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Chain Weapon

2019-09-26T12:49:03Z

2600:1006:B105:8611:58CC:338D:D9D2:B1D4: /* Frost Blade */

[[File:Chainsword06.jpg|180px|right|thumb|A typically poor rendition of a chainsword - as you can see, the housing surrounds the teeth, which would interfere with penetration (but would allow it to parry). Still dangerous though.]]

{{Topquote|Problems? '''Problems?''' There is no problem I cannot solve with this...|Commander Mad Chainsaw Johnson of the [[White Scars]], [[White Dwarf|White Dwarf 93]]}}

A Chain weapon is a fuck-awesome melee weapon, heavily used by [[Imperium|Imperial]] forces, although variants are fielded by the [[Eldar]], [[Ork]]s, and [[Chaos Space Marines]].

Apparently in the 41st Millennium, chainsaws have been re-purposed for hacking down things/aliens/people instead of simply harvesting lumber. By far the most common Chain weapon is the chainsword.

As its name implies, the chainsword is a bladed weapon with a rotating chainsaw blade in-between, that's powered by a motor mounted on the hilt and activated with a trigger on the grip. Of course, the sheer manliness in this weapon makes it pretty damn heavy, so it's actually really fucking awesome. But since almost all the users of it have some combination of power armor, bionics, or natural strength to swing them around, the weight is a lot less of an issue. More likely it’s due to lightweight materials because it’s tens of millennia into the future.

Although the chainsword is issued to virtually all forces of the [[Imperium]], it is most famous with the [[Space Marines|Spehss mahreens]] who widely use the chainsword as the primary weapon of their assault troops and veteran soldiers.

The standard chainsword used to have the same rules as any other close-combat weapon. Which is dumb, considering most of the fluff describes it as cutting through armour with ease, even Terminator armour, with some additional effort. [[Derp|Because a giant chainsaw does as much damage as a combat knife.]] 8e changed it up a bit, though- while it still doesn't do more damage than a basic close combat weapon, it does grant a bonus attack. This (along with its low point cost) makes it a good choice of melee weapon when the quantity of your attacks matters more than their quality (e.g. against [[Hormagaunt]] swarms and mobs of [[Ork]] Boyz).

==Imperial Variants==
The Chainsword also has several variants that have been developed by both the Imperium of Man and Xenos. Here are some examples:

===Chainblade===
[[File:ChainBladeBolter.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Chainblade]]

The smallest known Chainweapon.

These weapons are small enough to be considered as an attachment to most rifles. As such it is a smaller Chain bayonet that is attached to a Bolter and utilized as a close-combat weapon during assaults. Although, to be honest, it seems more practical to just have a large, sharpened serrated blade than a gas-guzzling weapon that will become useless once it runs out of fuel, and seeing how small the weapon (and thus, fuel supply) is, its gonna run out of fuel relatively quickly.

Basically it was the lancer assault rifle from Gears of War before Gears of War even existed.

===Chainsword===
[[File:Imperial_Chainsword.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Chainsword]]
A chainsword is just a chainsaw with a sword grip. Most versions make use of monomolecular-edged or otherwise razor sharp teeth.

Like many examples of human invention, the chainsword’s many variants seem to have their roots in the shrouded heresies of the Dark Age of Technology. Some in /tg/ like to speculate that it was some AdMech Priest who had mistaken a weirdly designed Chainsaw for a sword, unfortunately official fluff dictates that it saw consistent use in the armored fists of techno-barbarians during the Age of Strife, and among the Emperor’s own armies during his [[Thunder Warriors]]’ conquest of Terra during the Unification Wars.

But whilst Techpriests debate on the origin of the Chainsword, a particularly amusing theory surface that states it was an [[Heresy|inspiration stolen from]] [[Eldar|an alien race,]] [[War in Heaven|in a war that may never be remembered.]] [[Troll|If this theorem ever bears fruit, it is distinctly possible that the galaxy’s first wielders of chainswords were the prissy armored warriors of the ancient Eldar,]] [[Not As Planned|not us Humans.]]

There are multiple varieties of Chainsword such as the '''Ironfang Chainsword''', which is a variant of the chainsword created to allow human heretics to approximate the deadly blows of a Legion chainsword, this variant features a thick, bladed area with chained teeth nearly twice the width of an ordinary chainsword, and powered by a backpack-mounted fuel supply. Its greater tearing strength and weighted nose allow it to deal viciously violent heavy slashing blows. Needless to say, this weapon is heavy - 12 kilograms in weight, complete with power supply - and unbalanced, ie. a very heavy ''regular'' chainsaw.

<gallery>
File:PreacherChainsword.png
File:ThunderEdgeChainsword.jpg|Horus Heresy Chainsword
</gallery>

===Frost Blade===
[[File:FrostBlade.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Frost Blade]]

A unique Chainsword and possibly one of the only ones that could actually cut anything worth a damn rather than bludgeoning the enemies of man to death. The Frost Blade is yet, [[Mary Sue|another special weapon and equipment exclusive to the]] [[Space Wolves]].

Like the Frost Axe, each blade is hand-crafted by a Master [[Iron Priest]], and many incorporate the diamond-hard fangs of the Fenrisian Ice Kraken. They are highly sought after and in the skilled hands of a Space Marine they can be comparable in effect to most Power Weapons. Naturally, this means kraken hunting for teeth for the Adeptus Astartes at large will never happen. Not squandering resources is heresy. Like giving chainswords to every Marine and not just Assault and Veterans. Madness, what do you think they are, super-human?

In the legends of the chapter, the finest Frost Blades are made of ice harvested from the heart of a glacier, and then [[Wat|tempered inside a Kraken's belly.]]

===Heavy Chainblade/Chainsword===
[[File:Heavy_Chainblade_HH.JPG|200px|right|thumb|Heavy Chainsword]]
The Eviscerator's pussy brother, the Heavy Chainblade is a massive chainsword, significantly larger than one of the standard chainswords but far weaker than an actual Eviscerator, possibly because [[Heresy|it was meant more for construction than combat]]. This also made it to it's combat stats, instead of the Eviscerator's manly SX2, AP2 with Armourbane, it's a weak S+2 AP4, with no additional bonuses (and being two-handed as well, so forget using it to get another attack). About the only thing it has on the Eviscerator is that it's not so huge that it's unwieldy.

Being used mainly by the Mechanicum in the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy, it's unsurprising these seem to have mostly fallen out of favour in the 41st millennium, given how everyone seems to have swapped to the Eviscerator.

Not to be confused with the similarly named "Heavy Chainsword", used by the Legions Astartes, an even wimpier version that shares the same profile except for being AP 5 instead of AP 4. These also seem to have fallen out of favour when the Eviscerator rolled around, much to nobody's surprise.

<gallery>
Image:Twin_Handed_Chainsword_1024x1024.JPG|Another Heavy Chainsword.
</gallery>

===Eviscerator===
[[File:Evisercator.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Eviscerator]]
Chainsword but ECKS BAWKS HUEG. Used by the Ecclesiarchy's priests and by the [[Sisters Repentia]] of the [[Sisters of Battle]] (as well as Chapter Master [[Gabriel Seth|Gabriel 'IN THE BALLS' Seth]]). Most recently however, Eviscerators have found their way into the hand of 7E assault marine sergeants, because meltabombs just weren't enough.

The Eviscerator is twice the size of a regular chainsword and so heavy that a normal soldier will need to wield it using both hands. The Eviscerator might also incorporate an exterminator, a portable flame unit that will not only help it breach armor, but also scare the fuck out of any normal man upon seeing a whacked up priest/nun swinging a fucking huge flaming sword-chainsaw. The Eviscerator is also extra effective against armored units.

In some works the Eviscerator is described as having a disruptor field weaker than those of energy weapons, which still helps carving through ceramite.

<gallery>
Image:Catalogue_Eviscerator.jpg|The classic chainsaw variant
image:RepentiaEvisceratorZoomed.png|REPENT MOTHERFUCKER!
</gallery>

===Chain Spear===
[[File:Chain_Spear.PNG|200px|right|thumb|Chain Spear]]

Another long-range Chainweapon.

Similarly to the chain glaive, this weapon combines reach with lethality, mounting a chainsaw-bladed length at the end of a long haft, ensuring that jabs and thrusts can tear open flesh with the lightest touch whilst keeping the wielder out of harm's way, in contrast to the chain glaive whose curved blade and hilt aims for a more slashing and cutting motion to dismember enemies from a distance.

According to ''Tome of Blood'', some variants actually sport the [[Wat|sharpened teeth of the bearer's former victims as the cutting edges, which are enough to cause even the slightest hit to become a spray of blood and torn flesh. ]].

===Chainfist===
[[image:Chainfist.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Chainfist]]
Intended to assist Terminators' not stellar mobility when involved in boarding actions, the Chainfist is a [[Power weapon|Power Fist]] that incorporates a powerful chainsaw blade for the purposes of slicing through armored bulkheads. The weapon is commonly used by Terminators both as a CQC weapon and a convenient tool to cut themselves a way through the average [[Space Hulk]]'s too small doors/walls/ceilings/floors... during boarding actions. Of course, since it can penetrate thick metal with little trouble, it's also often used for ripping open enemy vehicles and bunkers.

The reason it's so effective is simple: the powerfist's energy field also encompasses the chainblade. That's right, the chainfist effectively marries a chainsword and power fist. Remember how a regular power sword cuts most stuff like a hot knife through butter? Now bring a chainsaw with hot knives for teeth into this butter world, ''wear it like a glove'' and that's how a chainfist feels. That's just plain scary. If anything, it's like hitting a target with a power sword at [[Fist of the North Star|40 strikes per second]], so that the powerfield weakens the target and then the teeth hack it away. The alternative is having a static piece of metal that is still cutting, but just not as efficiently.

The easiest way to use a chainfist in combat is to wield it like a Tonfa. As its mounted just under the left wrist parallel to the arm. Except for the versions with the saw coming over or out of the knuckle plate on the back of the hand. Or the ones that [[Awesome|replace the middle finger with the saw]] (not joking).

<gallery>
Image:TerminatorChainfistZoomed.png
image:SpaceMarineHeroChainfist.png|<center>Heresy-era</center>
</gallery>

===Dreadnought Chainfist===
[[File:DreadCF.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Dreadnought Chainfist]]

A Chainfist but fuckhueg.

In the Imperium, a Dreadnought Chainfist can exclusively be found attached to the Ironclad Dreadnought, although more vanilla Dreadnoughts are able to wield one if given the proper modifications. Unlike the smaller Chainfist which are used to open blastdoors, the Dreadnoughts use theirs to open tank hulls. This arm consists of a massive chainsaw shaped to fit a dreadnought power fist. This is a devastating weapon capable of tearing apart infantry and light armor.

The Forces of Chaos also makes use of Dreadnought-sized Chainfists, more specifically the force of [[Khorne]] due to its brutal blood-grinding method of destruction. It is not uncommon to see a World Eaters or other Khornate dreadnought equipped with dual Chainfists for maximum [[RIP AND TEAR]].

In 8th edition, the Dreadnought Chainfist deals 4 damage per attack but retains the high AP and loses the penalty to hit which makes it great against fighting whatever poor MEQs, GEQs, TEQs and light vehicles that gets in its way. Although against larger walkers, it starts to obviously suffer.
{{clear}}

===Reaper Chain-Cleaver===
[[File:Reaper_Chain-Cleaver.JPG|200px|right|thumb|Reaper Chain-Cleaver]]

The kid brother of the much larger Reaper Chainsword. The Reaper Chain-Cleaver is still a relatively large Chain Weapon carried by the combat walkers of the Imperial Knights, particularly the smallest class of Knights known as Knights Armiger. The Reaper Chain-cleaver is a saw-toothed weapon similar to but smaller than its much larger relative that mangles metal and gnaws flesh to ruin with each shuddering impact.

