Nearly every piece of sophisticated machinery in the Imperium operates via a cogitator, analogous to a modern-day microchip, which is basically the cloned or recycled brain of a human converted to function like a horrific cyborg CPU. This interpretation of the "Machine Spirit" is particularly disturbing, to be sure, but is necessary because the Iron Men incident and Age of Strife in general made the Imperium fear the "Silica Animus". The only true difference between a semi-organic cogitator and a true AI is that their machine spirits cannot learn or improve on their own, and therefore must be manually programmed by their operators if they need to learn or do anything that is outside their current programming. Thus, it is now ''nearly'' impossible for machines to rebel on their own, quelling the fears of the Imperium.

In any of these cases, it can be easily understood why machines are revered by the Mechanicus and why they are treated like sentient beings. Although, the AdMech is a bit fuzzy just ''how'' sentient machines are; are they somehow capable of thought like organics or no more sentient than your bread toaster at home?

== Forge Worlds ==


See [[Forge World#Planet]] for a comprehensive list of all Forge Worlds.

Forge Worlds are all based on Mars. Literally so -- the AdMech so revere the nuke blasted hellscape of Mars that they intentionally terraform other planets into it. Filled with a combination of research labs, libraries, churches, forges, warehouses and factories, the Forge Worlds provide the Imperium with the vast majority of their equipment. However this didn't stop the Mechanicum from setting up shop anywhere they could during Old Night and the Great Crusade, including the volcanic Mezoa and frozen Altus Ferro.

Each Forge World has their own color scheme, themes, and specialties, similar to Space Marine chapters or Imperial Guard regiments.

=== 8th Edition's Forge Worlds of choice are: ===
* '''Mars''': The original. Likely has a C'tan (The [[Void Dragon]]) buried inside it. Mars is a radioactive desert wasteland where factories and other forge world bits are built on top of kilometer deep ruins of previous bits, all infested with insane robots, sentient demonic warp viruses, and other things that go bump in the night that have been dicking around since the Horus Heresy. Immediately after the Dark Age of Technology they went full ''Kin-Dza-Dza'' and devolved into atmosphere-less techno-barbarianism until the Emperor showed up after he conquered Earth.
* '''Lucius''': Teleportation and Armor specialists, as well as known for a strange "solar blessed" metal called Luciun. Lucius is hollow, with an artificial star inside. Was attacked by Hive Fleet Leviathan, they survived by hiding inside their planet and sending out hordes of Servitors, letting them get eaten, then using Servo-skulls to pull the techy bits back underground and put them on new cloned bodies before the biomass could be absorbed, effectively starving the Leviathan forces to death. Had a civil war called the Inculcata Schism that almost caused the planet to ''implode'' (teleportation specialists is a nice way of saying "experiments with warp tech"), so they wear red as a way to kiss up to Mars. This is a common theme among forge worlds.
* '''Agripinaa''': Right outside of and now the front line to the Eye of Terror. After Cadia fell all the refugees fled to Stygies VIII and Agripinaa... who forcibly conscripted them into their Skitarii and Servitor forces. They effectively blackmailed millions of desperate refugees, trapped on their planet and in orbit, and turned them into various flavors of mindless or brainwashed combat cyborgs. Also known for sending incursions around and occasionally ''into'' the Eye of Terror.
* '''Stygies VIII''': Had '''two''' Titan legions based on it during the Horus Heresy, '''both''' of which turned traitor. They were saved at the last minute by the [[Eldar]], leading to them having a soft spot for Xenos. Home to the Xenarite faction, a faction that believes in studying Xenos technology, officially to better understand why Humanity's technology is superior. Stygies is also home to the "Runic Priests," (No, [[Space Wolves|not those]]), a faction of AdMech specialized in intuition, speculation, and improvisation. Ultimately considered "too big to fail," the High Lords of Terra declared they were to be left alone, despite flirting with Xenos crap and Heretekal science. Eventually the Inquisition found out and decided to purge the planet anyway, in the '''Xenarite Schism'''. Stygies VIII responded by unleashing a computer virus that constantly purges the Administratum and the Ordo Xenos' computer systems of any evidence or discussion of how Stygies VIII is technically a Heretek world, while the Xenarites went mostly underground. [[Deathwatch]] Kill Teams still frequently attack them, alongside various Xenos forces who want their tech back. Stygians are stealth specialists, which they will deny whenever asked; they're also known for pretending to be from Mars when needed due to their color scheme. Currently invading the Eldar Webway in an attempt at raiding the [[Black Library]].
* '''Graia''': Even more aspie than normal AdMechs, Graia are nearly immune to psykers due to being too logical to manipulate. Notable for their space station that covers a huge portion of their planet, which is actually a space ''ship'' which Graia move around, and even take through the warp! Both Chaos and the Necrons target them for it. The whole Forge World lives on this <s>yellow submarine</s> space thing due to opening some sort of portal to ''somewhere'' on the planet's surface long ago. Known for refusing to retreat even when losses are guaranteed because to do so would mean their logical predictions were wrong. Red on their uniform is ostensibly because they are loyal to Mars, but actually because [[Blood Angels|they like blood]].
* '''Metalica''': Metalica is a completely sterile world, no atmosphere, no life, no anything but ''metal''. This may or may not be due to an [[retcon|ancient copyright scouring]] by a musical group bearing a similar name. Their Titan Legion was nearly destroyed during the Second War for Armageddon; their Princeps was ordered by Planetary Governor and notorious incompetent boob [[Herman von Strab]] to attack a horde of Gargants that outnumbered them three-to-one with no support like suicidal maniacs, and when that predictably failed the Legion then [[Death Korps of Krieg|''became'' suicidal maniacs]] by [[Astral Knights|self-destructing]] in the heart of the Ork forces because they weren't allowed to retreat. Totally ''not'' the noise AdMech -- their guns are intentionally loud to ''proclaim the glory of the Omnissiah.'' Metalica is also known for being the first Imperium force to go on a Tyranid safari. That's right, they're '''[[Awesome|actively hunting Hive Fleet Leviathan.]]''' They are, in fact, ''so metal.''
* '''Ryza''': Energy shield and plasma specialists, who have nothing to do with the [[Tau]] because they managed to remain relatively unmolested until the Mechanicus found them again during the Great Crusade. They have been invaded by [[Orks]] repeatedly, to the point that most of their Forge World's output goes directly to its own self defense. The more red on a Ryzan's robe, the more important they are. Led an aborted invasion of the Maelstrom in an attempt to go after the DarkMech world of Sarum. Ryza has a sect of Ruststalkers that have gone rogue, but still worship the Omnissiah so whatevs, it's all good. Known for being very ''enthusiastic'' towards melee combat, may or may not be due to Ork influence.

=== 8th Edition was nice enough to flesh out several back-canon Forge Worlds as well: ===
* '''Triplex Phall''': Isolated, on the far east side of the galaxy, Triplex Phall has recovered a ton of STC and Archeotech but refused to give it to Mars. Basically AdMech Protestants. Mars now has a Skitarii Legion following them around with express instructions to warn Mars if Triplex Phall forces find anymore secret tech. Invaded by Hive Fleet Kraken, attacked by Typhus, and invaded by Daemons.
* '''Deimos''': The moon of Mars, gifted to the [[Grey Knights]] of [[Titan]] at the end of the Horus Heresy. Originally responsible for building the favored patterns of [[Rhino]] and [[Predator]] during the Great Crusade, they now make Grey Knight wargear and use Servitors to transfer the material between the Grey Knights and Deimos, mindscrubbing them at each end, allowing both organizations to keep their secrets. Deimos has ''three'' different Knight houses, because apparently the Grey Knights aren't enough knights for Deimos.
* '''Voss Prime''': The most Mars-fanboyish of the Mars Fanboys, has a focus on Legio Cybernetica robots. Closest Forge World to Armageddon. Voss has a huge asteroid field that repelled an Ork [[Waaagh]] merely on accident. Known for good tanks, but crappy plasma weapons. Not to be confused with Voss, which is another Forge World not too far away from Voss Prime. During the [[Great Crusade]] they made enough [[lasgun]]s to ''arm the entire [[Solar Auxilia]] with''. Builds weird ships the Imperial Navy didn't ask for, like slow light cruisers and frigates with torpedos.
* '''Gryphonne IV''': The lost Forge world. They are responsible for a lot of Imperial Guard support-tank patterns, thanks to the real-life [[Forge_World#Company|Forge World]]. The Tyranids ate their planet after they refused to listen to Inquisitor Kryptman, so they have become the first nomadic Forge "World": a space fleet actively seeking out a planet they can terraform into a new Mars. Whether or not Gryphonnians want to terraform said world into (degenerate-biome barren world) present-day Mars, or a (lush and properly-terraformed) Dark Age of Technology Mars is anyone's guess. Gryphonne IV is ''definitely not'' [[Craftworld|copying anything]].

The "big" Forge World remains Mars, with [[Cawl]] being the only unique character in the AdMech force. (Hieronomus Tezla says hello.) Lucius and (Metalica or Ryza depending on the current Edition) round out as the "main three" Forge Worlds, fluff wise.

However, each world has their own rules and details in the fluff, although the new ones remain somewhat intentionally vague for [[your dudes]] purposes -- Triplex Phall lends itself to odd conversions because "It's Archeotech!"; Deimos lends itself to borrowing some Grey Knights aesthetic and allies; Gryphonne IV being nomadic lends itself to battle damage and the like. Even the "old" forge worlds get some additional flavor in the new fluff -- Stygies VIII lends itself well to sneaky types or Xenos conversions and allies; Agripinaa force-conscripting refugees encourages Servitors / Skitarii converted from Imperial Guard (or even Ecclesiarchy and Necromunda). Metalica going on a ''fucking safari'' for Hive Fleet Leviathan splinter fleets just screams "Nid Hunter" Skitarii.

== The Religion of the Adeptus Mechanicus ==

''The Mysteries

''01. Life is directed motion.

''02. The spirit is the spark of life.

''03. Sentience is the ability to learn the value of knowledge.

''04. Intellect is the understanding of knowledge.

''05. Sentience is the basest form of Intellect.

''06. Understanding is the True Path to Comprehension.

''07. Comprehension is the key to all things.

''08. The Omnissiah knows all, comprehends all.

There's definitely variation in the creed between forgeworlds and different cults-- even post Heresy, Mars is not unified-- but a lot of them operate on this sort of platonic/hermeticist logic. Regardless of whether they believe all knowledge already exists or that the disciplined mind can create new things, the religion is trying for union with some perfect being. Whether that's taken to mean "become a robot because the flesh is weak", "find salvation in logic", or even "cultivate the Omnissiah within you" (which would lead to radical differences in practice, from penitent cyberization cults to contemplative engineering orders, which we see in the many faces of the Mechanicum, [[Koriel Zeth]], Forgeworld Mezoa, the [[Myrmidon]] Orders, etc), it all leads back to a cautious quest to be the best you can be with logic as your guide.

===The Void Dragon===
A lot of their tech stuffs come from the Void Dragon that the Emperor bested and imprisoned on Mars ages ago as so humanity could gain mastery over machines. While it might have worked pretty well back when the Imperium wasn't the festering portaloo of a grimdark shitpit it is today, it's pretty much a matter of time it escapes. The Necrons already attempted to raid Mars - they got vaporized before they could really even do anything, but the fact they managed to even land proved a point the High Lords of Terra had been turning a blind eye towards for ages.

If the T-800s get what they want and party on Mars long enough to wake the Void Dragon up, it's going to be a pretty goddamned bad day for just about any human not [[Feral World|wearing loincloths and still bashing rocks together]]. The few Mechanicus agents who have figured this out have either gone rogue, blammed or gone totally bonkers, ripping all the implants from their flesh. And when you're a member of the Mechanicus, that's about 80% of your body.

Of course, the even worse possibility is that the void dragon enjoys this situation, as every time the tech-priests remove their flesh and place more machine into it, they could be feeding him a fraction of their soul. As there are quite a few tech-priests out there, and humanity being the rabbits they are, this would give him a lifetime of souls to be eating, and a personal army that is very much willing. Ironically, given this, it could mean the Void Dragon might side with humanity as an endlessly increasing supply of soul-stuff. The Mechanicus gets its implants and technology and does not lose enough of their souls to not pass on when they die, the Void Dragon gets a bit of soul from each of them and their numbers endlessly increase with humanity's ever growing population. Everyone wins and, as we all know, Dragons are rather protective of their hoards....

By the way, the "Void" Dragon is actually only called "The Dragon" in the official fluff, probably as a reference to Metropolis. <s>But for God knows what unreasonable reason, /tg/ insists on calling him the "Void Dragon", thus confusing him with an Eldar aircraft, or with an Eldar pirate warband. Unless it's an obscure vidya reference. Whatever, maybe it just sounds cooler.</s> The [[Eldar]] refer to it as the "Void Dragon", and the aircraft and pirate warband take their names from it.