Unlike say, the Dreadnought Chainfist, the Reaper Chain-Cleaver is much better at fighting due to the more flexible joint placement of the Knight Armigers. That, and the fact that Knight Armigers are relatively slim and not as clunky, awkward and bulky; traits that usually characterize the servo-motors of Space Marine Dreadnoughts, specifically [[METAL BOXES|the more boxy design]] of the 41st Millennium.

To give credit where credit is due. The Chain-Cleaver ''actually'' looks like a proper cleaver. More specifically, it bears some resemblance to a Chinese cleaver.

On tabletop, the current Imperial Knight codex from 8th edition gives the Reaper Chain-Cleaver a weapon with two attack options: Strike and Sweep. Strike is Sx2/AP-3/3D and Sweep S-/AP-2/1D but doubles the amount of hit rolls you can make with it. So this gives the Armiger some very nice added adaptability in their close combat.

===Reaper Chainfist===
[[File:Reaper_Chainfist_of_the_Knight_Acheron.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Reaper Chainfist]]

A chainfist but really [[Rape|ECKS BAWKS HUEG]].

The Reaper Chainfist is a weapon used by the Cerastus Knight-Acheron. Usually carried on the Knight's right weapon arm, the Reaper Chainfist is employed alongside the Acheron's Acheron-Pattern Flame Cannons as a weapon of extermination used to inspire fear in the foe.

The Reaper Chainfist is actually a set of two Chain Weapons linked together, with each one spinning in opposite directions to maximize damage. The blades are capable of tearing through both armor and fortified walls with ease.

The weapon also features a built-in set of twin-linked Heavy Bolters to be used against infantry when the Knight needs to conserve fuel for its Flame Cannon, these Bolters are often used as a last resort or when the Knight really wants something dead in its tracks.

{{clear}}

===Reaper Chainsword===
[[image:ReaperChainsword2.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Reaper Chainsword]]

The standard superheavy weapon in the Chain Weaponry, the Reaper Chainsword is the main weapon of most models of [[Imperial Knight]]. Unlike most Chainweapons you see here, it was originally designed as a Logging device for feudal colonists (You know, like modern chainsaws), though only the height of three men, the Reaper's adamantine teeth are no less deadly and thus, also works incredibly well as a massive melee weapon.

The Chainsword can be swung with all the power of the Knight's servo-motors, the Reaper is capable of cleaving through practically anything, from the thick ferrocrete walls of a defensive bunker and capable of carving open a Super-Heavy Tank with a single blow.

<gallery>
image:ReaperChainswordZoomed.png
</gallery>

{{Clear}}

===Titan Chainfist===
[[File:Rtchainfist1.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Titan Chainfist]]

The big daddy-o of the Chainfist family. The Titan Chainfist takes the form of a large chainsaw attachment like the Chainfist, but on a gigantic scale. Thanks to the available power from the Titan's massive plasma reactor, Titan-grade Chainfists are also equipped with a secondary Melta Array, to soften up the target while cutting through it.

The Reaver Titan is the biggest user of these weapons.

Crunchwise, they are similiar to the Titan Power Fist, at Sx2 AP-5 10 D. However it can also cause -1 to hit. However, any to wound roll of 6 where a VEHICLE, MONSTER, or BUILDING is targeted deals 2D6 extra mortal wounds. Remember that void shields do not work against melee attacks, so against Titans and Titan-equivalents that lack melee weapons those Mortal Wounds can be a a big deal.

{{clear}}

==Chaos Variants==

Chaos use a overwhelmingly amount of chain weapons in contrast to power weapons. The majority of these users are [[Khorne|Khornate warbands]] and seeing how GW has a [[Waifu|unhealthy obsession with Khorne,]] you can see why. The majority of chain weapons of Chaos originally came from the Imperium, so it is unsurprising to see some old Imperial worlds to still incorporate these weapons in its armories. Its just that the force of Chaos has re-appropriated it for Chaos needs.

===Tzaangor Chainsword===
[[File:Tzaangor_Blades.JPG|200px|right|thumb|Tzaangor Chainswords]]
Unique Chainswords made specifically for the Tzaangors of the Thousand Sons.

These blades are warped by the sorcerous and psychic nature of their home planet of Sortiarius. With their savage nature, a Tzaangor would hack apart even power armor with sheer ferocious speed from their blades.

On tabletop, Tzaangor Chainswords are basically your typical Chainswords, its just best to stick with your Tzaangor Blades as it is just that but with an additional AP-1. No need to switch for a largely inferior weapon.

{{Clear}}

===Chainaxe===
[[image:Chainaxe.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Chainaxe]]
Imagine doomguy but a weapon. Yes, Warhammer has chainsaw axes, as insane it sounds. The custom weapon of [[Khorne|Khornate]] champions, the Chainaxe was a fairly common weapon among Imperial troops pre-[[Horus Heresy|heresy]]. It's basically a huge axe with a powerful chainsaw as a blade. Pre-heresy it was practically standard issue among the [[World Eaters]]. The sheer weight of the axe and the fact that most Khorne Chaos Marine champions are super strong and completely fucking nuts ensures these will tear through most infantry armor.

It's wielded by non-Khornate Chaos Marines as well, due to the greater damage it inflicts, but mostly because of the showers of gore they call "wounds" - represented in 40k rules by being AP4, a straight upgrade from a regular chainsword and the woe of anyone not wearing power armour. Among Imperial forces, a chain-axe is most likely to be seen in the hands of a [[Space Wolves|Space Wolf]] or a [[Raven Guard]] - the former due to the fact that they just don't give a flying fuck that it might associate them with Chaos, and the latter due to the fact that they mostly have older equipment due to infrequent resupplies. They are also very common among [[Flesh Tearers]] because they basically [[Heresy|already are]] a Khornate cult.

<gallery>
Image:KhornateChainaxeZoomed.png
Image:ReaverAxe.jpg|Great Crusade era
Image:Chain_Axe.jpg
</gallery>

===Chainscythe===
[[File:Manreaper_Chain-Power_Scythe_Hybrid.PNG|200px|right|thumb|Chainscythe]]

A even more unconventional and unwieldy weapon than the Power Scythe. But not really since a power scythe would be covered with an energy field so the shape of the weapon would be utterly irrelevant.

The Chainscythe is both a incredibly rare and extremely difficult to wield. It is telling that only one unit from oldschool [[Necromunda]] was seen carrying this thing around.
It is only seen wielded by the [[Spyrer]] Matriarchs, this variant of the chainglaive mounts the blade at a horizontal angle to the tip of the shaft.

Seriously though, how the hell do you fight with this thing? Not only does it share the same stupid profile of all chainweapons (That is the metal piece mounted on the blades are interfering with its cutting power), but it also shares the same awkward handle of a scythe. Try and hit someone with that thing, there is a reason why warscythes have their blades turned 90 degrees upwards like halberd to increase chances of it actually hitting anything.

Certain [[Death Guard]] [[Deathshroud|Deathshrouds]] are known to use a special hybrid variant of a Power Scythe with chain teeth. Similar to the Chainfist, these specially modified Manreaper Scythes combine the disruptive nature of a power weapon with the raw and savage cutting power of a chain weapon. [[Mortarion|Ol'Morty]]'s own personal Manreaper ''"Silence"'' also incorporates chain teeth, but at a lesser extant.

<gallery>
image:ChainscytheMatriarch.png|The only person insane enough to use this as a weapon
File:Chainscythe.PNG
</gallery>

===Chain Glaive===
[[image:Chain_Glaive.PNG|200px|right|thumb|Chain Glaive]]

Also known as Chain Halberds, the Chainglaive is an evolution of the Chainaxe, giving it a longer blade and haft allowing for wide, sweeping strikes capable of rending power armour without much trouble. It's used extensively by Vanguard Marines and Chaos close-combat specialists. An ancient design by modern standards, it's by no means common, and sees use primarily with the traitor legions due to this (particularly with the [[Night Lords]], who had always favored its use).

They are also used by Rough Riders as a secondary or even primary weapon due to the weapon's reach and strength. These weapons come in a startling variety based on the sundry Forge Worlds and eras in which they were manufactured, but all are extremely deadly.

{{clear}}

===Chain Hammer===
[[File:Chain_Hammer.PNG|200px|right|thumb|Chain Hammer]]

Another rare and obscure Chainweapon.

Chainaxe not insane enough for you? [[Black Crusade]] introduces the chain Hammer, a massive, normally two-handed weapon shaped into either a maul outfitted with multiple rows of spinning metal teeth on the club-like head, or four chainaxe heads fused into a shape of a maul which can both rip apart flesh and smash bone into pulp with the brutal impact of this insane weapon.

Chain hammers are known to be used by orks and the pit brutes of Kurse in the Screaming Vortex. Powered versions capable of splitting Power Armour were also wielded by the Accusators of the Black Judges.

It is as ridiculous as it sounds.

===Chaos Dreadnought Chainfist===
[[FIle:Chaos_DredChainfist.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Chaos Dreadnought Chainfist]]

A Chainaxe upscaled to a Dreadnought for all your Khornate needs.

The Chaos Dreadnought Chainfist is similar to the one found on Imperial Castraferrum Pattern Dreadnoughts such as the Ironclad Dreadnought. The Chaos variant is covered in dark, runic symbols of the Dark Tongue and macabre ornamentation.

These weapons are favoured by Chaos Space Marines who follow the [[Chaos God]] [[Khorne]]. Khornate Berzerker Dreadnoughts usually are armed with two Dreadnought Chainfists, one on each of its weapon arms. The weapon is outfitted with a hull-mounted twin-linked Bolter, a Combi-Bolter, a Heavy Flamer, or in the case of captured or recently turned Dreadnoughts, a Storm Bolter.

The Chaos version can be differentiated by its more pronounced cutting teeth.

The Contemptor Dreadnought also has its own variant. The weapon looks as if a standard Asatartes Chainsword has been used to replace one of the Power Fist's fingers, unlike the Dreadnought Chain Fist used by the Castraferrum Pattern Dreadnought, which takes up the entire weapon arm. Like most Contemptor Dreadnought Close Combat Weapons the Contemptor Chainfist is also armed with a Combi-Bolter slotted within its palm.

<gallery>
Image:Chaos_Contempt_Chainfist.jpg|Contemptor variant
</gallery>

===Chaos Dreadnought Pincer Claw===
[[File:Pincer_Claw_Dread.png|200px|right|thumb|Chaos Dreadnought Pincer Claw]]

A very oldschool weapon that shows its age.

The Chaos Dreadnought Pincer Claw is a variant of the Dreadnought Chainfist, and consists of a pincer-like double Chain Weapon. These weapons are known to be found on Chaos Dreadnoughts that are dedicated to the Chaos God [[Slaanesh]], such as Sonic Dreadnoughts.

The shape of the weapon indicates a heavy influence from Slaaneshi Daemon Weapons. Seeing how pincer weapons are as pronounced in Slaanesh as Chainaxes are the staple of Khorne, this isn't that surprising.

Thus, it could be assume that the Emperor's Children merely took inspiration to their new master and fashioned their Dreadnoughts with a weapon that makes them visually closer to the Daemons of Slaanesh. [[Grimdark|Of course, being a Dreadnought, they are incapable of feeling the emotions and pleasure whilst stuck perpetually inside a tank.]] [[Troll|So the Dreadnought ends up raging in despair...much to the amusement of Slaanesh he/her/itself.]]

The Pincer Claw is designed to grab its prey and slowly mutilate its victims, however as an actual weapon for warfare, it is relatively poor. It is unable to effectively parry other like-minded weapons and its design makes it poor as both a cutting and bludgeoning weapon.

No wonder why this thing has not seen the light of day.

===Khornate Assault Claw===
[[File:Khornate_Assault_Claw.png|200px|right|thumb|Khornate Assault Claw]]

In no way should it be confused with the [[Drop Pod#Kharybdis Assault Claw|Kharybdis Assault Claw.]]