'''UPDATE:''' The new Codex: Necrons written by our [[Matt Ward|Spiritual Liege]] reveals the necrons are no longer enslaved by the C'tan, instead they are their sworn enemies for tricking them into giving up flesh. They were probably going to Mars to capture the Imperial held C'tan shard of the Void Dragon as they won't see humans reliable, or perhaps they were under control of another shard, and wanted to liberate it, oh whatever, for what we know it may have been [[Trazyn the Infinite|Trollzyn]] trying to loot Mars. Or, maybe they simply realize that having a C'tan that can control technology on a planet-sized machine-scape is a ''bad'' idea. It is unlikely that the Void Dragon would have been shattered, though. Because it is hard to do that to something with technology when that something has complete control over all technology. Yeah. Which, in hind-sight, might be part of the reason why the Necrons went into hibernation. Because when you are a living machine and you just pissed off something that controls machines... it is a good time to ''run away'' really fast.

The only thing that changes as a result of that is once the Void Dragon (shard or whole, who knows?) wakes up, it will be the only C'tan with ready access to an army, and a pretty damn huge one at that- so it's not only going to be a real bad day for the Imperium, but the Necrons as well.

'''UPDATE 2:''' And now it seems the World Engine of [[Astral Knights]] fame was supposed to be en route to Mars in order to allow his usurper Phaeron to get himself a new Void Dragon Pokémon, good thing he got sabotaged.

== Why Everything is so Grimdark ==
"The Mechanicus does NOT have the technology. They haven't been living on some fancy paradise planet since pre-Fall. Mars is an anarchic nightmare shithole the moment you leave the safe zones into the kilometres of labyrinthine corridors beneath it full of rogue machinery, self-aware and malevolent AI from before the Fall, and the daemon programs of the Heresy. EVERYTHING in the databases is fucked. The databases are fragmented over the entire surface to the extent that it would be impossible to see one tenth of the total files in the ludicrously extended life of a Magos even assuming that they are completely safe to visit. And they are not.

The files have been corrupted into madness by the Fall, and the unleashing of the most potent informational warfare systems ever to exist to defeat the Iron Men. Nearly all of Mars was rendered uninhabitable, what they live in now is built on the top of the ruins. They send archeotech expeditions in to find shit, nearly all of them never come back. The sheer number of rogue war machine running around in there is sufficient to rape the mind. Then came the Heresy, which was not earth-exclusive. Mars as the second most critical planet in the Imperium was the site of fighting nearly as ferocious as on Terra, with Mechanicus loyalists and Hereteks fighting tooth, nail, and mechadendrite everywhere. Ancient machines were unleashed, viruses both normal and daemonic unleashed into all the computer systems. Nearly every single stored record on Mars was rendered unusable, and those that survived are half the time self-aware and don't like you, or daemonic and actively try to kill you.

If you come back with a schematic, it is almost certainly gibberish, and if it isn't, it's probably corrupted into uselessness. If it does come back whole it was probably malevolently fucked with so that instead of a Lasgun power cell it's a fucking grenade set to detonate the second you finish building it. Why do you think they want off-world STCs so damned much if they had them all here? The fucking Heresy is why. Off-world they only have to contend with the Fall's war and its effects on the machinery plus twenty thousand years of degradation with no maintenance. But at least off-world it'll probably just not work instead of actively seek to kill you.

Why do you think they seek to placate the Machine Spirit? It's because it exists. The fragments of trillions of self-aware programs, flourishing during the Dark Age of Technology and shattered by Man in his war with the Iron men, imprisoning the few who had not set themselves irrevocably into the machinery, a prison smashed wide open by the Heresy. Everything that can hold programming in the Imperium has a shard of a program in it. EVERYTHING. And you'd better fucking please it or it will do everything in its power to make your day shit. Sure, if it's a Lasgun it'll just not work or start shooting off rounds by itself, but if you piss off a Land Raider you can say bye-bye to half a continent. They apply these principles to things without spirits by habit, since they're so used to dealing with tanks that if not talked to just right might go rogue and annihilate the Manufactorum before they can be killed.

This is why they do not like ANYONE fucking with technology, because it is so rare to find anything that just works it is critical it not be compromised. That, and they do not have the actual knowledge to fuck with it intelligently, just through experimentation, which inevitably leads to slaughter. Pressing buttons to see what works is fine in a 21st century computer, but it is a very stupid thing to do at the helm of a 410th century starship with the destructive power to end solar systems. The entire knowledge base of humanity was lost. Not forgotten, but outright lost. Everything at all, poof. Nobody knows anything because the Fall fucked everything up and the Heresy double-fucked it. To rebuild the theoretical framework needed to design new technologies that don't kill everyone near them would require starting from the ground up. They don't have the time, and they never have.

This gets on to the point of war and what it does to technology. Someone will parrot that it makes it go much faster. Yes, it makes practical applications of technology go much faster. It also utterly stops all research on the scientific theories behind those technologies. This means that when war chugs along for a decade or two things get done. It means when it goes on too long you run out of theories to turn into technologies, and then you run out of technologies to apply. You stagnate. When you have been fighting in a war for survival in a drastically overextended empire, this is what happens. You are desperate for any extra materiel that can possibly be produced. Half your entire fucking military might went rogue, smashed the half that stayed, leaving you with the tattered shreds of a war machine to keep hold of an empire that was reaching straining point with an army far larger. There is no time for the sort of applied research programs that took Man twenty five thousand years to develop, in a time of unprecedented growth and prosperity.

This is also why the Adeptus Mechanicus insists on cargo cultism. It's because when you are dealing with things you barely understand because everything you knew about them was destroyed it is the safest and most reliable option. The rituals do not exists for mysticism, they exist because they are the most practical means of building, repairing and maintaining the equipment they have with the knowledge surviving. You don't understand why pressing that button makes it go, because the manual tried to take over your brain and the copies are all unreadable and the research base that would let you reverse-engineer it does not exist and cannot be built.

Why are the Tau doing so well with their technology? Because they had peace. Eight thousand years unmolested by any enemy and they were helped the entire time by the most advanced biological race in the galaxy. Give the Imperium eight thousand years of peace and I can guarantee you it will be harder than it was during the Great Crusade.

Since some still don't get the idea, try this.

Build a library, fill it with all human knowledge. You take it elsewhere when you need a book from it, but the book is only a simplified copy. You don't understand the real book, and you don't need to. Nobody takes the real books anywhere because why would you, when there's a whole library there?

Now that library goes rogue and the maintenance machinery starts killing everyone any-fucking-where near it. Where the fuck did they all come from, you swear to god there weren't this many, and there weren't because they're using the library's information to fight their war. The government fights a battle that destroys the planet against these robots and tears apart the library to stop them using it, only to be destroyed in the process. The library is leveled, cast into flames, every book burned and every computer virus-laden.

Then comes a man who worked there. He talks to the few surviving library workers, assembles their information, and starts rebuilding a city around the library and expanding it as the librarians find little scraps of paper and fragmented bits of files that stuck together just right read something. They rebuild a library from scrap on the ashes of the old. It isn't a shadow on the glory of the old, but it is all they have.

Then the city turns on itself, kills its master, and the librarians turn to rage. Half of them kill the other half and destroy the remnants of the library because where they're going they won't need science. Everything burns, and the city is left to a scattered few survivors, walls open to the world, with the hungry predators circling.

The Adeptus Mechanicus is the sole surviving librarian, desperately scrabbling through the ashes of paper and splinters of hard drives for anything to help him and the city he needs to survive just a second longer.

The Imperium isn't grim because things suck by choice and could be fine if a sensible person came along. That sensible person wouldn't survive fifty seconds of the reality. The Imperium is grim because every single shit decision, every single sacrifice, every single death, every single man woman and child suffering a shit life in the worst conditions imaginable, is the absolute best that can be done. It is a study of the worst happening to everyone and what part of your humanity must be sacrificed today just to stand a chance of survival, and all it asks is whether or not it would have perhaps been better to die."
• Baron von Evilsatan

== On the Tabletop ==
''See also [[Warhammer_40,000/Tactics/Adeptus_Mechanicus(8E)|AdMech 8E Tactics]]''

8th Edition has landed, and the AdMech are resurgent. Having Cult Mechanicus and Skitarii merged together into one list was good enough, but they also merged Imperial Knights as "Questor Mechanicus" -- AdMech aligned Imperial Knight houses. Imperial Armor: Fires of Cyraxus is coming out "real soon now" which will have AdMech vs Tau and promises a bunch of new stuff, as well.

The biggest change, outside of the Knights now being part of AdMech (which means they can be repaired~!) is the promotion of the Enginseer from Elite to HQ, allowing for a cheap HQ option if a tax is needed.

The Mechanicus received an entire army's worth of new plastic models and rulebook! Praise the Omnissiah!

At the moment, the Admech is divided into a number of different mini-factions. Currently, the [[Skitarii]] and the Cult Mechanicus army have been fully released. There is also the "Titan Guard" Secutarii on the way, but they're a Forge World army. The [[Legio Cybernetica]] is also part of the Adeptus Mechanicus, though aside from the Kastelan, they're [[Horus Heresy]] only. There's also the Taghmata, which are like feudal troops, but they're not as much of a thing in the lore of 40K (though they have a HH dex, see below).

The current releases include Skitarii, who are like if the Guard were badass technogrunge medievalpunk super-soldiers with access to all the good shit, spider-tanks, scout walkers that are basically the Sentinel if it was good, Servitors on tank treads that will wreck your shit, giant crazy-tough robots that will wreck your shit harder, and a plastic Magos HQ unit! Truly, venerate the Omnissiah, and He will provide. The Cult Mechanicus, meanwhile, consists mainly of half-naked tech-priests with a fetish for electricity and some battle servitors, including the aformentioned Kastelan. Tech-Priest Magos are also the only figures in modern 40k that carry [[Volkite]] weapons. The upcoming Titan Guard are divided into Peltasts and Hoplites, which are fitting descriptions as the former look to be ranged skirmishers, while the latter are heavily armored spearmen (the spears happen to shoot electricity).

== Notable Members ==
* [[Archmagos]] [[Belisarius Cawl]]: Creator of the Primarines, their wargear, and Big G's current armor.
* [[Arkhan Land]]: An archivist who discovered STC fragments which brought about anything [[Land Raider|with the]] [[Land Crawler|name "Land"]] [[Land Speeder|in it]].

==Gallery==
{{Promotions}}
<gallery>
image:Adeptus_Mechanicus.jpg
Image:TechpriestChiyo.jpg|D'awwww.
Image:Mechanicuuuuus.jpg
Image:AdMech_Couple.jpg|D'awwww. By the way this is canon.
Image:CircleA_AdMech.jpg|PRAISE THE OMNISSIAH!
Image:rave_heretek_by_psykerscum.jpg|Someone got Chaos on my Mechanicus, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbAUwi4D3Ew now with theme music!]
image:1318818198286.gif.jpg|We're not sure if that's tech-heresy or an actual activation ritual. Ask your local Magos for clarification.
Image:Leokadia chernabog by mr culexus-d3hxqx2.jpg|showin' a little augmented leg
Image:AdMech Scientific Method.jpg|Science in the 41st Millennium.
Image:Madonna mechanicae by sexual yeti-daubney.jpg|TECHPRIESTESS TITTIES
Image:T girl by skeenlangly-d2y4n3p.png
Image:Time to technical inspection by SkeeNLangly.jpg
</gallery>

==See Also==
*[[Warhammer_40,000/Tactics/Adeptus_Mechanicus(8E)|Mechanicus Tactics.]] - [[Awesome|Yes, they have rules now.]]
*[[Warhammer_40,000/Tactics/Mechanicum_(30k)|Heresy Era Mechanicum Tactics.]] - 6th/early 7th edition rules. Very different from either of the 40k versions.
*[[Warhammer_40,000/Tactics/Mechanicum:_Taghmata_(30k)|Mechanicum: Taghmata (30k)]] - Current 7th edition rules. Still very different to the 40k versions.
*[[Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus]] - The official Vidya Gaem

==Links==
*[https://store.steampowered.com/app/673880/Warhammer_40000_Mechanicus/ The Mechanicus video game,] an [[XCOM]]-style game where you play as a bunch of tech-priests raiding a [[Necron]] tomb. It's definitely one of the better 40k games to come out in the past few years.
*[https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLyLLeKcxw24U8s8C24FyUQ0EVS30stymM The soundtrack from the Mechanicus video game,] which is easily some of the best 40k music out there.
*The Adeptus Mechanicus are [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17PM-UMVud8 avid music lovers.]
*This is [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ecvLRxb3MU their theme] done by [[HMKids]].
*And one for [https://youtu.be/Jb8J1zx2Lrg the Machine Cult].
*And their [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wy-sVTaZRPk War Cant], play it the next time your Techpriest needs to get pumped before a battle.

{{Mechanicus}}
{{Imperium}}
{{WH40k-Factions}}
{{Template:40k-Governments}}

Leman Russ Battle Tank

2019-08-30T22:32:09Z

2001:56A:F829:9000:ADC3:1D30:369A:26C0:

''Were you looking for [[Leman Russ]], the [[primarch|wolf]] of [[Space Wolves|Wall Street]]?''

[[File:Leman Russ TAAANNNKKK!!!.png|350px|thumb|right|This tank uses the [[Rage|tears]] of [[MEQ]] dependent players as fuel for its engine.]]
{{cleanup}}

{{Topquote|What I cannot crush with words I will crush with the tanks of the [[Imperial Guard]]!|[[Lord Solar Macharius]]}}
{{Topquote|Your foe is [[Necron|well equipped]], [[Chaos Space Marines|well-trained]], [[Ork|battle-hardened]]. He believes his gods are on his side. Let him believe what he will. We have the tanks on ours.|Colonel Joachim Pfeiff, [[Death Korps of Krieg|Krieg]] 14th Armoured Regiment}}

The '''Leman Russ Battle Tank''' is the most common tank in the [[Warhammer 40,000]] universe.