The Chaos Dreadnought Chainfist given a even more Khornate upgrade.

The Khornate Assault Claw is a variant of the standard Contemptor Claw, and is used by Chaos Contemptor Pattern Dreadnoughts dedicated to the Chaos God of blood and war, Khorne. The Khornate Assault Claw replaces the standard Power Claw's fingers with miniature Chain Weapons, making it especially devastating against infantry.

Like most Contemptor Dreadnought Close Combat Weapons the Contemptor Chain Fist is also armed with a Combi-Bolter slotted within its palm. The weapon could also be outfitted with a twin-linked Bolter during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy-era, or in the case of recently captured or reequipped Dreadnoughts a Storm Bolter.

The Khornate Assault Claw looks like a much more up-to-date and practical weapon than the Slaaneshi Dreadnought Pincer Claw.

===Brass Scorpion Pincer Claw===
[[File:Pincer_Claws.JPG|200px|right|thumb|Brass Scorpion Pincer Claw]]

The giant Pincer Claws found on the [[Brass Scorpion]].

Each of these claws are fully capable of tearing armored vehicles into pieces and wiping out entire infantry squads in one fell sweep. The creature's claws are protected on their outer sides by large Warp-forged alloy shields.

When the beast places its claws in front of itself, these shields are able to protect its entire body from harm. The Claws also feature three large in-built Chain Weapons, allowing them to cause even more damage during combat. There also exist variants of the Brass Scorpion outfitted with massive spinning blades instead of pincers.

===Great Cleaver of Khorne===
[[File:Great_Cleaver_of_Khorne.JPG|200px|right|thumb|Great Cleaver of Khorne]]

Axe of Khorne on acid or a Chain Axe that has overfed on growth hormones.

A Great Cleaver of Khorne is a Daemon Weapon in the form of a massive Chainaxe that is wielded by the [[Lord of Skulls]] and [[Kytan]] Daemon Engine. Like the Lord of Skulls that wields it, the Great Cleaver of Khorne is festooned with the remains of its victims, their skulls forever trapped within. The weapon is large enough that the Lord of Skulls can make use of it as easily as if it was a normal-sized melee weapon, and is capable of tearing apart tanks as if they were human heads. The Great Cleaver is fully capable of cutting entire vehicles into pieces and taking out entire groups of infantry. It is a weapon forged from murder and rage -- and it delivers the very same to its victims.

When activated, the Great Cleaver will erupt with eldritch power, the teeth rotating so fast as to become a blurred edge.

This is [[RIP AND TEAR]] INCARNATE!

==Eldar Variants==

===Scorpion Chainsword===
[[image:Eldar_Scorpion_Chainsword.png|right|200px|thumb|Scorpion Chainsword]]
An Eldar variant of the Chainsword fielded by the Striking Scorpions. It's like the Imperial Chainsword but incorporates advanced equipment that increases the wielder's strength and incorporates a sleeker, less bulky design.

There's been fluff that suggests they are actually a lot more advanced than Imperial chainswords, consisting of a heavily serrated 41st millennium mono-molecular blade which doesn't whirl around most of the time. Rather, upon hitting an opponent, and the blade gets stuck in their body/armor, THAT's when it goes all chainsaw, ripping armor and people apart and ensuring that the blade doesn't ever get stuck in someone; it'll either go through them or at least rip whatever it's stuck in enough to be pulled out, while also being a lot quieter since the motor's not constantly humming.

<gallery>
image:ScorpionSwordZoomed.png
</gallery>

===Chainsabre===
[[File:Dragon's_Tooth_Chainsaber.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Chainsabre, ''Dragon's Tooth'']]
One of the Scorpion Exarch's unique variation of the Scorpion Chainsword. Chainsabres are unique weaponry used by Striking Scorpion Exarchs. These Chainswords are paired with ancient gauntlets which incorporate twin-linked [[Shuriken Catapult|Shuriken Pistols.]] Exarchs who use these weapons train to wield two of them at once, allowing them to level an unrelenting storm of attacks upon their opponent.

On the tabletop 8th edition, the Chainsabres are two one-handed chain weapons that can [[Fist_of_the_North_Star|land a truly staggering amount of blows on a target]]. In melee they function the exact same as the Scorpion Chainsword, though these will grant another melee attack and have the Shuriken Pistol profile for your ranged attacks. Considered the most versatile of the bunch.

<gallery>
Image:Striking_scorpions_exarchs_1_5.jpg|Chainsabre with Shuriken Pistol attatchment
</gallery>

===Biting Blade===
[[File:Biting_Blade.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Biting Blade]]
One of the Scorpion Exarch's unique variation of the Scorpion Chainsword. Essentially the Eldar copy of the Eviscerator. Biting Blades are large, two-handed, long-bladed Chainswords reminiscent of the massive Eviscerators used by zealots within the Imperium. However, where Imperial Eviscerators are heavy, noisy machines, Biting Blades are slender and quiet, but no less deadly for their relatively light weight. The advanced monomolecular-edged teeth of the blade tear through flesh as though it were parchment and equally shred bone and armor, easily cleaving a man-size target in two.

On the tabletop, the Biting Blade is a massive two-handed weapon whose effectiveness increases as a target is hit. Basically it is a two handed Chainsword that bumps up to S+2 (S5) AP-1 and 2 D compared to the run of the mill Scorpion Chainsword. The least expensive of the Exarch's selections, but it also costs him both his pistol and Scorpion Chainsword to use.

==Ork Variants==

===Chain Choppa===
[[image:Chainchoppa.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Chain Choppa]]
The Chain Choppa is the Ork version of the chainsword. The weapon is a handheld chainsaw (though it sometimes takes the form of a sword or axe) used for almost anything. Really, you name it. In a pinch it can stand in for anything ranging from a weapon to a household tool.

Regular garden variety [[Ork_Boy|Ork Boyz]] rarely have these weapons, while richer Orks like the [[Warboss]] or a [[Nob]] might have it because it's killy and flash. Many are simply war trophies picked up from loyalist and traitor Space Marines.

<gallery>
image:ChainChoppaZoomed.png
</gallery>

{{Clear}}

===Big Chain Choppa===
[[File:OrkChainAxe.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Big Chain Choppa]]
The Chain Hammer of the Ork Horde.

Sometimes simply called the Ork Chainaxe. It is basically a Big Choppa with a motor system attached to it. Like the smaller Chain Choppa, certain Orks prefer this over the average Big Choppa due to the amount or carnage it can spew out.

The sheer size and relative complexity in making one means that only the biggest, strongest and wealthiest Orks could purchase one, like Nobs, Meganobs, Warbosses and Warlords. Like most Ork weapons, there are no standardization for the Big Chain Choppa.
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===Crusha===
[[File:OrkCrusha.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Crusha]]

''[[Derp|Not to be confused with the similarly named]] [[Miscellaneous Klose Kombat Weapons#Krusha|Krusha]]''

The Ork's Dreadnought Chainfist.

An oversized set of mechanical Chain Klaws which may or may not be the unholy lovechild of a Dread Klaw and a Chain Choppa.

The Crushas are basically the little brother of the Klaw of Gork/Mork and are meant to rip apart armored opponents with its pneumatic strength and powered piercing pincers. Whether they are actually Power Weapons is not known. What is known is that they feature a built-in Chain Weapon on the Klaws which can enable the Deff Dread to both capture and rip apart enemies at the same time.

Despite this, they are grouped all under the Killa Kan/Deff Dread Close Combat Weapons and thus, all share the same profile of a Dread Klaw/Kan Klaw (Depending on the walker using them). [[Derp|Which means that this non-Power Weapons share the same function as an ''actual'' Power Weapon.]] Although at the very least, the Crusha could at least be hand waved to function like the Chainfist.

===Mega-Choppa===
[[File:Mega-Choppa.PNG|200px|right|thumb|Mega-Choppa]]
The Orks saw the Imperium's Titan-sized Chainfists and proceeded to one-up them in both [[/d/|length, size and ''girth''.]]

A giant ECKSBAWKSHUEG Chainsword that are mounted only on biggest Ork walkers - from Stompas to Gargants and to see one in action is to witness a truly apocalyptic scene. These Mega-Choppas are designed to grind and rip apart enemy Titans with several swoops.

On tabletop, the Mega-Choppa is a Stompa's go-to carving weapon. It comes with 2 attack profiles. The first one is '''Smash''' which double's a Stompa's strength. Has a -5 AP. Causes 6 wounds per hit. Double S is inconsequential as there is nothing with T10. 6 wounds guaranteed are nice if you need exactly that, but more attacks are usually better. So you might want to use it for -5AP mostly.

The second attack profile is '''Slash''' which is only user-Strength, with a somehow lower AP than a Power Klaw (-2 as opposed to a klaw's -3), does D3 wounds per hit instead of the Smash's 6, BUT it lets you make 3 hit rolls for each Attack.
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== Notable Chainweapons ==

[[File:Torchlight chainswords by LaithArkham.jpg|left|thumb|300px|The mêlée weaponry of the 41st millennium offer a variety of implements for violently lacerating the opposition]]

'''Storm's Teeth''' - Take [[Berserk|Gut's]] DragonSlayer, turn it into a Chainsword, and then make it Bigger so only a [[Primarch]] can use it. Thats Storm's Teeth. Used by [[Rogal Dorn]] himself, it was said to be Dorn's favored weapon and is what he used against <s>[[Alpharius]]</s> some random Legionary. He also broke it when he found the Emperor barely alive after his duel with Horus, but that's fine since its remains would be used to create the sword used by the Black Templars High Marshal.

'''Frostfang''' - An ancient chainsword used by [[Ragnar Blackmane]]. The techniques used to make it were kept a secret by Fergus Forgrim to his deathbed so no one knows how it was made, because it's not like that could have been important or helpful later, right?

'''Gorefather and Gorechild''' - <s>THE BEST WEAPONS IN THE WHOLE OF 40K</s> {{BLAM}} {{BLAM}} {{BLAM|''DOUBLE HERESY!''}}Two chainaxes used by [[Angron]] during the [[Great Crusade]] and [[Horus Heresy]]. The teeth of these weapons came from a [[Awesome|MOTHERFUCKING MICA-DRAGON]], and are lubricated by [[Khorne|BLOOD]] (these weapons are so metal, they bring envy to the [[Iron Hands]] and [[Iron Warriors]]). Gorechild is currently being used by that [[Kharn|Swell guy]], and Gorefather <s>is nowhere to be seen, but it might show up again</s> was sadly destroyed on Armatura during the Great Crusade.

'''Teeth of Terra''' - Origin unknown, and with a tendency to show up in possession of many different chapters and disappear just as quickly, the Teeth of Terra is an ancient chainsword with obsidian teeth. It strikes hard and deep and allows the bearer to swing in huge, sweeping arcs.

'''Blood Reaver''' - An Eviscerator wielded by [[Gabriel Seth]]. Because nothing says [[rip and tear]] like a fuckheug chainsword, and the Flesh Tearers are masters of that particular craft.

{{clear}}

==Gallery==
<gallery>
DornStorm'sTeeth.png|<center>''Storm's Teeth''</center>
BlackmaneFrostfang.png|<center>''Frostfang''</center>
AngronGoreFatherChild.png|<center>''Gorefather & Gorechild''</center>
GoreChild.jpg|<center>''Gorechild'' (Present)</center>
GabrielSethBloodReaver.png|<center>''Blood Reaver''</center>
</gallery>

==Video Links==
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gj8pAN7Y7E DIY Chainsword, Blood Angel variant]

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[[Category:Warhammer 40,000]][[Category:Imperial]][[Category:Chaos]][[Category:Eldar]][[Category:Orks]]

Chain Weapon

2019-09-26T12:44:33Z

2600:1006:B105:8611:58CC:338D:D9D2:B1D4: /* Heavy Chainblade/Chainsword */

[[File:Chainsword06.jpg|180px|right|thumb|A typically poor rendition of a chainsword - as you can see, the housing surrounds the teeth, which would interfere with penetration (but would allow it to parry). Still dangerous though.]]

{{Topquote|Problems? '''Problems?''' There is no problem I cannot solve with this...|Commander Mad Chainsaw Johnson of the [[White Scars]], [[White Dwarf|White Dwarf 93]]}}

A Chain weapon is a fuck-awesome melee weapon, heavily used by [[Imperium|Imperial]] forces, although variants are fielded by the [[Eldar]], [[Ork]]s, and [[Chaos Space Marines]].

Apparently in the 41st Millennium, chainsaws have been re-purposed for hacking down things/aliens/people instead of simply harvesting lumber. By far the most common Chain weapon is the chainsword.

As its name implies, the chainsword is a bladed weapon with a rotating chainsaw blade in-between, that's powered by a motor mounted on the hilt and activated with a trigger on the grip. Of course, the sheer manliness in this weapon makes it pretty damn heavy, so it's actually really fucking awesome. But since almost all the users of it have some combination of power armor, bionics, or natural strength to swing them around, the weight is a lot less of an issue. More likely it’s due to lightweight materials because it’s tens of millennia into the future.

Although the chainsword is issued to virtually all forces of the [[Imperium]], it is most famous with the [[Space Marines|Spehss mahreens]] who widely use the chainsword as the primary weapon of their assault troops and veteran soldiers.

The standard chainsword used to have the same rules as any other close-combat weapon. Which is dumb, considering most of the fluff describes it as cutting through armour with ease, even Terminator armour, with some additional effort. [[Derp|Because a giant chainsaw does as much damage as a combat knife.]] 8e changed it up a bit, though- while it still doesn't do more damage than a basic close combat weapon, it does grant a bonus attack. This (along with its low point cost) makes it a good choice of melee weapon when the quantity of your attacks matters more than their quality (e.g. against [[Hormagaunt]] swarms and mobs of [[Ork]] Boyz).

==Imperial Variants==
The Chainsword also has several variants that have been developed by both the Imperium of Man and Xenos. Here are some examples:

===Chainblade===
[[File:ChainBladeBolter.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Chainblade]]

The smallest known Chainweapon.

These weapons are small enough to be considered as an attachment to most rifles. As such it is a smaller Chain bayonet that is attached to a Bolter and utilized as a close-combat weapon during assaults. Although, to be honest, it seems more practical to just have a large, sharpened serrated blade than a gas-guzzling weapon that will become useless once it runs out of fuel, and seeing how small the weapon (and thus, fuel supply) is, its gonna run out of fuel relatively quickly.

Basically it was the lancer assault rifle from Gears of War before Gears of War even existed.

===Chainsword===
[[File:Imperial_Chainsword.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Chainsword]]
A chainsword is just a chainsaw with a sword grip. Most versions make use of monomolecular-edged or otherwise razor sharp teeth.

Like many examples of human invention, the chainsword’s many variants seem to have their roots in the shrouded heresies of the Dark Age of Technology. Some in /tg/ like to speculate that it was some AdMech Priest who had mistaken a weirdly designed Chainsaw for a sword, unfortunately official fluff dictates that it saw consistent use in the armored fists of techno-barbarians during the Age of Strife, and among the Emperor’s own armies during his [[Thunder Warriors]]’ conquest of Terra during the Unification Wars.

But whilst Techpriests debate on the origin of the Chainsword, a particularly amusing theory surface that states it was an [[Heresy|inspiration stolen from]] [[Eldar|an alien race,]] [[War in Heaven|in a war that may never be remembered.]] [[Troll|If this theorem ever bears fruit, it is distinctly possible that the galaxy’s first wielders of chainswords were the prissy armored warriors of the ancient Eldar,]] [[Not As Planned|not us Humans.]]

There are multiple varieties of Chainsword such as the '''Ironfang Chainsword''', which is a variant of the chainsword created to allow human heretics to approximate the deadly blows of a Legion chainsword, this variant features a thick, bladed area with chained teeth nearly twice the width of an ordinary chainsword, and powered by a backpack-mounted fuel supply. Its greater tearing strength and weighted nose allow it to deal viciously violent heavy slashing blows. Needless to say, this weapon is heavy - 12 kilograms in weight, complete with power supply - and unbalanced, ie. a very heavy ''regular'' chainsaw.

<gallery>
File:PreacherChainsword.png
File:ThunderEdgeChainsword.jpg|Horus Heresy Chainsword
</gallery>

===Frost Blade===
[[File:FrostBlade.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Frost Blade]]

A unique Chainsword and possibly one of the only ones that could actually cut anything worth a damn rather than bludgeoning the enemies of man to death. The Frost Blade is yet, [[Mary Sue|another special weapon and equipment exclusive to the]] [[Space Wolves]].

Like the Frost Axe, each blade is hand-crafted by a Master [[Iron Priest]], and many incorporate the diamond-hard fangs of the Fenrisian Ice Kraken. They are highly sought after and in the skilled hands of a Space Marine they can be comparable in effect to most Power Weapons.

In the legends of the chapter, the finest Frost Blades are made of ice harvested from the heart of a glacier, and then [[Wat|tempered inside a Kraken's belly.]]

===Heavy Chainblade/Chainsword===
[[File:Heavy_Chainblade_HH.JPG|200px|right|thumb|Heavy Chainsword]]
The Eviscerator's pussy brother, the Heavy Chainblade is a massive chainsword, significantly larger than one of the standard chainswords but far weaker than an actual Eviscerator, possibly because [[Heresy|it was meant more for construction than combat]]. This also made it to it's combat stats, instead of the Eviscerator's manly SX2, AP2 with Armourbane, it's a weak S+2 AP4, with no additional bonuses (and being two-handed as well, so forget using it to get another attack). About the only thing it has on the Eviscerator is that it's not so huge that it's unwieldy.

Being used mainly by the Mechanicum in the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy, it's unsurprising these seem to have mostly fallen out of favour in the 41st millennium, given how everyone seems to have swapped to the Eviscerator.

Not to be confused with the similarly named "Heavy Chainsword", used by the Legions Astartes, an even wimpier version that shares the same profile except for being AP 5 instead of AP 4. These also seem to have fallen out of favour when the Eviscerator rolled around, much to nobody's surprise.

<gallery>
Image:Twin_Handed_Chainsword_1024x1024.JPG|Another Heavy Chainsword.
</gallery>

===Eviscerator===
[[File:Evisercator.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Eviscerator]]
Chainsword but ECKS BAWKS HUEG. Used by the Ecclesiarchy's priests and by the [[Sisters Repentia]] of the [[Sisters of Battle]] (as well as Chapter Master [[Gabriel Seth|Gabriel 'IN THE BALLS' Seth]]). Most recently however, Eviscerators have found their way into the hand of 7E assault marine sergeants, because meltabombs just weren't enough.

The Eviscerator is twice the size of a regular chainsword and so heavy that a normal soldier will need to wield it using both hands. The Eviscerator might also incorporate an exterminator, a portable flame unit that will not only help it breach armor, but also scare the fuck out of any normal man upon seeing a whacked up priest/nun swinging a fucking huge flaming sword-chainsaw. The Eviscerator is also extra effective against armored units.

In some works the Eviscerator is described as having a disruptor field weaker than those of energy weapons, which still helps carving through ceramite.

<gallery>
Image:Catalogue_Eviscerator.jpg|The classic chainsaw variant
image:RepentiaEvisceratorZoomed.png|REPENT MOTHERFUCKER!
</gallery>

===Chain Spear===
[[File:Chain_Spear.PNG|200px|right|thumb|Chain Spear]]

Another long-range Chainweapon.

Similarly to the chain glaive, this weapon combines reach with lethality, mounting a chainsaw-bladed length at the end of a long haft, ensuring that jabs and thrusts can tear open flesh with the lightest touch whilst keeping the wielder out of harm's way, in contrast to the chain glaive whose curved blade and hilt aims for a more slashing and cutting motion to dismember enemies from a distance.

According to ''Tome of Blood'', some variants actually sport the [[Wat|sharpened teeth of the bearer's former victims as the cutting edges, which are enough to cause even the slightest hit to become a spray of blood and torn flesh. ]].

===Chainfist===
[[image:Chainfist.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Chainfist]]
Intended to assist Terminators' not stellar mobility when involved in boarding actions, the Chainfist is a [[Power weapon|Power Fist]] that incorporates a powerful chainsaw blade for the purposes of slicing through armored bulkheads. The weapon is commonly used by Terminators both as a CQC weapon and a convenient tool to cut themselves a way through the average [[Space Hulk]]'s too small doors/walls/ceilings/floors... during boarding actions. Of course, since it can penetrate thick metal with little trouble, it's also often used for ripping open enemy vehicles and bunkers.

The reason it's so effective is simple: the powerfist's energy field also encompasses the chainblade. That's right, the chainfist effectively marries a chainsword and power fist. Remember how a regular power sword cuts most stuff like a hot knife through butter? Now bring a chainsaw with hot knives for teeth into this butter world, ''wear it like a glove'' and that's how a chainfist feels. That's just plain scary. If anything, it's like hitting a target with a power sword at [[Fist of the North Star|40 strikes per second]], so that the powerfield weakens the target and then the teeth hack it away. The alternative is having a static piece of metal that is still cutting, but just not as efficiently.

The easiest way to use a chainfist in combat is to wield it like a Tonfa. As its mounted just under the left wrist parallel to the arm. Except for the versions with the saw coming over or out of the knuckle plate on the back of the hand. Or the ones that [[Awesome|replace the middle finger with the saw]] (not joking).

<gallery>
Image:TerminatorChainfistZoomed.png
image:SpaceMarineHeroChainfist.png|<center>Heresy-era</center>
</gallery>

===Dreadnought Chainfist===
[[File:DreadCF.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Dreadnought Chainfist]]

A Chainfist but fuckhueg.

In the Imperium, a Dreadnought Chainfist can exclusively be found attached to the Ironclad Dreadnought, although more vanilla Dreadnoughts are able to wield one if given the proper modifications. Unlike the smaller Chainfist which are used to open blastdoors, the Dreadnoughts use theirs to open tank hulls. This arm consists of a massive chainsaw shaped to fit a dreadnought power fist. This is a devastating weapon capable of tearing apart infantry and light armor.

The Forces of Chaos also makes use of Dreadnought-sized Chainfists, more specifically the force of [[Khorne]] due to its brutal blood-grinding method of destruction. It is not uncommon to see a World Eaters or other Khornate dreadnought equipped with dual Chainfists for maximum [[RIP AND TEAR]].

In 8th edition, the Dreadnought Chainfist deals 4 damage per attack but retains the high AP and loses the penalty to hit which makes it great against fighting whatever poor MEQs, GEQs, TEQs and light vehicles that gets in its way. Although against larger walkers, it starts to obviously suffer.
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===Reaper Chain-Cleaver===
[[File:Reaper_Chain-Cleaver.JPG|200px|right|thumb|Reaper Chain-Cleaver]]

The kid brother of the much larger Reaper Chainsword. The Reaper Chain-Cleaver is still a relatively large Chain Weapon carried by the combat walkers of the Imperial Knights, particularly the smallest class of Knights known as Knights Armiger. The Reaper Chain-cleaver is a saw-toothed weapon similar to but smaller than its much larger relative that mangles metal and gnaws flesh to ruin with each shuddering impact.

Unlike say, the Dreadnought Chainfist, the Reaper Chain-Cleaver is much better at fighting due to the more flexible joint placement of the Knight Armigers. That, and the fact that Knight Armigers are relatively slim and not as clunky, awkward and bulky; traits that usually characterize the servo-motors of Space Marine Dreadnoughts, specifically [[METAL BOXES|the more boxy design]] of the 41st Millennium.