The biggest pain in the ass, points for points, a player will encounter when fighting the [[Imperial Guard]]; the Leman Russ Battle Tank is so reliable and hard-hitting that it is named after the rapetastic Space Wolf Primarch, [[Leman Russ]]. The Leman Russ is widely considered one of the most religiously useful vehicles the Imperial Guard have on the tabletop, boasting both heavy firepower and good utility; it is easily one of the best tanks for cost in Warhammer 40K tabletop, with the ability to [[rape]] [[Necron]] and [[Space Marine|SPESS MEHREEN]] players through judicious use of ordnance and weapons fire. Heavy armour and the ability to fire their main gun twice if they move slowly makes them capable of delivering serious punishment - and that's before their capacity to pack on Heavy [[Bolter]]s, Plasma Cannons, and Multi-Meltas is factored in.

It looks older than the Emperor's toilet-dreadnought, however. One could argue that the Leman Russ' design elements are obsolete even by late 20th century standards, yet they're significantly more modern than the [[Imperial Navy|Imperium's quasi-Napoleonic navy.]]

It's little wonder that the Leman Russ is one of coolest tanks in 40k; it just oozes with the rugged badassery that the IG are known for. With a relatively low point cost, armor that makes it a real bitch to kill, and a massive amount of variants and upgrades, the Russ is the go to vehicle for almost every Imperial Guard player. If you play IG for tanks, the Leman Russ is going to be your bread and butter.

If that’s not enough to convince you how awesome this tank is, it’s even used by three non-Imperial armies because of how much they love it. [[Lost and the Damned]], [[Genestealer Cult|Genestealer Cults]], [[Looted|Even the Orks like the Leman Russ tank]].

== "Empty" Leman Russ ==

The Leman Russ packs a pretty awesome profile. Toughness 8, 12 wounds, and a 3+ save give it fantastic durability. Only a few models have Toughness 8 considering the size of 40k, and to get it so cheaply is awesome. 4+ BS is average for Guard but considering Grinding Advance and the sheer amount of firepower it has(one turret weapon, one forward weapon, and two optional sponsons), this is acceptable. Wrapped up in a package that costs around a 154 points on up to boot- your enemies will curse your cost-efficiency in both durability and killing power. While it lacks a lot of the kookier special abilities we see in this edition, Grinding Advance is one of the more useful ones. Pick your turret weapon, move under half, watch your enemy cry as he gets hit with double the shots of your main guns. The definition of human badassery in vehicle form.

==Tank Commanders ==
[[Tank Commander|Tank Commanders]] may be taken as a HQ choice. They increase their tank's BS to 3+ and can issue three special orders to other Leman Russes (or to themselves), which includes making a Russ pop smoke after they shoot, better shooting, and better moving.

'''Knight Commander Pask'''
A special character Tank commander for the Cadians, [[Knight Commander Pask]] Russ has a BS of 2+ and can give 2 orders to boot, making the tank more accurate and more versatile. Widely considered conditionally broken against some factions when paired with a Punisher, Executioner, or Exterminator variant. Pask is known for killing Titans with a Leman Russ and refusing to drive a [[Baneblade]] in favor of one. His balls-of-steel rating is thus considered somewhere between [[Vance Motherfucking Stubbs]] and [[Colonel "Iron Hand" Straken|Colonel "I tore a Landshark's throat out with my teeth" Straken]].

==Genestealer Cults==
With the latest release of the new revamped [[Genestealer Cult]], our favorite gubbly [[Genestealers]] are now able to get their own Leman Russ Tanks as well! In terms of [[Fluff]], these Cults manage to gain access to these tanks via infecting/[[Pretend|pretending]] to be regular old PDF Tank Commanders, and then [[Blood Ravens|'borrowing']] the tanks.

Fortunately, the Genestealer Cults only gain access to the vanilla battle cannon, the Exterminator, the Vanquisher and the Eradicator.

==Flavor of the Week==
There are a dizzying number of Leman Russes with tons of different payloads. The current rulebook alone has seven, with several others being available through Forge World. There is an ongoing joke that if something exists in the grim darkness of the far future, there is a Leman Russ build specifically to kill it. The variations seen in the tabletop game are as follows:

===Leman Russ Battle Tank===
[[File:Imperial-guard-leman-russ-battle-tank-a2cf0.jpg|250px|right|thumb|Leman Russ Battle Tank.]]
''"If it ain't broke, don't fix it."'' This is especially true given how much the [[Adeptus Mechanicus]] has forgotten by the 41st millennium. The basic Leman Russ Battle Tank is a simple, brutal machine built out of almost any metal, running on almost any fuel, sporting no complicated auto-targeting or driving systems -- every gun is operated by a person inside the tank, and the controls are simple enough that a crew only needs minimal training before going into battle (which the [[Departmento Munitorum]] really likes, though commanders on the ground tend to prefer more seasoned crews). Though it gets loud and hot inside, and it is not usually a fast machine, it is tough as nails... from the front and sides -- the back is much less heavily armored, to save weight and let the engine vent off heat. Even so, it's been getting the job done since the Great Crusade.

The original boasts a hull-mounted Heavy Bolter and a Battle Cannon in its turret, the latter of which is highly regarded for its ability to fuck up squads of MEQs. It can swap the Heavy Bolter for a Lascannon and take a pair of Heavy Bolters, Plasma Cannons, or Heavy Flamers for sponsons. Apparently the optional sponson gunners don't get patched in to the internal tank comms or something, because the mounted sponsons will suffer accuracy issues if shooting on the move. It's still a very good tank for blasting the fuck out of just about anything that pisses it off -- it's hard to go wrong with the vanilla Russ.

==={{anchor|Vanquisher}}Leman Russ Vanquisher===
[[File:Leman_Russ_Vanquisher.jpg|250px|right|thumb|Leman Russ Vanquisher.]]

The Leman Russ Vanquisher has a variant of the Battle Cannon that ''usually'' one-shots enemy vehicles at long range (overconfidence killed the Guardsmen). If a Lascannon or Battle Cannon just isn't doing it for tankhunting, and you don't really feel like grabbing a Melta, this weapon can fill the need. Unfortunately, the [[Adeptus Mechanicus]] only made the Vanquisher Battle Cannon on one [[Forge World]], which got taken over by [[Ork]]s, so the only way to make new Vanquishers nowadays is to take the guns off of ruined Vanquishers and fit them on new Leman Russ chassis -- which happens a lot, because enemies who make use of tanks have learned to make Vanquishers a priority target. Because this is so onerous to do, especially for long campaigns, only the very best tank crews get to use Vanquishers, and they only deploy to zones where there are lots of tanks to be killed. The Mechanicus is trying to alleviate the shortage by <s>getting Mars to release its intellectual property</s> commissioning other Forge Worlds to reproduce the old cannons (see [[#Forge World Patterns|Forge World Patterns]] below), but progress is very slow.

The Vanquisher is so specialized as an anti-tank weapon that it can be argued that it's more a Tank Destroyer. A tank is a multi-purpose weapon, and the Leman Russ is a general purpose tank, equally adept at blowing tanks or infantry apart. The Vanquisher, though, utterly [[RAPE|RAPES]] tanks. Normal Leman Russes are like Shermans, this is a Firefly. The downside of this tank, from a tabletop perspective, is that it doesn't have any blast effects from its main gun, so consider the Plasma Cannon options for this thing to make it a beast at killing Space Marines. However, when adding Pask, this tank can cause some definite rage (you're better off putting Pask in a Punisher, give a Vanquisher the standard Tank Commander).

If you are having problems with those pesky tyranid MCs, consider going for the double cheese and cheddar routine on Vanquishers; Forge World now allows Command Vanquishers to take beast hunter shells: specialized Vanquisher shells with the solid penetrating core replaced with a canister of weapons-grade toxic acids. In gameplay, it's a small blast that has the instant death special rule. Booo, you wanted even more Leman Russes? Take said Vanquisher as HQ tank in allied armoured battlegroup. With squadron of Leman Russes as allied Troops detachment. Yes, you read that right. 13 Leman Russes in one battle.

Due to only having a single shot, the Vanquisher is actually mediocre at tank killing on the tabletop, and has remained this way for a long time. Sure it will deal a hefty blow if it hits, but chances are you're going to need to fire both the Lascannon and the Vanquisher Cannon to gimp a vehicle. Even this double-down is likely to leave most ''actual tanks'' in the game alive if injured; not ideal for what you're paying. You can alleviate the accuracy through a number of means but nothing save driving into Multi-melta range will augment the killing power (why Russ tanks can't fit sponson Lascannons is a mystery for the ages) and getting that close has its own issues, like being in [[rape|Wraith Cannon range]]. An interesting note is old Forgeworld rules allowed this tank to fire a Vanquisher shell or a standard battle cannon shell identical to one fired from a Standard Leman Russ.

The fluff is inconsistent on this tank. Some mentions in canon claim it was solely produced on the Forgeworld Tigrus, which was lost to the Orks and all remaining Vanquishers are rare examples that are now Irreplaceable. Forgeworld's Imperial Armour Volume 1 mentioned this, however stated two rival Forgeworlds started production shortly after to fill the shortfall: Stygies VIII, and Gryphonne IV (the same Gryphonne IV that was later written as destroyed by the Tyranids in the 4th edition codex for laughs by the Gameworkshop writers). Then Forgeworld (the company) produced the Mars pattern Vanquisher, along with the Macharius Vanquisher, Implying new Vanquisher cannons are in production. Although, All Forge Worlds give all knowledge to the Temple of All Knowledge on Mars (guess what it contains, yeah). So, Mars is capable of producing anything and simply chooses either not to due to space and resource limits and/or doesn't share the data with other Forge Worlds. Because cyborg politics are more important than ''not'' letting knowledge be lost or taken by hereteks forever. Morons. And hereteks. Since protecting knowledge and using it for humanity are part of their religion. And leaving knowledge to be solely posessed by hereteks or destroyed is extreme heresy. So, the Mechanicus is, by its own laws, practicing the worst heresies at all levels. Ooooh Inquisitor! I’ve got some blackmail for yoooou!

==={{anchor|Exterminator}}Leman Russ Exterminator===
[[File:Leman_russ_exterminator_(las).jpg|250px|right|thumb|Leman Russ Exterminator.]]

This tank is so awesome that it was first introduced as part of the Third Edition Space Wolves army list (the Imperial Guard only had the regular Russ and the Demolisher at the time), as the Wolves wanted to have a few tanks named after their [[Primarch]]. The Exterminator uses a twin [[Autogun|Autocannon]] as its main gun versus a Battle Cannon, so is a little faster (in the fluff) than the original Russ at traversing the battlefield.

Though the [[Hydra Flak Tank]] is better suited toward ruining Flyers and Skimmers now (with its higher ballistic skill), heavy infantry and light vehicle rape is still applicable with the Exterminator's superior skillz against ground targets. One of several vehicles capable of driving [[Ork]] or [[Tyranid]] players into a frothing, white-hot [[RAGE]] when used with Heavy Bolter Sponsons, the Exterminator's main drawback is that it relies on its sponson/hull weapons to deal with enemy heavy armor (unless you're using Pask, in which case the Autocannons will often suffice).

Although it does not have the advanced anti-air targeting mechanisms that the Hydra Flak Tank does, its primary firepower along with added sponson fire makes it a useful stop-gap air defense. Combined with its characteristic toughness and a pair of Multi-melta sponsons to deal with heavy vehicles, this tank can be a threat to anything and everything! Though it's not quite as effective against larger targets as the standard Battle Cannon equipped model, since a jack of all trades is commonly a master of none.

==={{anchor|Eradicator}}Leman Russ Eradicator===
[[File:Leman Russ Eradicator.JPG|250px|right|thumb|Leman Russ Eradicator.]]

Once upon a time, some Forge World in the Imperium decided they had too much nuclear material on their hands, and that they needed to do something with it. After some [[Grimdark|wacky hijinks and hilarious mishaps]], the result was the Leman Russ Eradicator, a tank with a short range cannon that lobs "sub-atomic" charges at enemies in cover. So, basically, fuck your cover saves.

The percussive shock (and probably the *radiation*, too) neutralizes cover saves, and although it's a little weaker than the Battle Cannon in every way, the Eradicator is still a respectable gun, especially against Eldar or anything that likes to abuse cover. It's otherwise basically the same as the regular version, meaning it also has laughable rear armor; [[Scout]]s with shotguns could kill this tank if they got behind it. That's only a problem for the Eradicator because its range is so short; it needs to be up close and personal, and paper-thin rear armor plus urban combat equals one dead tank.

The Eradicator had the distinction of being the cheapest tank in the arsenal, and as such was often used as the ablative shield of Pask or a regular Tank Commander; it now shares the "cheapest" slot with the Vanquisher and Executioner, reducing that value somewhat. While their main gun is useful, taking them with Plasma Cannon sponsons is generally the best way to field them, especially if you can turbo-charge it with warlord traits, wargear, or faction bonuses. This is also one of the only times the heavy flamer sponsons will be useful on a Russ, so take it to make your [[Tau]] friends cry tears of pure cheese.

==={{anchor|Demolisher}}Leman Russ Demolisher===
[[File:99120105045_DemolisherNEW01.jpg|250px|right|thumb|Leman Russ Demolisher.]]

The first of the "Reinforced" or "Siege" patterns of Leman Russ (additional rear armor), the Leman Russ Demolisher packs a short range gun that is much stronger than the normal Battle Cannon. It combines the explosive firepower of artillery with the speed and durability of a tank, for situations where the Guard can't wait for a proper artillery barrage but needs to take a heavily guarded or fortified position. It excels in such an environment - in fact, it is a better line-breaker than the [[Space Marines]]' [[Vindicator]] tank (which is silly, because Space Marines are all about cracking defenses with overwhelming firepower...)!

However, the Demolisher Cannon's short range means that it'll be unable to do much else and will likely [[Distraction Carnifex|draw massive amounts of firepower]] in its direction, meaning there is a risk that the Demolisher will be wrecked before it can even fire a single shot. Expecting this tank to survive to Turn 3 precludes an urban battlefield, and using terrain to limit the amount of ordinance coming the Demolisher's way is paramount. On an open battlefield, use long-range support to ensure it remains in one piece, or send it straight up the center of the field eating colossal amounts of punishment before exploding in a massive fireball while the rest of your army maneuvers into position. Either way, it's done it's job.

In 8th Edition, the Demolisher finally makes sponsons worth taking, since the cannon doesn't force snap shots any more. A Tallarn Demolisher with multimeltas and a lascannon eats vehicles alive. Unfortunately, the Demolisher lost its large blast and only does up to D6 shots (D3 against single targets), meaning its old role of wiping out entire squads in one go is out and it has to focus on priority targets to earn back its points instead. Grinding Advance offsets this a little, letting it make 2d6 shots against squads of infantry; but if you're pointing the Demolisher at large enough units to need the hits, you're probably pointing it at the wrong targets.

==={{anchor|Punisher}}Leman Russ Punisher===
[[File:99120105045_PunisherNEW03.jpg|250px|right|thumb|Leman Russ Punisher.]]

The '''Leman Russ Punisher''' is the second "Siege" pattern Russ, and about as close to "enuff [[Dakka]]" as the [[Imperial Guard]] can get without fielding [[Titan (Warhammer 40,000)|Titan]]s or [[/d/|members]] of the [[Baneblade]] family. Like the Demolisher, it has the increased rear armor of a Siege Tank, though its main gun, the S5 AP0 D1 Heavy '''20''' Punisher Gatling Cannon, is meant for pulverizing infantry and light vehicles. It has poor range for a vehicle weapon, but one of these things can crank out more firepower than an entire squad of guardsmen under a Rank Fire order, which is absolutely hilarious; normally only Orks with Shootas, Combined Squads, and Hormagaunts get to roll this many dice. When backed up with other weapons, the Punisher BRRRRRT Cannon can destroy huge numbers of troops at once, though it is hampered by its operators' low ballistic skill and its inability to penetrate armor.

This multi-barreled weapon allows the Punisher tank to achieve a rate of fire unmatched by all but a few other vehicles, though at a loss of anti-tank effectiveness, and Punisher tank crews have a reputation for being trigger-happy with this potent weapon. Indeed it is typical for Punisher crews to strip out all non-essential items in order to cram in as much ammunition as possible before setting off for battle. Often squadrons of Punishers will operate ahead of the main Imperial force, scything down the enemy to at the very least more manageable numbers for follow-on forces. It is predominately an infantry support vehicle however, and its lack of sufficient anti-tank weaponry makes it vulnerable when facing enemy armored forces.

In addition to its main weapon the Punisher carries a hull-mounted Heavy Bolter, Heavy Flamer or Lascannon. It can also be outfitted with two sponsons which mount either heavy bolters, heavy flamers, Multi-meltas or Plasma Cannons. Standard equipment also includes Smoke Launchers and it can be upgraded with an Augur Array, a Dozer Blade, Track Guards, a Hunter-Killer Missile and/or a pintle-mounted Heavy Stubber/Storm Bolter.

Knight Commander Pask turns it from a fun toy to an absolute wrecking ball. Between all of his various buffs he's likely to get nearly all hits ''and'' make them all hurt. Light tanks get torn to shreds in one burst, Medium tanks take a beating, and even Land Raiders or other Leman Russes can get thoroughly tenderized through volume of dice.

==={{anchor|Executioner}}Leman Russ Executioner===
[[File:LemRus_Executioner.jpg|250px|right|thumb|Leman Russ Executioner.]]

The last of the "Siege" pattern Russes, the '''Leman Russ Executioner''' was deployed in large numbers during the [[Great Crusade]], when the [[Imperium]] used to [//www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTOwMeimSl4&t=18s field them by the regiment]. Unfortunately, due to the post-Heresy drop in manufacturing capacity for complex plasma mechanisms, even most [[Forge World]]s can't build an Executioner Cannon these days. Although strangely the Imperium has no difficulty making *other* plasma technology, and since most Forge Worlds barfed out advanced plasma weapons by the bushel during the Great Crusade, the only possible explanation for how this specific technology could be lost while everything else remained is the [[Grimdark]] (despite there being three different patterns of Executioner cannon for Leman Russ tanks made: Ryza, Mars and a third generic pattern found it the plastic kit).

The Executioner's Plasma Destroyer is a powerful if temperamental weapon with an extremely high energy output. Due to the unstable nature of the weapon the Ryza-pattern Executioner incorporates several safety features. Emergency vents in the turret help disperse the heat produced by each shot while protective heat shielding screens the crew and allows enough time to escape the vehicle in the event of a minor containment field failure. Many also include an emergency chemical coolant tank in the rear of the vehicle which connects with the weapon through two coolant lines running across the top of the turret. However these exposed lines can be severed by enemy fire, a contributing factor to many green Executioner crews abandoning the tank at the first sign of trouble since a catastrophic failure can result in the destruction of the tank and anything else in a large area around it. Those who are found to have abandoned their tanks can expect to face harsh punishment, [[Blam|even death,]] for such a crime from their regiment's Commissar.

Jokingly called the "Leman Russ Trollface" or "Leman Russ Blast Template Dropper" by some players, the Executioner is the bane of [[Space Marines]] everywhere, for it packs a Plasma Cannon that fires in 3-round bursts. For maximum hilarity, pair with Plasma Cannon sponsons and dump 5 Plasma Cannon shots per turn from one vehicle, and try not to laugh when killing about double the tank's point cost in heavy infantry every turn. This used to be the bane of Terminator-heavy armies that had gotten used to being nigh-on invulnerable to conventional weaponry; but when this tank reared it's head, it dethroned the kings of the battlefield.

==FORGE WORLD LOVE==
GW's specialist subsidiary Forge World made a couple of their own Leman Russes. They also pimped out the appearances of several types.

==={{anchor|Conqueror}}Leman Russ Conqueror===
[[File:Imperial Guard Leman Russ Conqueror.jpg|250px|right|thumb|Leman Russ Conqueror.]]

The '''Leman Russ Conqueror''' was built to be a faster Leman Russ tank -- its cannon fires smaller shells with less recoil, which allows the tank to be more mobile, store more ammunition and sustain a higher rate of fire. The smaller cannon also allows the installation of a co-axial weapon, which helps the gunner keep the main cannon on target. In a realistic fluffy way, this might also make the Conqueror much cheaper to produce than the standard Russ. Since a lot of the expense of a Russ comes from producing the inertia controlling technology in its turret. Yes, it has that. Yes, it is expensive. If you don't need it, though...or just get an Exterminator and slap lascannons on its sponsons and nose when a TechPriest isn't looking.

[[Forge World]] created the Conqueror back in Third Edition, when a Leman Russ had to stay still to fire its battle cannon. The main point for a Conqueror now it's mobility. In standard games on a 4x6 foot table, the shorter range doesn't matter. For an extra three points over the vanilla, you get a 48" battle cannon (compared to the 72" regular one) and a co-axial storm bolter. Co-axial weapons provide a hit reroll to the cannon if sharing the same target. If you're playing on a small board, a regular one with lots of intervening cover, or an urban one, this will serve you better than the vanilla. Otherwise, just grab the vanilla for the two feet of range.

When introduced it had a weaker cannon lacking AP and with a smaller blast radius but had rules allowing it to fire its gun and sponsons on the move. After all, it is intended to be a [[Wikipedia:cruiser tank|cavalry tank]]: a faster, more lightly armed vehicle designed to exploit breakthroughs that slower, more heavily armed tanks could create but not exploit. Once it broke though, it would then overrun the enemy's rear areas, causing trouble behind enemy lines while the infantry tanks and regular infantry keep pressing the advance and securing ground behind it. Now five editions later everything can move and shoot (with a penalty) and it's just more dakka and a reroll paid for through shortening the cannon range.

==={{anchor|Annihilator}}Leman Russ Annihilator===
[[File:99590105335_Dkkmarsalphapatternannihilator02.jpg|250px|right|thumb|Leman Russ Annihilator.]]

the Leman Russ Annihilator began as a field conversion: An Imperial Officer found his armoured units constantly losing to renegade armour, so he decided to replace his companies' Leman Russ' battle cannons with the companies' lascannons. This ultimately won them the battle, [[grimdark|but the officer responsible for these conversions was convicted of tech-heresy and executed.]] However, the supply of [[#Vanquisher|Leman Russ Vanquisher]]s is ever-dwindling after the loss of Tigrus, and the [[Imperial Guard]]'s demand for anti-armor tanks is ever-growing, so the Techpriests eventually sanctioned it in order to try to meet demand; Forge Worlds took the twin-linked lascannons off the [[Predator Annihilator]] and put them in the Leman Russ's turret. Because the lascannon is easier to make, maintain, and use, the Annihilator is the preferred armour-hunting tank of armoured regiments expecting to sustain lots of damaged and lost tanks (like the [[Death Korps of Krieg]]).

Forge World rolled this tank with the Death Korps of Krieg army, and was very popular before 5th edition changed the way a Leman Russ works. Since moving and shooting Ordnance weapons was no longer a problem, the Annihilator lost much of its appeal, but after sixth edition changed which weapons can be fired when a vehicle moves, its utility has risen some: because its cannon is not an ordnance weapon, and the Annihilator is a heavy vehicle (unlike the Conqueror), it can fire all of its weapons at full ballistic skill on the move.

It'd be pretty awesome if they gave it the Exterminator treatment where they not only made the weapon twin-linked but doubled its rate-of-fire, which in this case would mean making its lascannons heavy 2 twin-linked. But alas, it's fairly underwhelming at the moment. You're better off just getting a Vanquisher at the moment, seeing as the Vanquisher only costs 5 more points and has a much better gun, it's not twin-linked though, but it could get that from other means.

'''8th ed.''' - Since twin-linked got scrapped, this is the only Russ to have an increase in firepower. Mathhammer-wise, it's on par with the Demolisher for anti-vehicle capabilities (putting out 1.94 wounds against another Leman Russ), but it has double the range, and the turret still costs 40pts. Obviously you're going to put a hull lascannon on it, since you'd have to be lobotomised not to. Also fares slightly better with sponson meltas. The shorter range of the turret means that there's a greater chance of you being in range to use them, unlike the Vanquisher (which scores 0.94 wounds against another Leman Russ by the way)

==={{anchor|Incinerator}}Leman Russ Incinerator===
[[File:LemanRussIncinerator.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Leman Russ Incinerator.]]

A Pre-Heresy Russ variant armed with a massive [[Volkite_Weaponry|Volkite]] cannon in the turret. Only available to [[Solar Auxilia]], it is twin-linked, and has an additional point of strength and shot than its smaller regular culverin. Can cause a lot of damage at great range to infantry, but it cannot take sponson weapons, and the more vanilla variants can do the same job more efficiently.

Because of the downsides of the Incinerator, take it only if you're a huge fan of Volkites. It's limited to causing a maximum of only 10 wounds per round (If your opponent fails its first 5 armor saves, and Deflagrate succeeds in wounding 5 more times). [[Lolwut|It also (For ''some'' reason) shares its AP with every single Volkite weapon smaller than it on the table, including the fucking pistol]].

If you really need to bring Volkite weaponry to vaporize Tyranids or other blobs, you're MUCH better off putting some Veletaris in an Arvus or a Dracosan. They can cause up to 40 wounds through Deflagrate, compared to the Incinerator which can only cause up to 10. To maximize its effectiveness, you could double down on the high-strength high-AP attacks with multilasers on the hull and pintle, making a fairly decent hunter of Mechanicum automata. [[Fail|Despite being a very common weapon in both 30k and 40k, other leman russ variants (let alone a baneblade) can't take a pintle Multi-laser for some unexplained reason]].

=== {{anchor|Destroyer}} Destroyer Tank Hunter ===
[[File:Ig30.jpg|250px|right|thumb|Destroyer Tank Hunter.]]

The '''Destroyer Tank Hunter''' is basically the tank equivalent of a sniper. It's the <strike>Sturmgeschütz III Ausf. G (StuG III G)</strike> (the Jagdpanzer IV) of the 40K universe, it loses the turret and swaps out the hull-mounted heavy bolter for a massive laser destroyer -- basically, a twin-linked Ordnance lascannon, all the better to penetrate armor with. Like a sniper, its job is to hide in a defensive position, kill a high-valued enemy, and move on -- it has the same armor as a Russ, but its only secondary weapon is a pintle-mounted [[heavy stubber]] or [[storm bolter]], making it all but defenseless against enemy anti-armor. Fortunately, as it lacks the increased mass and stabilization requirements of the turret, it moves substantially faster than the Leman Russ Battle Tank, which helps it evade pursuit. The lower profile can also be of some help when it comes to putting it out of line of sight.