To give credit where credit is due. The Chain-Cleaver ''actually'' looks like a proper cleaver. More specifically, it bears some resemblance to a Chinese cleaver.

On tabletop, the current Imperial Knight codex from 8th edition gives the Reaper Chain-Cleaver a weapon with two attack options: Strike and Sweep. Strike is Sx2/AP-3/3D and Sweep S-/AP-2/1D but doubles the amount of hit rolls you can make with it. So this gives the Armiger some very nice added adaptability in their close combat.

===Reaper Chainfist===
[[File:Reaper_Chainfist_of_the_Knight_Acheron.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Reaper Chainfist]]

A chainfist but really [[Rape|ECKS BAWKS HUEG]].

The Reaper Chainfist is a weapon used by the Cerastus Knight-Acheron. Usually carried on the Knight's right weapon arm, the Reaper Chainfist is employed alongside the Acheron's Acheron-Pattern Flame Cannons as a weapon of extermination used to inspire fear in the foe.

The Reaper Chainfist is actually a set of two Chain Weapons linked together, with each one spinning in opposite directions to maximize damage. The blades are capable of tearing through both armor and fortified walls with ease.

The weapon also features a built-in set of twin-linked Heavy Bolters to be used against infantry when the Knight needs to conserve fuel for its Flame Cannon, these Bolters are often used as a last resort or when the Knight really wants something dead in its tracks.

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===Reaper Chainsword===
[[image:ReaperChainsword2.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Reaper Chainsword]]

The standard superheavy weapon in the Chain Weaponry, the Reaper Chainsword is the main weapon of most models of [[Imperial Knight]]. Unlike most Chainweapons you see here, it was originally designed as a Logging device for feudal colonists (You know, like modern chainsaws), though only the height of three men, the Reaper's adamantine teeth are no less deadly and thus, also works incredibly well as a massive melee weapon.

The Chainsword can be swung with all the power of the Knight's servo-motors, the Reaper is capable of cleaving through practically anything, from the thick ferrocrete walls of a defensive bunker and capable of carving open a Super-Heavy Tank with a single blow.

<gallery>
image:ReaperChainswordZoomed.png
</gallery>

{{Clear}}

===Titan Chainfist===
[[File:Rtchainfist1.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Titan Chainfist]]

The big daddy-o of the Chainfist family. The Titan Chainfist takes the form of a large chainsaw attachment like the Chainfist, but on a gigantic scale. Thanks to the available power from the Titan's massive plasma reactor, Titan-grade Chainfists are also equipped with a secondary Melta Array, to soften up the target while cutting through it.

The Reaver Titan is the biggest user of these weapons.

Crunchwise, they are similiar to the Titan Power Fist, at Sx2 AP-5 10 D. However it can also cause -1 to hit. However, any to wound roll of 6 where a VEHICLE, MONSTER, or BUILDING is targeted deals 2D6 extra mortal wounds. Remember that void shields do not work against melee attacks, so against Titans and Titan-equivalents that lack melee weapons those Mortal Wounds can be a a big deal.

{{clear}}

==Chaos Variants==

Chaos use a overwhelmingly amount of chain weapons in contrast to power weapons. The majority of these users are [[Khorne|Khornate warbands]] and seeing how GW has a [[Waifu|unhealthy obsession with Khorne,]] you can see why. The majority of chain weapons of Chaos originally came from the Imperium, so it is unsurprising to see some old Imperial worlds to still incorporate these weapons in its armories. Its just that the force of Chaos has re-appropriated it for Chaos needs.

===Tzaangor Chainsword===
[[File:Tzaangor_Blades.JPG|200px|right|thumb|Tzaangor Chainswords]]
Unique Chainswords made specifically for the Tzaangors of the Thousand Sons.

These blades are warped by the sorcerous and psychic nature of their home planet of Sortiarius. With their savage nature, a Tzaangor would hack apart even power armor with sheer ferocious speed from their blades.

On tabletop, Tzaangor Chainswords are basically your typical Chainswords, its just best to stick with your Tzaangor Blades as it is just that but with an additional AP-1. No need to switch for a largely inferior weapon.

{{Clear}}

===Chainaxe===
[[image:Chainaxe.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Chainaxe]]
Imagine doomguy but a weapon. Yes, Warhammer has chainsaw axes, as insane it sounds. The custom weapon of [[Khorne|Khornate]] champions, the Chainaxe was a fairly common weapon among Imperial troops pre-[[Horus Heresy|heresy]]. It's basically a huge axe with a powerful chainsaw as a blade. Pre-heresy it was practically standard issue among the [[World Eaters]]. The sheer weight of the axe and the fact that most Khorne Chaos Marine champions are super strong and completely fucking nuts ensures these will tear through most infantry armor.

It's wielded by non-Khornate Chaos Marines as well, due to the greater damage it inflicts, but mostly because of the showers of gore they call "wounds" - represented in 40k rules by being AP4, a straight upgrade from a regular chainsword and the woe of anyone not wearing power armour. Among Imperial forces, a chain-axe is most likely to be seen in the hands of a [[Space Wolves|Space Wolf]] or a [[Raven Guard]] - the former due to the fact that they just don't give a flying fuck that it might associate them with Chaos, and the latter due to the fact that they mostly have older equipment due to infrequent resupplies. They are also very common among [[Flesh Tearers]] because they basically [[Heresy|already are]] a Khornate cult.

<gallery>
Image:KhornateChainaxeZoomed.png
Image:ReaverAxe.jpg|Great Crusade era
Image:Chain_Axe.jpg
</gallery>

===Chainscythe===
[[File:Manreaper_Chain-Power_Scythe_Hybrid.PNG|200px|right|thumb|Chainscythe]]

A even more unconventional and unwieldy weapon than the Power Scythe. But not really since a power scythe would be covered with an energy field so the shape of the weapon would be utterly irrelevant.

The Chainscythe is both a incredibly rare and extremely difficult to wield. It is telling that only one unit from oldschool [[Necromunda]] was seen carrying this thing around.
It is only seen wielded by the [[Spyrer]] Matriarchs, this variant of the chainglaive mounts the blade at a horizontal angle to the tip of the shaft.

Seriously though, how the hell do you fight with this thing? Not only does it share the same stupid profile of all chainweapons (That is the metal piece mounted on the blades are interfering with its cutting power), but it also shares the same awkward handle of a scythe. Try and hit someone with that thing, there is a reason why warscythes have their blades turned 90 degrees upwards like halberd to increase chances of it actually hitting anything.

Certain [[Death Guard]] [[Deathshroud|Deathshrouds]] are known to use a special hybrid variant of a Power Scythe with chain teeth. Similar to the Chainfist, these specially modified Manreaper Scythes combine the disruptive nature of a power weapon with the raw and savage cutting power of a chain weapon. [[Mortarion|Ol'Morty]]'s own personal Manreaper ''"Silence"'' also incorporates chain teeth, but at a lesser extant.

<gallery>
image:ChainscytheMatriarch.png|The only person insane enough to use this as a weapon
File:Chainscythe.PNG
</gallery>

===Chain Glaive===
[[image:Chain_Glaive.PNG|200px|right|thumb|Chain Glaive]]

Also known as Chain Halberds, the Chainglaive is an evolution of the Chainaxe, giving it a longer blade and haft allowing for wide, sweeping strikes capable of rending power armour without much trouble. It's used extensively by Vanguard Marines and Chaos close-combat specialists. An ancient design by modern standards, it's by no means common, and sees use primarily with the traitor legions due to this (particularly with the [[Night Lords]], who had always favored its use).

They are also used by Rough Riders as a secondary or even primary weapon due to the weapon's reach and strength. These weapons come in a startling variety based on the sundry Forge Worlds and eras in which they were manufactured, but all are extremely deadly.

{{clear}}

===Chain Hammer===
[[File:Chain_Hammer.PNG|200px|right|thumb|Chain Hammer]]

Another rare and obscure Chainweapon.

Chainaxe not insane enough for you? [[Black Crusade]] introduces the chain Hammer, a massive, normally two-handed weapon shaped into either a maul outfitted with multiple rows of spinning metal teeth on the club-like head, or four chainaxe heads fused into a shape of a maul which can both rip apart flesh and smash bone into pulp with the brutal impact of this insane weapon.

Chain hammers are known to be used by orks and the pit brutes of Kurse in the Screaming Vortex. Powered versions capable of splitting Power Armour were also wielded by the Accusators of the Black Judges.

It is as ridiculous as it sounds.

===Chaos Dreadnought Chainfist===
[[FIle:Chaos_DredChainfist.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Chaos Dreadnought Chainfist]]

A Chainaxe upscaled to a Dreadnought for all your Khornate needs.

The Chaos Dreadnought Chainfist is similar to the one found on Imperial Castraferrum Pattern Dreadnoughts such as the Ironclad Dreadnought. The Chaos variant is covered in dark, runic symbols of the Dark Tongue and macabre ornamentation.

These weapons are favoured by Chaos Space Marines who follow the [[Chaos God]] [[Khorne]]. Khornate Berzerker Dreadnoughts usually are armed with two Dreadnought Chainfists, one on each of its weapon arms. The weapon is outfitted with a hull-mounted twin-linked Bolter, a Combi-Bolter, a Heavy Flamer, or in the case of captured or recently turned Dreadnoughts, a Storm Bolter.

The Chaos version can be differentiated by its more pronounced cutting teeth.

The Contemptor Dreadnought also has its own variant. The weapon looks as if a standard Asatartes Chainsword has been used to replace one of the Power Fist's fingers, unlike the Dreadnought Chain Fist used by the Castraferrum Pattern Dreadnought, which takes up the entire weapon arm. Like most Contemptor Dreadnought Close Combat Weapons the Contemptor Chainfist is also armed with a Combi-Bolter slotted within its palm.

<gallery>
Image:Chaos_Contempt_Chainfist.jpg|Contemptor variant
</gallery>

===Chaos Dreadnought Pincer Claw===
[[File:Pincer_Claw_Dread.png|200px|right|thumb|Chaos Dreadnought Pincer Claw]]

A very oldschool weapon that shows its age.

The Chaos Dreadnought Pincer Claw is a variant of the Dreadnought Chainfist, and consists of a pincer-like double Chain Weapon. These weapons are known to be found on Chaos Dreadnoughts that are dedicated to the Chaos God [[Slaanesh]], such as Sonic Dreadnoughts.

The shape of the weapon indicates a heavy influence from Slaaneshi Daemon Weapons. Seeing how pincer weapons are as pronounced in Slaanesh as Chainaxes are the staple of Khorne, this isn't that surprising.

Thus, it could be assume that the Emperor's Children merely took inspiration to their new master and fashioned their Dreadnoughts with a weapon that makes them visually closer to the Daemons of Slaanesh. [[Grimdark|Of course, being a Dreadnought, they are incapable of feeling the emotions and pleasure whilst stuck perpetually inside a tank.]] [[Troll|So the Dreadnought ends up raging in despair...much to the amusement of Slaanesh he/her/itself.]]

The Pincer Claw is designed to grab its prey and slowly mutilate its victims, however as an actual weapon for warfare, it is relatively poor. It is unable to effectively parry other like-minded weapons and its design makes it poor as both a cutting and bludgeoning weapon.

No wonder why this thing has not seen the light of day.

===Khornate Assault Claw===
[[File:Khornate_Assault_Claw.png|200px|right|thumb|Khornate Assault Claw]]

In no way should it be confused with the [[Drop Pod#Kharybdis Assault Claw|Kharybdis Assault Claw.]]

The Chaos Dreadnought Chainfist given a even more Khornate upgrade.