On the table, it's quite close to a Vanquisher in intended use, and generally does a better job for 25 more points; it's more mobile, grabs more cover (terrain with 25% cover gives this tank nearly 50%, which becomes a 3+ save with camo netting), it's built-in Twin-Linking gets in more hits, and the S9 Ordnance shot damages anything with a toughness value and any AV lower than 14 more reliably than the Vanquisher's S8 Armourbane shot. Unfortunately Forgeworld has discontinued this model.

=== {{anchor|Thunderer}} Thunderer Siege Tank ===
[[File:99590105345_ThundererSiegeTank04.jpg|250px|right|thumb|Thunderer Siege Tank.]]
The Laser Destroyer is a rare weapon, so units with Destroyers whose main cannon is destroyed will seldom be given a replacement; A [[Demolisher cannon]] is installed the laser destroyer's mount, resulting in the '''Thunderer Siege Tank'''. It is essentially a faster, discounted [[#Demolisher|Demolisher]], except its stuck with a fixed forward casemate (though if your Demolisher is in a position where it has to shoot something behind it, you are in a ''bad place'') and it cannot take any secondary weapons besides a pintle-mounted heavy stubber or storm bolter (not that it needs any more firepower than S10 AP2 5" Blast, though when the Vehicle Damage table comes calling you may be glad you took something else to lose on a Weapon Destroyed result). The reduced versatility means that most commanders would rather use a proper Demolisher, but as vehicle reserves run low, any Demolisher cannon is a welcome addition to the line of battle.

In practice, it's gone from a tank destroyer to an assault gun; it functions like a more expensive (by 15 points), but ''much'' tougher [[Vindicator]] (which is rather hilarious, since Space Marines ''love'' the Vindicator, while the Thunderer is a second-line Guard assault gun usually passed over for the Leman Russ Demolisher). Don't mention this around [[Space Marines]] -- they're still bothered that the Imperial Guard have what amounts to a Vindicator with better armor on every facing and access to camo netting, which in turn inspired them to make the [[Land Raider Ares]]. But that comes with the price tag of a Land Raider, so...

'''8th ed.''' Functions just like a Demolisher Leman Russ with one extra wound but without the hull mounted Lascannon option, Forgeworld Leman Russ were considerably more expensive than GW in 8th but Chapter Approved 2017 normalised them to the GW price cost.

=== Alternate Patterns ===

[[Forge World]] has also released variant turrets and hulls for Leman Russ models.

; Mars Alpha Pattern Hull : The [[Mars]] Alpha hull has more internal space and a larger engine, resulting in a slightly bulkier hull overall (especially noticeable with the engine sticking further out the back of the tank). The hull-weapon's mount is slightly different, with a more streamlined joint than the boxy sponson-like mount of the standard pattern. The increased internal space is used for ammunition storage on battle-line tanks, or for extra communication equipment on command tanks.
; Ryza Pattern Turret : Ryza is most known for their work on plasma weapons, but the tech-priests realized that their [[#Executioner|Executioner]] turret looked really cool, so they made turrets for the regular Battle Tank, Annihilator, Demolisher, Exterminator, and Vanquisher (with co-axial [[autocannon]]) turret variants. It is a sleeker turret than the original, with straight sides angled forward and a searchlight or scanner on the left side, while the weapon is contained in a slightly more sensible-looking elevation joint. Ryza turrets are often mounted on Mars Alpha hulls.
; Gryphonne IV Pattern Turret : Before it got overrun by the [[Tyranids]] of [[Hive Fleet Leviathan]], Gryphonne IV made turrets for the Conqueror, Exterminator, and Vanquisher (with co-axial [[storm bolter]]) tanks. Gryphonne IV turrets are much more "[[wikipedia:greeble|greeble]]d" than the standard turrets, and are distinguished by the flared-out sides and the searchlight mounted to the right of the commander's hatch.
; Stygies VIII Pattern Turret : Stygies VIII also produces a Vanquisher turret with a co-axial storm bolter, and is also a rather greebly turret (though its searchlight is mounted on the left side, like the Ryza turret), but their variant of the Vanquisher cannon is shorter than the Gryphonne IV's (which is ridiculously long, to be honest), and it is unrifled, to bring the muzzle velocity back up to that of the Gryphonne IV cannon.

==Wargear/Configuration Breakdown (Out of Date)==

In the newest codex, Multi-melta sponsons share the same cost as Heavy Bolters, so seriously consider taking them if you want to mercilessly slaughter tanks.

The Hull Heavy Flamer and sponson Heavy Flamer should be avoided. There are dozens of better ways to get cover hate on the battlefield (ie [[Chimera]]s and [[Hellhound]]s),and it removes your Heavy Bolter, which is free and a lifeline to your main weapon it's destroyed. The hull Lascannon is a good addition to a Vanquisher, both are used for the same battlefield role, both long ranged and high strength/low AP. Again, if you really hate cover, you have the Leman Russ Eradicator; I mean, it's why the thing exists.

Sponson Bolters are generally a "take 'em or not" option. It's only 20 points for the pair, and the worst case scenario is that they add to the hull Heavy Bolter in slinging shots downrange, which can help a lot against [[Tyranids]] and other blob armies and is especially nice to have with Pask in play. It's as much as 6 extra shots, so it's not bad. They're less useful on the Punisher (which already sprays 23 shots by default) and Demolisher (which doesn't need much to help the Demolisher Cannon), and many players scream with [[Rage|irritation]] if they're used on them, but they remain effective and they're not a huge investment, so use them if you feel like it. It's not like the Dozer Blade is a better use of those points. Bear in mind that, due to the changes to the Leman Russ's "Lumbering Behemoth" rule, a Russ can only fire its sponson weapons as snap shots if it fires an Ordnance weapon ([[Battle Cannon]] and [[Demolisher Cannon]]), so your vanilla Russes and Demolishers should have heavy bolters (plasma cannons and heavy flamers cannot be fired as snap shots, and you get more chances to hit with heavy bolters than with lascannons) if they are given any sponson weapons at all.

The Plasma Cannon Sponsons are a different story. These need to be on the right tank or they're a waste of points, so make them count. They're best mounted on the Exterminator and Vanquisher to give blast effects to tanks that otherwise wouldn't have it, and is especially good on the Executioner, adding 2 more Plasma Cannons to the existing 3-round burst of the main gun and adding yet more raep to the firestorm. There is possibly no tank better at blasting Tyranids and Necrons than this configuration - and god help anything in its way if it has Pask as well. They aren't very good on the standard Leman Russ, its S8 AP3 basically eclipses anything a Plasma Cannon can do. The Eradicator can make ''some'' decent use of it. Its Nova Cannon doesn't pack the AP of the Battle Cannon and makes a nice support weapon for dropping into a crowd that would otherwise be able to deal with the Nova Cannon. [[Games Workshop]] has a notoriously raging hard-on for equipping them on Demolishers and Punishers, but this is a fairly bad idea; these two tanks are almost invariably better off charging headlong into the enemy's face, where they won't be firing the Plasma Cannons anyway;the Heavy Bolter sponsons can work with the hull Heavy Bolter and pick off stragglers after the initial -gun-into-face manoeuvre. However In sixth edition, plasma cannons can now 'get hot' on vehicles so they are less useful.

For wargear, it's generally a good idea to avoid the pintle mounts. They aren't of use on a vehicle that is bristling with weapons in the first place, and it's extremely hard to envision an environment wherein a player screams ''"Man, a Storm Bolter on my Leman Russ would have been the absolute BOMB right now!"'' The [[Stubber]] can be somewhat useful if only due to its range, but generally isn't simply because - again - every reason you'd use one is already covered by its baseline weaponry. If you're looking hard to find a spot to drop a few points (why are you doing this), I guess you could put one on a bullet-spewing tank and add a few more shots, but again, probably more efficient ways to spend those points.

Firebarrels is a new wargear option added in the 6th edition <strike>(looks around to make sure I do not get BLAMMED by Commissar)</strike>{{BLAM}}{{BLAM|Cowardice! You will say this with pride!}} Codex Astra Militarum. In layman terms it is a one time use wall of death that deals D6 amount of damage. More of a scare tactic then anything, it does allow the Russ to protect itself in close combat. For ten points, it is cost effective. Though not a auto include, it should not be overlooked. Especially when you take a squadron of three and give each tank these barrels. That's going to hurt.

Recovery gear is virtually a autoinclude in any build for the Leman Russ. For 5 points you can roll to remove a immobilized result, and don't have to worry (as much) that your tanks will be stopped due to a lucky roll or failed dangerouse terrain test. You will not always use this gear, or even de immobilized the tank, but compared to dozer blades, you can obviously see a winner.

Relic plating is.....controversial. Its the cheapest wargear the Russ can take. And it does give Adamantium Will to this giant machine of death. The problem comes with formations. Depending on how one sees the rules, this upgrade either A, gives the entire squadron Adamantium Will when just applied to one tank. Or B, Only applies it to the tank that takes the wargear. Either way, best to give all tanks in the squadron this upgrade. (The second the opponent hears one of the tanks has Adamantium will, that tank is a target. Might as well give all tanks this upgrade just to be safe).

The [[Hunter-Killer Missile]] is... questionable. Its unlimited range can be a good surprise against players not expecting it, which, when combined with its good strength, makes it a good option for destroying artillery (this is actually a halfway decent choice with Pask by the way), but Chimeras and Sentinels are considered the best platform for this secondary weapon, whereas the Leman Russ is rightly considered a somewhat wasteful (if potentially useful) platform for the weapon. Pask abuse aside, the Hunter-Killer missile generally isn't useful for Leman Russes simply because you don't need a Krak missile when any of these tanks can pack anti-vehicle punch in the form of its turret weapon or Lascannon (the latter of which any Russ can get).

The new codex grants us tank commanders. They have to bring another tank in a squad, which you would do anyway, and gives the tank they are commanding BS4. They can be a warlord and only roll on the first three choices of the codex warlord table, and their unit is moved into the HQ force org slot. So you can take up to 12 Leman Russes in a battle forged army! They also have three orders they can give their unit. They can move flat out in a heavy tank for 6+D6 inches, a form of split fire for the commander to shoot at a different target from the others in his unit, and an order that its unit makes a shooting attack then uses smoke launchers if it has not already. The commander has to roll a 9 or less on 2d6 to get these off. Good for a mechanized army list specializing in tanks.

Whilst he's pricey, Pask himself deserves special note - he is a great upgrade to a command tank, since he makes a Russ BS4, gets to reroll to hit with most weapons, adds rending to punisher and exterminators, rerolls penetration against vehicles, and turns the executioner into a large single blast with blind. Naturally starts out with Old Grudges as his warlord trait giving him preferred enemy of your choice. He is an expensive upgrade for a tank commander, so again, make sure that whatever you put him in, it gets used.

==How to Use It==

First and foremost, note the tank's armor ratings. It's dirt cheap, its BS is average, but its armor value on the front is 14 and its side armor is hefty at 13. Its rear armor, however, sucks and can be damaged by many regular infantry weapons. Keep them facing the enemy at all times and do your best to keep their backs covered - you can't afford to let some jump infantry Deep Strike behind one and play catch-the-fucking-meltabomb. Treat them well and they'll treat you well.

Second, three of the Leman Russes - the Demolisher, Punisher, and Executioner - have additional rear armor. This is not enough to make them invulnerable but what it does mean is that it's no longer threatened simply by being completely surrounded by regular infantry (Hormagaunts for example). This is important for the Punisher and Demolisher, which have to get close, but the Executioner is just more survivable since it generally shoots from afar. AV 11 still isn't very good, so bear in mind the first example on this list and keep the front facing the enemy.

It is also important to remember that the Guard is like an army from World War II. Learn from their tactics and apply them wisely. All nations had some way to make sure infantry are mobile enough to keep up with tanks (as tanks without infantry support and with infantry around them tend to go BOOM), so transports (obviously Chimeras) are generally necessary. If defending, they would employ dedicated tank destroyers (Vanquishers or Destroyer) to deal with enemy armor. If sieging, assault guns (Thunderer) and massed artillery would be used to handle fortifications.

<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%">
(History Note: Tank Destroyers(TD) have wandered in and out of development and use since their practical deployment in WWII, and are still in use today.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">

In general, TDs were initially based on obsolete or marginally unrepairable chassis that a government had about and needed for the war effort (for example, for Germany the JgPzI was a rework of the PzI, while the Marder was a PzII rework with captured Soviet 76mm guns; The Soviets turned the T-34 into the SU-85 and SU-100s), usually by ripping off what's was left of the turret and upper deck, and welding a casement cover and gun mounting over the resulting hole. Later on, purpose-built ones were developed, usually for defensive fights (the JagTiger and the more modern Swedish line of STRV-103 TDs, for example). Even now, some are still either in use or being developed (the Russian 2S25 Sprut-SD is a 125mm gun-armed TD going into main production in 2018).