The Khornate Assault Claw is a variant of the standard Contemptor Claw, and is used by Chaos Contemptor Pattern Dreadnoughts dedicated to the Chaos God of blood and war, Khorne. The Khornate Assault Claw replaces the standard Power Claw's fingers with miniature Chain Weapons, making it especially devastating against infantry.

Like most Contemptor Dreadnought Close Combat Weapons the Contemptor Chain Fist is also armed with a Combi-Bolter slotted within its palm. The weapon could also be outfitted with a twin-linked Bolter during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy-era, or in the case of recently captured or reequipped Dreadnoughts a Storm Bolter.

The Khornate Assault Claw looks like a much more up-to-date and practical weapon than the Slaaneshi Dreadnought Pincer Claw.

===Brass Scorpion Pincer Claw===
[[File:Pincer_Claws.JPG|200px|right|thumb|Brass Scorpion Pincer Claw]]

The giant Pincer Claws found on the [[Brass Scorpion]].

Each of these claws are fully capable of tearing armored vehicles into pieces and wiping out entire infantry squads in one fell sweep. The creature's claws are protected on their outer sides by large Warp-forged alloy shields.

When the beast places its claws in front of itself, these shields are able to protect its entire body from harm. The Claws also feature three large in-built Chain Weapons, allowing them to cause even more damage during combat. There also exist variants of the Brass Scorpion outfitted with massive spinning blades instead of pincers.

===Great Cleaver of Khorne===
[[File:Great_Cleaver_of_Khorne.JPG|200px|right|thumb|Great Cleaver of Khorne]]

Axe of Khorne on acid or a Chain Axe that has overfed on growth hormones.

A Great Cleaver of Khorne is a Daemon Weapon in the form of a massive Chainaxe that is wielded by the [[Lord of Skulls]] and [[Kytan]] Daemon Engine. Like the Lord of Skulls that wields it, the Great Cleaver of Khorne is festooned with the remains of its victims, their skulls forever trapped within. The weapon is large enough that the Lord of Skulls can make use of it as easily as if it was a normal-sized melee weapon, and is capable of tearing apart tanks as if they were human heads. The Great Cleaver is fully capable of cutting entire vehicles into pieces and taking out entire groups of infantry. It is a weapon forged from murder and rage -- and it delivers the very same to its victims.

When activated, the Great Cleaver will erupt with eldritch power, the teeth rotating so fast as to become a blurred edge.

This is [[RIP AND TEAR]] INCARNATE!

==Eldar Variants==

===Scorpion Chainsword===
[[image:Eldar_Scorpion_Chainsword.png|right|200px|thumb|Scorpion Chainsword]]
An Eldar variant of the Chainsword fielded by the Striking Scorpions. It's like the Imperial Chainsword but incorporates advanced equipment that increases the wielder's strength and incorporates a sleeker, less bulky design.

There's been fluff that suggests they are actually a lot more advanced than Imperial chainswords, consisting of a heavily serrated 41st millennium mono-molecular blade which doesn't whirl around most of the time. Rather, upon hitting an opponent, and the blade gets stuck in their body/armor, THAT's when it goes all chainsaw, ripping armor and people apart and ensuring that the blade doesn't ever get stuck in someone; it'll either go through them or at least rip whatever it's stuck in enough to be pulled out, while also being a lot quieter since the motor's not constantly humming.

<gallery>
image:ScorpionSwordZoomed.png
</gallery>

===Chainsabre===
[[File:Dragon's_Tooth_Chainsaber.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Chainsabre, ''Dragon's Tooth'']]
One of the Scorpion Exarch's unique variation of the Scorpion Chainsword. Chainsabres are unique weaponry used by Striking Scorpion Exarchs. These Chainswords are paired with ancient gauntlets which incorporate twin-linked [[Shuriken Catapult|Shuriken Pistols.]] Exarchs who use these weapons train to wield two of them at once, allowing them to level an unrelenting storm of attacks upon their opponent.

On the tabletop 8th edition, the Chainsabres are two one-handed chain weapons that can [[Fist_of_the_North_Star|land a truly staggering amount of blows on a target]]. In melee they function the exact same as the Scorpion Chainsword, though these will grant another melee attack and have the Shuriken Pistol profile for your ranged attacks. Considered the most versatile of the bunch.

<gallery>
Image:Striking_scorpions_exarchs_1_5.jpg|Chainsabre with Shuriken Pistol attatchment
</gallery>

===Biting Blade===
[[File:Biting_Blade.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Biting Blade]]
One of the Scorpion Exarch's unique variation of the Scorpion Chainsword. Essentially the Eldar copy of the Eviscerator. Biting Blades are large, two-handed, long-bladed Chainswords reminiscent of the massive Eviscerators used by zealots within the Imperium. However, where Imperial Eviscerators are heavy, noisy machines, Biting Blades are slender and quiet, but no less deadly for their relatively light weight. The advanced monomolecular-edged teeth of the blade tear through flesh as though it were parchment and equally shred bone and armor, easily cleaving a man-size target in two.

On the tabletop, the Biting Blade is a massive two-handed weapon whose effectiveness increases as a target is hit. Basically it is a two handed Chainsword that bumps up to S+2 (S5) AP-1 and 2 D compared to the run of the mill Scorpion Chainsword. The least expensive of the Exarch's selections, but it also costs him both his pistol and Scorpion Chainsword to use.

==Ork Variants==

===Chain Choppa===
[[image:Chainchoppa.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Chain Choppa]]
The Chain Choppa is the Ork version of the chainsword. The weapon is a handheld chainsaw (though it sometimes takes the form of a sword or axe) used for almost anything. Really, you name it. In a pinch it can stand in for anything ranging from a weapon to a household tool.

Regular garden variety [[Ork_Boy|Ork Boyz]] rarely have these weapons, while richer Orks like the [[Warboss]] or a [[Nob]] might have it because it's killy and flash. Many are simply war trophies picked up from loyalist and traitor Space Marines.

<gallery>
image:ChainChoppaZoomed.png
</gallery>

{{Clear}}

===Big Chain Choppa===
[[File:OrkChainAxe.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Big Chain Choppa]]
The Chain Hammer of the Ork Horde.

Sometimes simply called the Ork Chainaxe. It is basically a Big Choppa with a motor system attached to it. Like the smaller Chain Choppa, certain Orks prefer this over the average Big Choppa due to the amount or carnage it can spew out.

The sheer size and relative complexity in making one means that only the biggest, strongest and wealthiest Orks could purchase one, like Nobs, Meganobs, Warbosses and Warlords. Like most Ork weapons, there are no standardization for the Big Chain Choppa.
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===Crusha===
[[File:OrkCrusha.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Crusha]]

''[[Derp|Not to be confused with the similarly named]] [[Miscellaneous Klose Kombat Weapons#Krusha|Krusha]]''

The Ork's Dreadnought Chainfist.

An oversized set of mechanical Chain Klaws which may or may not be the unholy lovechild of a Dread Klaw and a Chain Choppa.

The Crushas are basically the little brother of the Klaw of Gork/Mork and are meant to rip apart armored opponents with its pneumatic strength and powered piercing pincers. Whether they are actually Power Weapons is not known. What is known is that they feature a built-in Chain Weapon on the Klaws which can enable the Deff Dread to both capture and rip apart enemies at the same time.

Despite this, they are grouped all under the Killa Kan/Deff Dread Close Combat Weapons and thus, all share the same profile of a Dread Klaw/Kan Klaw (Depending on the walker using them). [[Derp|Which means that this non-Power Weapons share the same function as an ''actual'' Power Weapon.]] Although at the very least, the Crusha could at least be hand waved to function like the Chainfist.

===Mega-Choppa===
[[File:Mega-Choppa.PNG|200px|right|thumb|Mega-Choppa]]
The Orks saw the Imperium's Titan-sized Chainfists and proceeded to one-up them in both [[/d/|length, size and ''girth''.]]

A giant ECKSBAWKSHUEG Chainsword that are mounted only on biggest Ork walkers - from Stompas to Gargants and to see one in action is to witness a truly apocalyptic scene. These Mega-Choppas are designed to grind and rip apart enemy Titans with several swoops.

On tabletop, the Mega-Choppa is a Stompa's go-to carving weapon. It comes with 2 attack profiles. The first one is '''Smash''' which double's a Stompa's strength. Has a -5 AP. Causes 6 wounds per hit. Double S is inconsequential as there is nothing with T10. 6 wounds guaranteed are nice if you need exactly that, but more attacks are usually better. So you might want to use it for -5AP mostly.

The second attack profile is '''Slash''' which is only user-Strength, with a somehow lower AP than a Power Klaw (-2 as opposed to a klaw's -3), does D3 wounds per hit instead of the Smash's 6, BUT it lets you make 3 hit rolls for each Attack.
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== Notable Chainweapons ==

[[File:Torchlight chainswords by LaithArkham.jpg|left|thumb|300px|The mêlée weaponry of the 41st millennium offer a variety of implements for violently lacerating the opposition]]

'''Storm's Teeth''' - Take [[Berserk|Gut's]] DragonSlayer, turn it into a Chainsword, and then make it Bigger so only a [[Primarch]] can use it. Thats Storm's Teeth. Used by [[Rogal Dorn]] himself, it was said to be Dorn's favored weapon and is what he used against <s>[[Alpharius]]</s> some random Legionary. He also broke it when he found the Emperor barely alive after his duel with Horus, but that's fine since its remains would be used to create the sword used by the Black Templars High Marshal.

'''Frostfang''' - An ancient chainsword used by [[Ragnar Blackmane]]. The techniques used to make it were kept a secret by Fergus Forgrim to his deathbed so no one knows how it was made, because it's not like that could have been important or helpful later, right?

'''Gorefather and Gorechild''' - <s>THE BEST WEAPONS IN THE WHOLE OF 40K</s> {{BLAM}} {{BLAM}} {{BLAM|''DOUBLE HERESY!''}}Two chainaxes used by [[Angron]] during the [[Great Crusade]] and [[Horus Heresy]]. The teeth of these weapons came from a [[Awesome|MOTHERFUCKING MICA-DRAGON]], and are lubricated by [[Khorne|BLOOD]] (these weapons are so metal, they bring envy to the [[Iron Hands]] and [[Iron Warriors]]). Gorechild is currently being used by that [[Kharn|Swell guy]], and Gorefather <s>is nowhere to be seen, but it might show up again</s> was sadly destroyed on Armatura during the Great Crusade.

'''Teeth of Terra''' - Origin unknown, and with a tendency to show up in possession of many different chapters and disappear just as quickly, the Teeth of Terra is an ancient chainsword with obsidian teeth. It strikes hard and deep and allows the bearer to swing in huge, sweeping arcs.

'''Blood Reaver''' - An Eviscerator wielded by [[Gabriel Seth]]. Because nothing says [[rip and tear]] like a fuckheug chainsword, and the Flesh Tearers are masters of that particular craft.

{{clear}}

==Gallery==
<gallery>
DornStorm'sTeeth.png|<center>''Storm's Teeth''</center>
BlackmaneFrostfang.png|<center>''Frostfang''</center>
AngronGoreFatherChild.png|<center>''Gorefather & Gorechild''</center>
GoreChild.jpg|<center>''Gorechild'' (Present)</center>
GabrielSethBloodReaver.png|<center>''Blood Reaver''</center>
</gallery>

==Video Links==
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gj8pAN7Y7E DIY Chainsword, Blood Angel variant]

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[[Category:Warhammer 40,000]][[Category:Imperial]][[Category:Chaos]][[Category:Eldar]][[Category:Orks]]

Chain Weapon

2019-09-26T12:43:00Z

2600:1006:B105:8611:58CC:338D:D9D2:B1D4: /* Chainfist */

[[File:Chainsword06.jpg|180px|right|thumb|A typically poor rendition of a chainsword - as you can see, the housing surrounds the teeth, which would interfere with penetration (but would allow it to parry). Still dangerous though.]]

{{Topquote|Problems? '''Problems?''' There is no problem I cannot solve with this...|Commander Mad Chainsaw Johnson of the [[White Scars]], [[White Dwarf|White Dwarf 93]]}}

A Chain weapon is a fuck-awesome melee weapon, heavily used by [[Imperium|Imperial]] forces, although variants are fielded by the [[Eldar]], [[Ork]]s, and [[Chaos Space Marines]].

Apparently in the 41st Millennium, chainsaws have been re-purposed for hacking down things/aliens/people instead of simply harvesting lumber. By far the most common Chain weapon is the chainsword.

As its name implies, the chainsword is a bladed weapon with a rotating chainsaw blade in-between, that's powered by a motor mounted on the hilt and activated with a trigger on the grip. Of course, the sheer manliness in this weapon makes it pretty damn heavy, so it's actually really fucking awesome. But since almost all the users of it have some combination of power armor, bionics, or natural strength to swing them around, the weight is a lot less of an issue. More likely it’s due to lightweight materials because it’s tens of millennia into the future.

Although the chainsword is issued to virtually all forces of the [[Imperium]], it is most famous with the [[Space Marines|Spehss mahreens]] who widely use the chainsword as the primary weapon of their assault troops and veteran soldiers.

The standard chainsword used to have the same rules as any other close-combat weapon. Which is dumb, considering most of the fluff describes it as cutting through armour with ease, even Terminator armour, with some additional effort. [[Derp|Because a giant chainsaw does as much damage as a combat knife.]] 8e changed it up a bit, though- while it still doesn't do more damage than a basic close combat weapon, it does grant a bonus attack. This (along with its low point cost) makes it a good choice of melee weapon when the quantity of your attacks matters more than their quality (e.g. against [[Hormagaunt]] swarms and mobs of [[Ork]] Boyz).

==Imperial Variants==
The Chainsword also has several variants that have been developed by both the Imperium of Man and Xenos. Here are some examples:

===Chainblade===
[[File:ChainBladeBolter.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Chainblade]]

The smallest known Chainweapon.

These weapons are small enough to be considered as an attachment to most rifles. As such it is a smaller Chain bayonet that is attached to a Bolter and utilized as a close-combat weapon during assaults. Although, to be honest, it seems more practical to just have a large, sharpened serrated blade than a gas-guzzling weapon that will become useless once it runs out of fuel, and seeing how small the weapon (and thus, fuel supply) is, its gonna run out of fuel relatively quickly.

Basically it was the lancer assault rifle from Gears of War before Gears of War even existed.

===Chainsword===
[[File:Imperial_Chainsword.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Chainsword]]
A chainsword is just a chainsaw with a sword grip. Most versions make use of monomolecular-edged or otherwise razor sharp teeth.

Like many examples of human invention, the chainsword’s many variants seem to have their roots in the shrouded heresies of the Dark Age of Technology. Some in /tg/ like to speculate that it was some AdMech Priest who had mistaken a weirdly designed Chainsaw for a sword, unfortunately official fluff dictates that it saw consistent use in the armored fists of techno-barbarians during the Age of Strife, and among the Emperor’s own armies during his [[Thunder Warriors]]’ conquest of Terra during the Unification Wars.

But whilst Techpriests debate on the origin of the Chainsword, a particularly amusing theory surface that states it was an [[Heresy|inspiration stolen from]] [[Eldar|an alien race,]] [[War in Heaven|in a war that may never be remembered.]] [[Troll|If this theorem ever bears fruit, it is distinctly possible that the galaxy’s first wielders of chainswords were the prissy armored warriors of the ancient Eldar,]] [[Not As Planned|not us Humans.]]

There are multiple varieties of Chainsword such as the '''Ironfang Chainsword''', which is a variant of the chainsword created to allow human heretics to approximate the deadly blows of a Legion chainsword, this variant features a thick, bladed area with chained teeth nearly twice the width of an ordinary chainsword, and powered by a backpack-mounted fuel supply. Its greater tearing strength and weighted nose allow it to deal viciously violent heavy slashing blows. Needless to say, this weapon is heavy - 12 kilograms in weight, complete with power supply - and unbalanced, ie. a very heavy ''regular'' chainsaw.

<gallery>
File:PreacherChainsword.png
File:ThunderEdgeChainsword.jpg|Horus Heresy Chainsword
</gallery>

===Frost Blade===
[[File:FrostBlade.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Frost Blade]]

A unique Chainsword and possibly one of the only ones that could actually cut anything worth a damn rather than bludgeoning the enemies of man to death. The Frost Blade is yet, [[Mary Sue|another special weapon and equipment exclusive to the]] [[Space Wolves]].

Like the Frost Axe, each blade is hand-crafted by a Master [[Iron Priest]], and many incorporate the diamond-hard fangs of the Fenrisian Ice Kraken. They are highly sought after and in the skilled hands of a Space Marine they can be comparable in effect to most Power Weapons.

In the legends of the chapter, the finest Frost Blades are made of ice harvested from the heart of a glacier, and then [[Wat|tempered inside a Kraken's belly.]]

===Heavy Chainblade/Chainsword===
[[File:Heavy_Chainblade_HH.JPG|200px|right|thumb|Heavy Chainsword]]
The Eviscerator's pussy brother, the Heavy Chainblade is a massive chainsword, significantly larger than one of the standard chainswords but far weaker than an actual Eviscerator, possibly because it was meant more for construction than combat. This also made it to it's combat stats, instead of the Eviscerator's manly SX2, AP2 with Armourbane, it's a weak S+2 AP4, with no additional bonuses (and being two-handed as well, so forget using it to get another attack). About the only thing it has on the Eviscerator is that it's not so huge that it's unwieldy.

Being used mainly by the Mechanicum in the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy, it's unsurprising these seem to have mostly fallen out of favour in the 41st millennium, given how everyone seems to have swapped to the Eviscerator.

Not to be confused with the similarly named "Heavy Chainsword", used by the Legions Astartes, an even wimpier version that shares the same profile except for being AP 5 instead of AP 4. These also seem to have fallen out of favour when the Eviscerator rolled around, much to nobody's surprise.

<gallery>
Image:Twin_Handed_Chainsword_1024x1024.JPG|Another Heavy Chainsword.
</gallery>

===Eviscerator===
[[File:Evisercator.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Eviscerator]]
Chainsword but ECKS BAWKS HUEG. Used by the Ecclesiarchy's priests and by the [[Sisters Repentia]] of the [[Sisters of Battle]] (as well as Chapter Master [[Gabriel Seth|Gabriel 'IN THE BALLS' Seth]]). Most recently however, Eviscerators have found their way into the hand of 7E assault marine sergeants, because meltabombs just weren't enough.

The Eviscerator is twice the size of a regular chainsword and so heavy that a normal soldier will need to wield it using both hands. The Eviscerator might also incorporate an exterminator, a portable flame unit that will not only help it breach armor, but also scare the fuck out of any normal man upon seeing a whacked up priest/nun swinging a fucking huge flaming sword-chainsaw. The Eviscerator is also extra effective against armored units.

In some works the Eviscerator is described as having a disruptor field weaker than those of energy weapons, which still helps carving through ceramite.

<gallery>
Image:Catalogue_Eviscerator.jpg|The classic chainsaw variant
image:RepentiaEvisceratorZoomed.png|REPENT MOTHERFUCKER!
</gallery>

===Chain Spear===
[[File:Chain_Spear.PNG|200px|right|thumb|Chain Spear]]

Another long-range Chainweapon.

Similarly to the chain glaive, this weapon combines reach with lethality, mounting a chainsaw-bladed length at the end of a long haft, ensuring that jabs and thrusts can tear open flesh with the lightest touch whilst keeping the wielder out of harm's way, in contrast to the chain glaive whose curved blade and hilt aims for a more slashing and cutting motion to dismember enemies from a distance.

According to ''Tome of Blood'', some variants actually sport the [[Wat|sharpened teeth of the bearer's former victims as the cutting edges, which are enough to cause even the slightest hit to become a spray of blood and torn flesh. ]].

===Chainfist===
[[image:Chainfist.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Chainfist]]
Intended to assist Terminators' not stellar mobility when involved in boarding actions, the Chainfist is a [[Power weapon|Power Fist]] that incorporates a powerful chainsaw blade for the purposes of slicing through armored bulkheads. The weapon is commonly used by Terminators both as a CQC weapon and a convenient tool to cut themselves a way through the average [[Space Hulk]]'s too small doors/walls/ceilings/floors... during boarding actions. Of course, since it can penetrate thick metal with little trouble, it's also often used for ripping open enemy vehicles and bunkers.

The reason it's so effective is simple: the powerfist's energy field also encompasses the chainblade. That's right, the chainfist effectively marries a chainsword and power fist. Remember how a regular power sword cuts most stuff like a hot knife through butter? Now bring a chainsaw with hot knives for teeth into this butter world, ''wear it like a glove'' and that's how a chainfist feels. That's just plain scary. If anything, it's like hitting a target with a power sword at [[Fist of the North Star|40 strikes per second]], so that the powerfield weakens the target and then the teeth hack it away. The alternative is having a static piece of metal that is still cutting, but just not as efficiently.

The easiest way to use a chainfist in combat is to wield it like a Tonfa. As its mounted just under the left wrist parallel to the arm. Except for the versions with the saw coming over or out of the knuckle plate on the back of the hand. Or the ones that [[Awesome|replace the middle finger with the saw]] (not joking).

<gallery>
Image:TerminatorChainfistZoomed.png
image:SpaceMarineHeroChainfist.png|<center>Heresy-era</center>
</gallery>

===Dreadnought Chainfist===
[[File:DreadCF.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Dreadnought Chainfist]]

A Chainfist but fuckhueg.

In the Imperium, a Dreadnought Chainfist can exclusively be found attached to the Ironclad Dreadnought, although more vanilla Dreadnoughts are able to wield one if given the proper modifications. Unlike the smaller Chainfist which are used to open blastdoors, the Dreadnoughts use theirs to open tank hulls. This arm consists of a massive chainsaw shaped to fit a dreadnought power fist. This is a devastating weapon capable of tearing apart infantry and light armor.

The Forces of Chaos also makes use of Dreadnought-sized Chainfists, more specifically the force of [[Khorne]] due to its brutal blood-grinding method of destruction. It is not uncommon to see a World Eaters or other Khornate dreadnought equipped with dual Chainfists for maximum [[RIP AND TEAR]].

In 8th edition, the Dreadnought Chainfist deals 4 damage per attack but retains the high AP and loses the penalty to hit which makes it great against fighting whatever poor MEQs, GEQs, TEQs and light vehicles that gets in its way. Although against larger walkers, it starts to obviously suffer.
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===Reaper Chain-Cleaver===
[[File:Reaper_Chain-Cleaver.JPG|200px|right|thumb|Reaper Chain-Cleaver]]

The kid brother of the much larger Reaper Chainsword. The Reaper Chain-Cleaver is still a relatively large Chain Weapon carried by the combat walkers of the Imperial Knights, particularly the smallest class of Knights known as Knights Armiger. The Reaper Chain-cleaver is a saw-toothed weapon similar to but smaller than its much larger relative that mangles metal and gnaws flesh to ruin with each shuddering impact.

Unlike say, the Dreadnought Chainfist, the Reaper Chain-Cleaver is much better at fighting due to the more flexible joint placement of the Knight Armigers. That, and the fact that Knight Armigers are relatively slim and not as clunky, awkward and bulky; traits that usually characterize the servo-motors of Space Marine Dreadnoughts, specifically [[METAL BOXES|the more boxy design]] of the 41st Millennium.

To give credit where credit is due. The Chain-Cleaver ''actually'' looks like a proper cleaver. More specifically, it bears some resemblance to a Chinese cleaver.