As their role dictated a tank-hunting role, they tended towards heavy frontal armour and a bigger gun than a tank of the same weight (as turrets are surprisingly heavy, when you take into account the weight of the turret ring, the armour that the turret covers by necessity and the mechanisms needed to turn the turret, so by not having them, you can add more weight elsewhere). Some historical tanks, like the SU-152 and the JagTiger had cannons big enough to be used effectively as artillery, or could kill a tank behind hard cover, as Otto Carius proved by using the 128mm cannon on his JagTiger to kill a Sherman tank by shooting <i>through an entire brick building</i>). As anti-infantry backup, most TDs had at least one machinegun (the German Ferdinand was one notable 'oops' on that part, which is why it got a machinegun and anti-magnetic paste later and they called it the Elefant to distinguish between old and new models).

So why aren't they more common? Well, TDs excel in ambush-predation of tanks and in infantry support against prepared positions. The former is inherently defensive and static, as you wait for your target usually. The latter means you're assaulting a prepared static position with infantry support and using your big gun to suppress your enemy. Neither of these are very mobile, and coming out of WWII, the major focus of tank-use strategy was (and still very much is) as a fast and well-armed assault or reaction force (possibly why they're still called cavalry, and used much the same as in previous wars). Tanks are mobile, infantry is usually mechanized, and even artillery is often self-propelled. Add in that many tanks, IFVs, APCs, utility vehicles (and likely mobile outhouses) can and have sported ATMs of varying lethality, being static or assaulting in a direct line can have "unfortunate" outcomes if the attacked party has a steady hand or a good laser pointer.

Ed. Note: If you ever wonder why the monster tank ideas like the Maus never really took off in the modern era, mobility is pretty much it. The Maus got 14mph maximum by doing horrible things to the electric drive and drank gallons of fuel <i>per mile</i>. All your armour doesn't mean anything if you can't outrun, outrange or at least dodge heavy artillery fire and strike aircraft. Then again, the Baneblade moves as fast as a Leman Russ does, so if you could get a modern Maus equivalent sporting feet-thick slabs of CHOBHAM armour, some sort of auto-loading 155mm cannon, backup 20mm chainguns/autocannons, a plethora of heavy remote-turreted MGs and god-knows how many pop-up-celled HATM to do 40mph off-road, I suspect modern warfare would collectively give a panicked 'WUT?' for a bit until they worked how to dangle a Exocet off a Predator drone...)

</div></div>

Generally, it is a good idea to keep your tanks behind your infantry, with the exception of Demolisher and Punisher. Their longer range and the fact that they're more expensive/useful than basic infantry makes the cover save valuable. Combine with Camo-netting to get a 4+, like a walking, shooting aegis. If you're running gunline it's not a bad idea to use them as gun emplacements, by flooding your deployment zone with bodies you can stop any pesky deep strikers, and combined with the 4+ save (potentially 3+ if you get an aegis) can make it nigh-unkillable. Combined with reasonable point cost and the ability to take squadrons, you can flood the field like Mega-MEQs.

In addition, the Leman Russ, due to its renowned toughness, is likely to draw a lot of fire, so it can pair well with weaker glass-cannon type units like Basilisks.

Now, each country had outstanding tank tactics - Germany for example would make good use of 'Blitzkrieg' shock attacks, seeking to break through a weakpoint on the enemy lines and drive deep into the rear area and rampage around, forcing the enemy to pull back to prevent being surrounded and to protect squishy REMFy objective points. For said tactical style your will need Leman Russ Conquerors for speed (or if you are willing to go slower then normal ones will do) backed up by mobile infantry (Chimeras, anyone?) On defense, they tended to dig in their tanks/TDs and snipe (Vanquishers and Destroyers), so look at uprating your tanks armour and camo. Germany also had a bit of a hard on for super heavy tanks and assault guns, so feel free to liberally splash Baneblades and Thunderers into a German style army list.

Early British and French styles were massed foot-infantry supported by <strike>anti-fortification</strike> 'infantry' heavy tanks (Eradicators, Punishers and Demolishers) pinning in place and eliminating enemy forces first, while faster 'cavalry' vehicles (Sentinels and Tauros/Venators) would flank around to hunt tasty lone units. (Early Soviet was just massed infantry without the heavy tanks, but then you wouldn't be doing that now, would you?) After all, if the enemy's not on the table, they can hardly contest objectives, can they?

American (and later the collective allied forces) tactics would be on using one mainstay tank (normal Russes), but would also field as many as possible so their massed firepower could support infantry on assault or defense, then exploit breaches in enemy lines to drive deep wedges into enemy lines (yes, the Americans and Russians shamelessly copied the Truppenführung, but had the material support to stuff their entire leg down the German throat, while early German could only afford the boot) while dedicated tank destroyers (Vanquisher and Destroyer) wait in support to react to enemy tanks counter-attacking. America also had air supremacy for the most part, so air support (Valkyries, Avengers and Marauders) was usually available. The Soviets tended to go for massed artillery more-so on assault, so feel free to load up on the Basilisks and recreate Verdun's 'lively' atmosphere. In short, flexibility is key. Don't just bend like the willow. Bend, recover to whack them on the nose, then shove yourself up their ass for good measure.

Regardless of the details, it's always a good idea to use infantry to kill things that can kill your tanks since lascannons don't really do a lot of damage to a squad while you have your tanks kill things that can kill your infantry, heavy bolters don't bother Russes. Counter enemy units with the unit they themselves can't counter. Maybe have a Chimera (or variant) acting as an IFV to help protect the infantry, too, which takes a bit of strain off the Leman Russes so that they can focus on killing bigger fish.

==How to Kill It==

The Leman Russ can be a tough adversary. If you're facing a guard player there's a good chance he's taken five of them, so you need to get creative. The stock Leman Russ is the most common variant you'll be facing. It's dirt cheap, comes with the Cadian battleforce, and generally gets the job done. The main thing you need to look out for is the battle cannon; With S8 AP3, it can smoke whole squads of just about anything, and any multi wound T4 models will get Insta Death'd as well. Spamming high strength weapons(Lascannons, Missiles, etc) can work if you are lucky. Lascannons, Melta, Lance or Armorbane are the only things that reliably pen a Russ. Use skimmers or deep striking units to quickly close and unleash punishing volleys and a Russ will go down quickly, Melee is also an excellent option forcing it to retreat on its next turn if you didn't kill it, particularly if you can charge from an obscured location and not receive overwatch as unlike the Baneblade the Leman Russ melee potential rivals a Fire warrior. MEQs can glance a Russ to death with their fists, and if they have something like powerfists or melta bombs its going to be dead real quick. Get into melee with even meaner units, like a Wraithlord or Dreadnought, and it's toast. Melee in general is good against guard, the only thing to worry about is being tarpitted by conscript hordes who can keep your expensive vehicle punchers stuck.

In general, get close. With its heavy, long range guns the Russ excels at long range shooting matches. So to save your infantry blobs from getting ground down close the distance. Or alpha strike it with something that's fast or can deep strike.

Unless you're necrons of course then just spam it with Gauss Flayers or scarab swarms.

==At 500 Points==
[[File:LemanRuss.jpg|300px|thumb|right|They're pretty scary in low point games.]]
A lot of players <strike>used to</strike> field nothing but low-level infantry squads and a Leman Russ, due to its low points cost, in 500-point games. This practice continues today (though it's more commonly seen with the Imperial Guard [[Manticore Rocket Launcher]]), and has induced [[Butthurt|ragequits]]. If a bit smart with list building you can try to fit '''2''' in a 500 pts list! Watch the fun as your tanks can get orders which make them even better. Run for the hills, heretics! No, wait! The tanks ARE the hills! Run away from the hills! Just get away from the tanks!

Example:

'''500 point Patrol detachment'''

'''HQ'''

Knight Commander Pask, Punisher gatling cannon, heavy bolter, heavy bolter sponsons<br>
221pts

Tank Commander, battle cannon, lascannon, plasma cannon sponsons, Relic of Lost Cadia<br>
239pts

'''TROOPS'''

10 Guardsmen<br>
40pts

Total: 500 points.

Due to terrible wording on tank orders '''which was not FAQ'd''', Pask and the generic Commander [[wat|can order themselves or each other]]. Reroll your battle cannon shots with the Cadian tank order, or Strike and Shroud if they have enough lascannons to trouble you. Likewise the Relic of Lost Cadia '''is not one-use only''' and likewise '''was not FAQ'd to be.''' Re-roll every 1 to wound every turn, or all failed to hit or wound rolls against Chaos. For Warlord trait, give the generic commander Tenacious Survivor. All the Imperial Guard-specific ones are irrelevant in this list.

In 8th Edition, they got even better. Not only can they fire their turret weapon TWICE if you move less than half their movement distance, you can take Detachments of them! And even better, Leman Russ tanks in a Spearhead Detachment gain Objective Secured! Watch that Space Marine player weep and rage when you capture that objective with a single Leman Russ tank from right under his Deep Striking Terminators' noses (who will most likely destroy your tank in close combat the next turn)! A Tank Commander and 3 Leman Russ tanks minimum, to 2 Tank Commanders and 18 Leman Russ tanks in a single Spearhead Detachment, and all of them having Objective Secured! And if those aforementioned Terminators charge your tank, spend a Command Point on Defensive Gunners and hope your plasma cannons evaporate the lot of them before they make it in.

==Alternative Modeling Options==
If you don't want to use GW stuff, or if you just want something to give your tanks a more unique look, there are a plethora of ways to [[proxy]] up a Russ stand-in. Perhaps most obviously and lazily, virtually every WW2 medium tank can and has been counted-as a Russ at some point or another, and models for those can be found in literally every hobby store in existence. Hell, even toys could work if you really feel like scraping the bottom of the cheapskate barrel. If you want good quality and properly scaled WW2 tanks though, suitable 28mm models of which can be acquired from [[Warlord Games]]' Bolt Action line. If you want to actually get something closer to the 40k style, there are also plenty of 3rd party kits. The Gideon Main Battle Tank (apparently discontinued) from [[Mad Robot Miniatures]] is basically a German Tiger styled Russ, including guns for a vanilla battle tank, Vanquisher, Exterminator, Demolisher, and Punisher. The Matilda tank from [[Victoria Miniatures]] is another straight Russification of a WWII tank, in this case the British Matilda, and also comes with all the guns for different Russ variants. The Gothic KV2 Tank from Maxmini technically represents the [[Ragnarok (tank)|Ragnarok]], but there aren't any current rules for the Ragnarok so you'd just be fielding it as a Russ Battle Tank anyway. [[Blood and Skulls Industry]] on Ebay is also a good venue for an alt Russ. They don't offer whole hulls, but they have every kind of turret, track, sponson, and gun you could want, for Russes as well as Predators, Chimeras, Tauroxes and Baneblades.

==An Interesting Development==
In a surprising move, GeeDubs decided to greenlight some 40k-themed shit for the online game World of Tanks, starting with the Spess Mehreen Predator tank on its mobile version. Amongst the promotional shit on WoT’s PC version, including a premium [[Ragnarok (tank)|“KV-2(R)”]], is a new paintjob that turns the French BDR G1 B heavy tank into what’s pretty-clearly supposed to be a Mordian Leman Russ battle tank. Of course, seeing as how Wargaming.net takes cues from the same “money-grabbing asshole executives” playbook as GW, if not more so, you end up having to pay separately for both the paintjob and the goddamn tank itself.

Apparently, enough 40k players play World of Tanks (and vice versa) in order to justify the cross-promotion materiel; in fact, the BDR G1 B’s fandom nickname was the “Leman Russ” WAY before the entire crossover was even considered to begin with, owing to its likeness to a steel potato with a massive gun on top.

==Gallery==
<gallery>

Image:LRPun.jpg| Most guns go "DAKKA DAKKA DAKKA" for hours without going dry of ammo. The Leman Russ Punisher goes "BRRRRT" for half a minute.
Image:LRExec.jpg| The Leman Russ Executioner, known for making marines break out in hives.
Image:LRErad.JPG| FUCK YOUR COVER SAVES DAWG I HAS AN ERADICATOR
Image:LRbattletank.jpg| Even the basic Leman Russ is better than your army's tanks. ([[Hammerhead Gunship|Whatever you say, Gue'la]])
Image:LRDemo.gif| If the Leman Russ Demolisher hasn't absorbed at least 6 attempts to destroy it by turn 2, you're either doing it wrong or you also have a [[Baneblade|Baneblade]].
Image:LRVanq.jpg| When you need to fuck up a [[Land Raider]], accept no substitutes.
Image:LRExterm.jpg| The Exterminator likes to party. At 500 shots per minute.
Image:Annhilator.jpg|The Guardsmen felt left out after the Space Marines [[Predator Annihilator|get the new shiny toys.]] So they made their own.
Image:Destoyer_Leman_Russ.jpg|Want to destroy that enemy vehicle for a good price? The Destroyer has got your back.
Image:Pask.jpg| Knight Commander Pask is in dire need of some juvenat drugs. Jesus. Also Ed Harris in 40k.
File:LMVanquishermodels.png|All the Leman Russ Vanquisher Models released so far. Ironically, The Vanquisher is described as a rare tank yet has more variants than any Imperial Guard Tank in circulation.
File:LMExicutioner.png|Leman Russ Executioner models.
Image:itrusseslemans.jpg| Well, it does.
</gallery>

==Navigation==
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[[Category:Warhammer 40,000]][[Category:Imperial]][[Category:Vehicles]]

Hammerhead Gunship

2019-08-30T22:31:35Z

2001:56A:F829:9000:ADC3:1D30:369A:26C0: /* Comparison to the Leman Russ */

[[Image:T hammerhead.jpg|thumb|500px|right|[[Magical Realm|Dare you enter my Anti-Armour Realm?]]]]
The '''TX7 Hammerhead Gunship''' is the [[Tau]]'s analogue to a tank. [[Manta|Like]]([[Skyray Missile Gunship|alm]][[Tetra|ost]]) [[Devilfish|every]] [[Piranha|vehicle]] [[Sun Shark Bomber |in]] [[Barracuda|the]] T'au [[Orca|arsenal]], it has a distinctly piscine name. It can mount either a [[railgun]] or an [[ion cannon]] as its primary weapon. Both have two firing modes: one against hordes of infantry while the other works better against tougher targets. [[Forge World]] used to make some additional primary weapon options for the Hammerhead: two long-barrelled burst cannons, twin-linked [[missile pod]]s, two plasma cannons, or two fusion cannons. Unfortunately those parts are no longer in production, so you better get busy converting some of your own if you want them. Rules for these systems can be found in the Imperial Armour Index: Xenos.

Secondarily it is equipped with either a pair of independently targeting [[gun drone]]s, a twin-linked pair of [[burst cannon]]s, or a twin-linked smart missile system. The gun drones' advantage is that their guns count as being the Hammerhead's as long as they are embarked, making their weapons a lot more reliable and don't suffer from the -1 To Hit if the Hammerhead moves as they are Assault weapons. Don't forget that they have two Pulse Carbines, giving the pair a total of 4x2 shots. The Burst Cannons have the exact same stats, but they cannot be detached and added to a unit to give them two abalative wounds. Smart Missile Systems meanwhile are double the firepower and nearly double the range with the same stats, but at the cost of costing twice as much and being Heavy weapons. Most of the time though these secondary weapons are moot points unless there's an emergency, since the Hammerhead will usually try to stay outside ranges at which it needs to use them anyway, so most people take drones and detach them to press forward or create cover and distraction targets while Hammerhead stays on the back lines.

Fluff says that it and the Leman Russ tank are more or less equally matched. Given the number of Leman Russes in existence compared to the number of Hammerheads, though... probably sucks to be a Hammerhead in the fluff. On the other hand, in the Taros Campaign the Imperial Guard lost five to six Russes for every Hammerhead destroyed, though considering they were waging war in the flat, open desert with no cover, under constant markerlight-guided missile barrage, and with supply lines being cut almost the second they were established, those statistics may be misleading. However, if you are to believe what [[Dawn Of War]] and its expansions demonstrates (which is debatable in and of itself), the Hammerhead is vastly superior. To be fair though, the T'au needed BIG units, and the Hammerhead probably fit really nicely into that slot. In short, no one really knows which tank is better, though it tends to lean towards the Hammerhead.

Unlike the Leman Russ, the Hammerhead is not intended to smash its way into enemy lines, instead hanging back and exploiting the 72" range of the railgun to put holes in the Tau's enemies while taunting them to try and rush it. If this is the case, then the Vanilla Hammerhead could be said to be more closely related to a Tank Hunter than a true tank.

In 4th and 5th Editions, the Hammerhead competed with Broadside [[Battlesuit]]s for heavy support slots. For roughly the same cost, a trio of Broadsides could put three twin-linked railgun shots on target compared to the single-shot Hammerhead. However, the Hammerhead could move further before shooting, and could fire the S6, AP4 large blast template to vaporize light infantry, while Broadsides could only, at best, bump off three soldiers with a lucky round of shooting. For the 6th Edition [[Codex]], [[Games Workshop]] decided to "resolve" the conflict (read: give people a reason to spend their money on both Broadsides ''and'' Hammerheads) by changing the Broadside's main weapon to the "heavy rail rifle"—nerfed to S8, but with the option of getting Skyfire, making them a threat to flyers in a way that a lone Hammerhead never could be. Although admittedly this nerfing makes sense fluff-wise since the Hammerhead's railgun was always larger than a Broadside Battlesuit's.

==Comparison to the Leman Russ==
[[Image:Tau_Firepower_Demotivator.jpg|thumb|250px|right|Sniping tanks for the Greater Good.]]

Much like a cold war tank, the Hammerhead is low to the ground with good (if the model is any indication) gun depression (said to be from -10° to +28°), with a main gun that can be either anti-tank or anti-infantry depending on its firing mode, while being blisteringly fast. Further, its role is more akin to a U.S. tank than a Soviet one, as western tanks were built to take on lots and lots of Soviet tanks at once. As mentioned, Hammerheads are almost always drastically outnumbered by Leman Russes. (Who are the communists supposed to be here, again?)

Tactically they fill the same niche as a modern tank, an element supporting mechanized infantry advancing very, very quickly, and taking out armor while using its machine guns on infantry, and The ion cannon fills a role similar to a Bradley's chain gun by taking out infantry and (if a modern military ever faced power armor) heavy infantry. While it does have rather fine armor, Hammerhead rely more on evasive maneuvers, disruption pods and straight up outranging it's opponents to survive, so it can potentially withstand twice to trice more anti-tank fire than most imperial tanks. The Leman Russ, on the other hand, is a World War II tank and it shows; it's much slower and has a much broader silhouette, but it's bristling with guns and relying purely on it's thick armor, while lacking more sophisticated defense systems.

==On the Tabletop==
The Hammerhead carries a decent profile: T7 W13 3+ means it can take a beating, while its BS3+ lets it fire its weapons reliably even when utilizing its 12" Fly movement. It does degrade over time at 6 and 3 wounds: each time its movement halves and its BS becomes 1 worse, and its attacks degrade like every other tank. A basic Hammerhead clocks in at 133 with two drones. You then have to pick either a Railgun or an Ion Cannon:

* The Railgun is the cheaper and better option of the two and nets you either a 72" Heavy 1 S10 AP-4 DD6 shot that deals an additional D3 Mortal Wounds on a 6 To Wound, of a 72" Heavy D6 S6 AP-1 D1 shot that can put a dent in hordes. This is the inferior option however: the massive amount of Burst Cannons and Pulse weapons mean that you've got plenty of options to deal with everything below [[MEQ]].
* The Ion Cannon gives you a choice as well: either a 60" Heavy 3 S7 AP-2 D2 shot or a 60" Heavy D3 S7 AP-2 D3 shot that goes up to Heavy D6 against units 10+ models in size, but causes a Mortal Wound for every 1 you roll To Hit. Generally the Ion Cannon is not really worth it: you have better guns to deal with [[TEQ]]s and the overcharge shot is only the superior option when dealing with large units, which rarely warrant the D3 anwyay.

Then there are the support weapons. Two gun drones at 16 points is a nice deal, granting you 8 extra shots at close range to deal with light infantry. Not only that you can detach them near an Infantry or Battlesuit unit to give them two extra wounds, which is immensely helpful with your more expensive units. For 20 points you can instead take two Burst Cannons, but those have the same firepower as the drones do and can't detach. The Smart Missile Systems are expensive at 20 ''each'', but ignore cover bonuses and can be fired blind at the cost of being Heavy weapons, but this is offset by the Hammerhead's BS3+ and high rate of fire. Finally it can take up to two Seeker Missiles at 5 points each, which are always welcome.

The Forge World versions suffer from being massively [[overpriced]]. Their primary problem is that the hull itself already clocks in at 161 points, and it doesn't even have guns at that point. If you want to make a powerful missile boat out of the Heavy Bombardment Hammerhead with its standard High Yield Missile Pods, two Smart Missile Systems and two Seeker Missiles you're looking at almost 300 points. And the 8 S7 AP-1 DD3 and 8 S5 AP0 D1 shots just are not worth it. Even going with the cheapest option you're looking at a tank that's 100 points more exensive than the Railgun Hammerhead. The Fire Support Hammerhead is 171 bare and requires some very expensive weapons:

* The Twin Fusion Cannon is the ''cheapest'' at 54 points. They're a pair of Fusion Blasters with 24" range delivering a Heavy 2 shot and nets a reroll of the damage within half range. On paper it's better at popping tanks than the Railgun and utilizes the tank's speed and Fly ability to get close, but afterwards you'll be a sitting duck, which is pricy for a model that's almost 250 points.
* The Twin T'au Plasma Cannon is a pair of souped-up Plasma Rifles, shooting 4 shots at 48" S7 AP-3 D2. This makes the gun surprisingly effective at taking down [[TEQ]]s from a distance, but its 60 point price tag makes it five and a half times as expensive as a regular Plasma Rifle.
* The Twin Heavy Burst Cannon is the closest the Tau have to a Leman Russ Punisher. A whopping '''16''' shots at 36" dealing S6 AP-1 D1 damage, it can tear through entire infantry squads in one turn. The downside is, once again, its cost: 70 points. While it's tempting to give your Hammerhead this weapon and two regular Burst Cannons for some delicious [[dakka]] goodness, remember that this will set you back 261 points, which is way too expensive for what it does.

Finally there's the option of taking [[Longstrike]]. At the low cost of only 20 points, you'll get BS2+, +1 to wound against Vehicles and Monsters, +1 To Hit for other Hammerheads within 6" and has For the Greater Good, netting you some extra shots in case of a charge. To get the most out of him you'll need at least one additional Hammerhead, but it's worth it for the improved performance.

The Hammerhead's signature railgun <s>is</s> was also carried by the [[XV88 Broadside Battlesuit]], before it was downgraded to a lighter but faster firing Heavy Rail Rifle. If you want pure Rail goodness the Hammerhead is currently the superior option: the Hammerhead is slightly cheaper but far sturdier and can lay down more reliable damage, even when counting the fact it fires more slowly. Overall the Hammerhead is an excellent tank and a mainstay of Tau armies for a good reason.

===Power Ratings===
With Power Ratings the Hammerheads are slightly behind the 20-points-per-power curve, but still make for excellent tank hunters. Longstrike is still worth it as well, costing 11 power. The real stars are the Forge World configurations: costing the same 10 points as the regular Hammerheads they suddenly become viable. The missile hell of the Heavy Bombardment Hammerhead is suddenly a lot more viable and outclasses the similarly-armed Broadside greatly, while Fire Support Hammerheads become usable as well. The Twin Fusion Cannons might still not be entirely worth it, but the Twin T'au Plasma Cannons become an option and the concentrated fire of the Twin Heavy Burst Cannons let you concentrate your firepower on a single unit.

{{Tau}}

[[Category:Vehicles]]

Hammerhead Gunship

2019-08-30T22:31:19Z

2001:56A:F829:9000:ADC3:1D30:369A:26C0: /* Comparison to the Leman Russ */

[[Image:T hammerhead.jpg|thumb|500px|right|[[Magical Realm|Dare you enter my Anti-Armour Realm?]]]]
The '''TX7 Hammerhead Gunship''' is the [[Tau]]'s analogue to a tank. [[Manta|Like]]([[Skyray Missile Gunship|alm]][[Tetra|ost]]) [[Devilfish|every]] [[Piranha|vehicle]] [[Sun Shark Bomber |in]] [[Barracuda|the]] T'au [[Orca|arsenal]], it has a distinctly piscine name. It can mount either a [[railgun]] or an [[ion cannon]] as its primary weapon. Both have two firing modes: one against hordes of infantry while the other works better against tougher targets. [[Forge World]] used to make some additional primary weapon options for the Hammerhead: two long-barrelled burst cannons, twin-linked [[missile pod]]s, two plasma cannons, or two fusion cannons. Unfortunately those parts are no longer in production, so you better get busy converting some of your own if you want them. Rules for these systems can be found in the Imperial Armour Index: Xenos.

Secondarily it is equipped with either a pair of independently targeting [[gun drone]]s, a twin-linked pair of [[burst cannon]]s, or a twin-linked smart missile system. The gun drones' advantage is that their guns count as being the Hammerhead's as long as they are embarked, making their weapons a lot more reliable and don't suffer from the -1 To Hit if the Hammerhead moves as they are Assault weapons. Don't forget that they have two Pulse Carbines, giving the pair a total of 4x2 shots. The Burst Cannons have the exact same stats, but they cannot be detached and added to a unit to give them two abalative wounds. Smart Missile Systems meanwhile are double the firepower and nearly double the range with the same stats, but at the cost of costing twice as much and being Heavy weapons. Most of the time though these secondary weapons are moot points unless there's an emergency, since the Hammerhead will usually try to stay outside ranges at which it needs to use them anyway, so most people take drones and detach them to press forward or create cover and distraction targets while Hammerhead stays on the back lines.

Fluff says that it and the Leman Russ tank are more or less equally matched. Given the number of Leman Russes in existence compared to the number of Hammerheads, though... probably sucks to be a Hammerhead in the fluff. On the other hand, in the Taros Campaign the Imperial Guard lost five to six Russes for every Hammerhead destroyed, though considering they were waging war in the flat, open desert with no cover, under constant markerlight-guided missile barrage, and with supply lines being cut almost the second they were established, those statistics may be misleading. However, if you are to believe what [[Dawn Of War]] and its expansions demonstrates (which is debatable in and of itself), the Hammerhead is vastly superior. To be fair though, the T'au needed BIG units, and the Hammerhead probably fit really nicely into that slot. In short, no one really knows which tank is better, though it tends to lean towards the Hammerhead.

Unlike the Leman Russ, the Hammerhead is not intended to smash its way into enemy lines, instead hanging back and exploiting the 72" range of the railgun to put holes in the Tau's enemies while taunting them to try and rush it. If this is the case, then the Vanilla Hammerhead could be said to be more closely related to a Tank Hunter than a true tank.

In 4th and 5th Editions, the Hammerhead competed with Broadside [[Battlesuit]]s for heavy support slots. For roughly the same cost, a trio of Broadsides could put three twin-linked railgun shots on target compared to the single-shot Hammerhead. However, the Hammerhead could move further before shooting, and could fire the S6, AP4 large blast template to vaporize light infantry, while Broadsides could only, at best, bump off three soldiers with a lucky round of shooting. For the 6th Edition [[Codex]], [[Games Workshop]] decided to "resolve" the conflict (read: give people a reason to spend their money on both Broadsides ''and'' Hammerheads) by changing the Broadside's main weapon to the "heavy rail rifle"—nerfed to S8, but with the option of getting Skyfire, making them a threat to flyers in a way that a lone Hammerhead never could be. Although admittedly this nerfing makes sense fluff-wise since the Hammerhead's railgun was always larger than a Broadside Battlesuit's.

==Comparison to the Leman Russ==
[[Image:Tau_Firepower_Demotivator.jpg|thumb|250px|right|Sniping tanks for the Greater Good.]]
'''"Shas'ui, I have spotted the Gue'la tanks sitting on the horizon line, twelve kilometers downrange! Engaging now!"'''
:Three seconds later* '''CLANG, KA-BOOM!''' ''The Leman Russ spontaneously explodes''

Much like a cold war tank, the Hammerhead is low to the ground with good (if the model is any indication) gun depression (said to be from -10° to +28°), with a main gun that can be either anti-tank or anti-infantry depending on its firing mode, while being blisteringly fast. Further, its role is more akin to a U.S. tank than a Soviet one, as western tanks were built to take on lots and lots of Soviet tanks at once. As mentioned, Hammerheads are almost always drastically outnumbered by Leman Russes. (Who are the communists supposed to be here, again?)

Tactically they fill the same niche as a modern tank, an element supporting mechanized infantry advancing very, very quickly, and taking out armor while using its machine guns on infantry, and The ion cannon fills a role similar to a Bradley's chain gun by taking out infantry and (if a modern military ever faced power armor) heavy infantry. While it does have rather fine armor, Hammerhead rely more on evasive maneuvers, disruption pods and straight up outranging it's opponents to survive, so it can potentially withstand twice to trice more anti-tank fire than most imperial tanks. The Leman Russ, on the other hand, is a World War II tank and it shows; it's much slower and has a much broader silhouette, but it's bristling with guns and relying purely on it's thick armor, while lacking more sophisticated defense systems.

==On the Tabletop==
The Hammerhead carries a decent profile: T7 W13 3+ means it can take a beating, while its BS3+ lets it fire its weapons reliably even when utilizing its 12" Fly movement. It does degrade over time at 6 and 3 wounds: each time its movement halves and its BS becomes 1 worse, and its attacks degrade like every other tank. A basic Hammerhead clocks in at 133 with two drones. You then have to pick either a Railgun or an Ion Cannon:

* The Railgun is the cheaper and better option of the two and nets you either a 72" Heavy 1 S10 AP-4 DD6 shot that deals an additional D3 Mortal Wounds on a 6 To Wound, of a 72" Heavy D6 S6 AP-1 D1 shot that can put a dent in hordes. This is the inferior option however: the massive amount of Burst Cannons and Pulse weapons mean that you've got plenty of options to deal with everything below [[MEQ]].
* The Ion Cannon gives you a choice as well: either a 60" Heavy 3 S7 AP-2 D2 shot or a 60" Heavy D3 S7 AP-2 D3 shot that goes up to Heavy D6 against units 10+ models in size, but causes a Mortal Wound for every 1 you roll To Hit. Generally the Ion Cannon is not really worth it: you have better guns to deal with [[TEQ]]s and the overcharge shot is only the superior option when dealing with large units, which rarely warrant the D3 anwyay.

Then there are the support weapons. Two gun drones at 16 points is a nice deal, granting you 8 extra shots at close range to deal with light infantry. Not only that you can detach them near an Infantry or Battlesuit unit to give them two extra wounds, which is immensely helpful with your more expensive units. For 20 points you can instead take two Burst Cannons, but those have the same firepower as the drones do and can't detach. The Smart Missile Systems are expensive at 20 ''each'', but ignore cover bonuses and can be fired blind at the cost of being Heavy weapons, but this is offset by the Hammerhead's BS3+ and high rate of fire. Finally it can take up to two Seeker Missiles at 5 points each, which are always welcome.

The Forge World versions suffer from being massively [[overpriced]]. Their primary problem is that the hull itself already clocks in at 161 points, and it doesn't even have guns at that point. If you want to make a powerful missile boat out of the Heavy Bombardment Hammerhead with its standard High Yield Missile Pods, two Smart Missile Systems and two Seeker Missiles you're looking at almost 300 points. And the 8 S7 AP-1 DD3 and 8 S5 AP0 D1 shots just are not worth it. Even going with the cheapest option you're looking at a tank that's 100 points more exensive than the Railgun Hammerhead. The Fire Support Hammerhead is 171 bare and requires some very expensive weapons:

* The Twin Fusion Cannon is the ''cheapest'' at 54 points. They're a pair of Fusion Blasters with 24" range delivering a Heavy 2 shot and nets a reroll of the damage within half range. On paper it's better at popping tanks than the Railgun and utilizes the tank's speed and Fly ability to get close, but afterwards you'll be a sitting duck, which is pricy for a model that's almost 250 points.
* The Twin T'au Plasma Cannon is a pair of souped-up Plasma Rifles, shooting 4 shots at 48" S7 AP-3 D2. This makes the gun surprisingly effective at taking down [[TEQ]]s from a distance, but its 60 point price tag makes it five and a half times as expensive as a regular Plasma Rifle.
* The Twin Heavy Burst Cannon is the closest the Tau have to a Leman Russ Punisher. A whopping '''16''' shots at 36" dealing S6 AP-1 D1 damage, it can tear through entire infantry squads in one turn. The downside is, once again, its cost: 70 points. While it's tempting to give your Hammerhead this weapon and two regular Burst Cannons for some delicious [[dakka]] goodness, remember that this will set you back 261 points, which is way too expensive for what it does.

Finally there's the option of taking [[Longstrike]]. At the low cost of only 20 points, you'll get BS2+, +1 to wound against Vehicles and Monsters, +1 To Hit for other Hammerheads within 6" and has For the Greater Good, netting you some extra shots in case of a charge. To get the most out of him you'll need at least one additional Hammerhead, but it's worth it for the improved performance.

The Hammerhead's signature railgun <s>is</s> was also carried by the [[XV88 Broadside Battlesuit]], before it was downgraded to a lighter but faster firing Heavy Rail Rifle. If you want pure Rail goodness the Hammerhead is currently the superior option: the Hammerhead is slightly cheaper but far sturdier and can lay down more reliable damage, even when counting the fact it fires more slowly. Overall the Hammerhead is an excellent tank and a mainstay of Tau armies for a good reason.

===Power Ratings===
With Power Ratings the Hammerheads are slightly behind the 20-points-per-power curve, but still make for excellent tank hunters. Longstrike is still worth it as well, costing 11 power. The real stars are the Forge World configurations: costing the same 10 points as the regular Hammerheads they suddenly become viable. The missile hell of the Heavy Bombardment Hammerhead is suddenly a lot more viable and outclasses the similarly-armed Broadside greatly, while Fire Support Hammerheads become usable as well. The Twin Fusion Cannons might still not be entirely worth it, but the Twin T'au Plasma Cannons become an option and the concentrated fire of the Twin Heavy Burst Cannons let you concentrate your firepower on a single unit.

{{Tau}}

[[Category:Vehicles]]

Aurox Armoured Transport

2019-08-30T22:10:31Z

2001:56A:F829:9000:ADC3:1D30:369A:26C0:

[[File:Argoran-Feb03-Content1hqw.jpg|400px|right|thumb|Ahoy! It's a Imperial Guard [[Rhino]]!]]
The Aurox is a transport vehicle used during the [[Great Crusade]] and the [[Horus Heresy]] by the [[Solar Auxilia]] and the <s>Imperial Guard</s> IMPERIAL ARMY. Both it and its tank variant (see below) are blatant nods to the bygone days of 40k's past when, prior to getting their own vehicle lines, the Imperial Army just used Rhinos and Predators, that probably makes the Dracosan their equivalent of a Land Raider...Actually, the Imperial Army had tons of Land Raiders. It was even better in Rogue Trader, though, as the Army and later Guard spammed Predators and used squadrons of Land Raider Proteus instead of Leman Russ tanks.

===Overview===

Basically a [[Rhino]] stripped of all the advanced tech and fancy bits, the Aurox served the Imperial Army as the Chimera's more troop-transport orientated brother, boasting only a Heavy Stubber for weaponry, but with larger size and transport capacity than the Chimera. Essentially, the Aurox is meant to be an actual APC whereas the Chimera is more of an IFV.

The Aurox's job description as a light APC is probably a much needed grace for the Imperial Army in the 31st Millennium as the only APCs available comes in ECKS BAWKS HUEG [[METAL BAWKSES]] such as the [[Gorgon Armored Assault Transport]] and the [[CRASSUS ARMORED ASSAULT TRANSPORT]]. Sure there is the [[Hades Breaching Drill]], but that is for a very specific niche. The all-rounder of the Aurox is essential for those who want to transport a large amount of [[Infantry Squad|redshirts]] safely without wasting a lot of points.

==Carnodon==
[[File:Carnodon.jpg|400px|right|thumb|Ahoy! It's an Imperial Guard [[Predator]]!]]

The Predator Battle Tank of the Imperial Army. The Carnodon was an extremely versatile tank that could mount a wide variety of weapons. You want it to be a dedicated tank destroyer? You can have two Lascannon sponsons and a twin-linked Lascannon turret for quadruple the fun. You want it to devastate MEQs? Just swap the Lascannons with Autocannons and Volkites and your opponent would roll for [[Anal circumference]] as his troops will be facing a barrage of bullets and martian death rays. The only downside is that it doesn't have a hull mounted weapon like the Leman Russ, or a battle cannon.

Tl;dr: It's the Malcador to the Aurox's Dracosan or Baby's First Malcador.

===Overview===

The Carnodon is a versatile medium battle tank which acted as the linchpin for many of the storied successes of the Imperial Army during the Great Crusade. As a premier mobile fire platform, it was regularly adapted to combat a wide variety of foes and respond to any number of battlefield conditions. During the early years of the Great Crusade, it rapidly became a byword for conquest amongst the Expeditionary fleets, a legacy which led to the production of the dedicated Imperial battle tanks of latter-days.

As the Great Crusade moved ever outwards and supply of the Aurox chassis peaked, it is thought that many Carnodon tanks entered a strategic reserve and were distributed to Crusade muster worlds behind the front lines; with over two hundred thousand examples thought to have been stored pending secondary mobilization in the warrens under the world of Tallarn.

==So where did they go?==
Given how prevalent the Aurox and Carnodon tanks were during the Great Crusade, their apparent complete absence in 40k is particularly noteworthy, as well as without explanation.

The most obvious answer to assume would be that the Adeptus Mechanicus just forgot or lost the STCs for these tanks at some point. However, the problem with that is that there are plenty of ''far'' rarer vehicles from the Crusade era that still see use in the 41st Millennium, STC or no STC. In the case of what's supposed to be the ''standard APC and MBT'' of the Imperial Army, tanks that are likely mass-produced on ''dozens'' of Forge Worlds (and every other planet of Civilized World or greater status), if lost STCs was the only problem with them, it stands to reason that there would still be plenty of surviving Aurox and Carnodon tanks from those days still in service.

Another possible answer is that the Aurox and Carnodon tanks are still being used, just not in the current scope of most stories. Remember the Imperial army was for all intents and purposes a garrison force. IE, they kept the local population from rising up in rebellion. Chances are that these vehicles are used by the PDF. By the time the Imperium sends forces to retake or fight for a planet, the stocks of Aurox and Carnodons have been depleted and replaced with Chimera's and Leman Russ tanks.

The other, more likely reason for the disappearance of the Aurox and Carnodon is that they were simply mothballed in favor of the more cost-effective Chimera and Leman Russ. This is confirmed by the Carnodon's 40k rules, with the opening of the [[Great Rift]] compelling Mars to recommission the Carnadon STC for mass production once again, although the Aurox was left in the mothball bin. Likely because the more modern Chimera serves the same role while having better armament, transport capacity, and built in vox casters, while the Carnodon can serve as a lighter tank than the standard Russ, which does support the theory that they've been mostly handed down to PDFs since their tanks are generally depicted as being less armed and armored than guard standard.

In the case of the Carnadon, it should be noted that it's not a Battle Tank, it's a Medium Tank (like how the Malcador is a Heavy Tank). Thus it was likely replaced due to the Leman Russ acting as a better version of both. The main problem with doing this is that the Leman Russ is not as heavily armored as a heavy tank, preventing it from filling that role, and slower and less numerous than a medium tank, making it poor in that role. This lead to the role it is used in: a mobile strongpoint.

{{Imperial-Guard}}