On tabletop, the current Imperial Knight codex from 8th edition gives the Reaper Chain-Cleaver a weapon with two attack options: Strike and Sweep. Strike is Sx2/AP-3/3D and Sweep S-/AP-2/1D but doubles the amount of hit rolls you can make with it. So this gives the Armiger some very nice added adaptability in their close combat.

===Reaper Chainfist===
[[File:Reaper_Chainfist_of_the_Knight_Acheron.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Reaper Chainfist]]

A chainfist but really [[Rape|ECKS BAWKS HUEG]].

The Reaper Chainfist is a weapon used by the Cerastus Knight-Acheron. Usually carried on the Knight's right weapon arm, the Reaper Chainfist is employed alongside the Acheron's Acheron-Pattern Flame Cannons as a weapon of extermination used to inspire fear in the foe.

The Reaper Chainfist is actually a set of two Chain Weapons linked together, with each one spinning in opposite directions to maximize damage. The blades are capable of tearing through both armor and fortified walls with ease.

The weapon also features a built-in set of twin-linked Heavy Bolters to be used against infantry when the Knight needs to conserve fuel for its Flame Cannon, these Bolters are often used as a last resort or when the Knight really wants something dead in its tracks.

{{clear}}

===Reaper Chainsword===
[[image:ReaperChainsword2.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Reaper Chainsword]]

The standard superheavy weapon in the Chain Weaponry, the Reaper Chainsword is the main weapon of most models of [[Imperial Knight]]. Unlike most Chainweapons you see here, it was originally designed as a Logging device for feudal colonists (You know, like modern chainsaws), though only the height of three men, the Reaper's adamantine teeth are no less deadly and thus, also works incredibly well as a massive melee weapon.

The Chainsword can be swung with all the power of the Knight's servo-motors, the Reaper is capable of cleaving through practically anything, from the thick ferrocrete walls of a defensive bunker and capable of carving open a Super-Heavy Tank with a single blow.

<gallery>
image:ReaperChainswordZoomed.png
</gallery>

{{Clear}}

===Titan Chainfist===
[[File:Rtchainfist1.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Titan Chainfist]]

The big daddy-o of the Chainfist family. The Titan Chainfist takes the form of a large chainsaw attachment like the Chainfist, but on a gigantic scale. Thanks to the available power from the Titan's massive plasma reactor, Titan-grade Chainfists are also equipped with a secondary Melta Array, to soften up the target while cutting through it.

The Reaver Titan is the biggest user of these weapons.

Crunchwise, they are similiar to the Titan Power Fist, at Sx2 AP-5 10 D. However it can also cause -1 to hit. However, any to wound roll of 6 where a VEHICLE, MONSTER, or BUILDING is targeted deals 2D6 extra mortal wounds. Remember that void shields do not work against melee attacks, so against Titans and Titan-equivalents that lack melee weapons those Mortal Wounds can be a a big deal.

{{clear}}

==Chaos Variants==

Chaos use a overwhelmingly amount of chain weapons in contrast to power weapons. The majority of these users are [[Khorne|Khornate warbands]] and seeing how GW has a [[Waifu|unhealthy obsession with Khorne,]] you can see why. The majority of chain weapons of Chaos originally came from the Imperium, so it is unsurprising to see some old Imperial worlds to still incorporate these weapons in its armories. Its just that the force of Chaos has re-appropriated it for Chaos needs.

===Tzaangor Chainsword===
[[File:Tzaangor_Blades.JPG|200px|right|thumb|Tzaangor Chainswords]]
Unique Chainswords made specifically for the Tzaangors of the Thousand Sons.

These blades are warped by the sorcerous and psychic nature of their home planet of Sortiarius. With their savage nature, a Tzaangor would hack apart even power armor with sheer ferocious speed from their blades.

On tabletop, Tzaangor Chainswords are basically your typical Chainswords, its just best to stick with your Tzaangor Blades as it is just that but with an additional AP-1. No need to switch for a largely inferior weapon.

{{Clear}}

===Chainaxe===
[[image:Chainaxe.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Chainaxe]]
Imagine doomguy but a weapon. Yes, Warhammer has chainsaw axes, as insane it sounds. The custom weapon of [[Khorne|Khornate]] champions, the Chainaxe was a fairly common weapon among Imperial troops pre-[[Horus Heresy|heresy]]. It's basically a huge axe with a powerful chainsaw as a blade. Pre-heresy it was practically standard issue among the [[World Eaters]]. The sheer weight of the axe and the fact that most Khorne Chaos Marine champions are super strong and completely fucking nuts ensures these will tear through most infantry armor.

It's wielded by non-Khornate Chaos Marines as well, due to the greater damage it inflicts, but mostly because of the showers of gore they call "wounds" - represented in 40k rules by being AP4, a straight upgrade from a regular chainsword and the woe of anyone not wearing power armour. Among Imperial forces, a chain-axe is most likely to be seen in the hands of a [[Space Wolves|Space Wolf]] or a [[Raven Guard]] - the former due to the fact that they just don't give a flying fuck that it might associate them with Chaos, and the latter due to the fact that they mostly have older equipment due to infrequent resupplies. They are also very common among [[Flesh Tearers]] because they basically [[Heresy|already are]] a Khornate cult.

<gallery>
Image:KhornateChainaxeZoomed.png
Image:ReaverAxe.jpg|Great Crusade era
Image:Chain_Axe.jpg
</gallery>

===Chainscythe===
[[File:Manreaper_Chain-Power_Scythe_Hybrid.PNG|200px|right|thumb|Chainscythe]]

A even more unconventional and unwieldy weapon than the Power Scythe. But not really since a power scythe would be covered with an energy field so the shape of the weapon would be utterly irrelevant.

The Chainscythe is both a incredibly rare and extremely difficult to wield. It is telling that only one unit from oldschool [[Necromunda]] was seen carrying this thing around.
It is only seen wielded by the [[Spyrer]] Matriarchs, this variant of the chainglaive mounts the blade at a horizontal angle to the tip of the shaft.

Seriously though, how the hell do you fight with this thing? Not only does it share the same stupid profile of all chainweapons (That is the metal piece mounted on the blades are interfering with its cutting power), but it also shares the same awkward handle of a scythe. Try and hit someone with that thing, there is a reason why warscythes have their blades turned 90 degrees upwards like halberd to increase chances of it actually hitting anything.

Certain [[Death Guard]] [[Deathshroud|Deathshrouds]] are known to use a special hybrid variant of a Power Scythe with chain teeth. Similar to the Chainfist, these specially modified Manreaper Scythes combine the disruptive nature of a power weapon with the raw and savage cutting power of a chain weapon. [[Mortarion|Ol'Morty]]'s own personal Manreaper ''"Silence"'' also incorporates chain teeth, but at a lesser extant.

<gallery>
image:ChainscytheMatriarch.png|The only person insane enough to use this as a weapon
File:Chainscythe.PNG
</gallery>

===Chain Glaive===
[[image:Chain_Glaive.PNG|200px|right|thumb|Chain Glaive]]

Also known as Chain Halberds, the Chainglaive is an evolution of the Chainaxe, giving it a longer blade and haft allowing for wide, sweeping strikes capable of rending power armour without much trouble. It's used extensively by Vanguard Marines and Chaos close-combat specialists. An ancient design by modern standards, it's by no means common, and sees use primarily with the traitor legions due to this (particularly with the [[Night Lords]], who had always favored its use).

They are also used by Rough Riders as a secondary or even primary weapon due to the weapon's reach and strength. These weapons come in a startling variety based on the sundry Forge Worlds and eras in which they were manufactured, but all are extremely deadly.

{{clear}}

===Chain Hammer===
[[File:Chain_Hammer.PNG|200px|right|thumb|Chain Hammer]]

Another rare and obscure Chainweapon.

Chainaxe not insane enough for you? [[Black Crusade]] introduces the chain Hammer, a massive, normally two-handed weapon shaped into either a maul outfitted with multiple rows of spinning metal teeth on the club-like head, or four chainaxe heads fused into a shape of a maul which can both rip apart flesh and smash bone into pulp with the brutal impact of this insane weapon.

Chain hammers are known to be used by orks and the pit brutes of Kurse in the Screaming Vortex. Powered versions capable of splitting Power Armour were also wielded by the Accusators of the Black Judges.

It is as ridiculous as it sounds.

===Chaos Dreadnought Chainfist===
[[FIle:Chaos_DredChainfist.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Chaos Dreadnought Chainfist]]

A Chainaxe upscaled to a Dreadnought for all your Khornate needs.

The Chaos Dreadnought Chainfist is similar to the one found on Imperial Castraferrum Pattern Dreadnoughts such as the Ironclad Dreadnought. The Chaos variant is covered in dark, runic symbols of the Dark Tongue and macabre ornamentation.

These weapons are favoured by Chaos Space Marines who follow the [[Chaos God]] [[Khorne]]. Khornate Berzerker Dreadnoughts usually are armed with two Dreadnought Chainfists, one on each of its weapon arms. The weapon is outfitted with a hull-mounted twin-linked Bolter, a Combi-Bolter, a Heavy Flamer, or in the case of captured or recently turned Dreadnoughts, a Storm Bolter.

The Chaos version can be differentiated by its more pronounced cutting teeth.

The Contemptor Dreadnought also has its own variant. The weapon looks as if a standard Asatartes Chainsword has been used to replace one of the Power Fist's fingers, unlike the Dreadnought Chain Fist used by the Castraferrum Pattern Dreadnought, which takes up the entire weapon arm. Like most Contemptor Dreadnought Close Combat Weapons the Contemptor Chainfist is also armed with a Combi-Bolter slotted within its palm.

<gallery>
Image:Chaos_Contempt_Chainfist.jpg|Contemptor variant
</gallery>

===Chaos Dreadnought Pincer Claw===
[[File:Pincer_Claw_Dread.png|200px|right|thumb|Chaos Dreadnought Pincer Claw]]

A very oldschool weapon that shows its age.

The Chaos Dreadnought Pincer Claw is a variant of the Dreadnought Chainfist, and consists of a pincer-like double Chain Weapon. These weapons are known to be found on Chaos Dreadnoughts that are dedicated to the Chaos God [[Slaanesh]], such as Sonic Dreadnoughts.

The shape of the weapon indicates a heavy influence from Slaaneshi Daemon Weapons. Seeing how pincer weapons are as pronounced in Slaanesh as Chainaxes are the staple of Khorne, this isn't that surprising.

Thus, it could be assume that the Emperor's Children merely took inspiration to their new master and fashioned their Dreadnoughts with a weapon that makes them visually closer to the Daemons of Slaanesh. [[Grimdark|Of course, being a Dreadnought, they are incapable of feeling the emotions and pleasure whilst stuck perpetually inside a tank.]] [[Troll|So the Dreadnought ends up raging in despair...much to the amusement of Slaanesh he/her/itself.]]

The Pincer Claw is designed to grab its prey and slowly mutilate its victims, however as an actual weapon for warfare, it is relatively poor. It is unable to effectively parry other like-minded weapons and its design makes it poor as both a cutting and bludgeoning weapon.

No wonder why this thing has not seen the light of day.

===Khornate Assault Claw===
[[File:Khornate_Assault_Claw.png|200px|right|thumb|Khornate Assault Claw]]

In no way should it be confused with the [[Drop Pod#Kharybdis Assault Claw|Kharybdis Assault Claw.]]

The Chaos Dreadnought Chainfist given a even more Khornate upgrade.

The Khornate Assault Claw is a variant of the standard Contemptor Claw, and is used by Chaos Contemptor Pattern Dreadnoughts dedicated to the Chaos God of blood and war, Khorne. The Khornate Assault Claw replaces the standard Power Claw's fingers with miniature Chain Weapons, making it especially devastating against infantry.

Like most Contemptor Dreadnought Close Combat Weapons the Contemptor Chain Fist is also armed with a Combi-Bolter slotted within its palm. The weapon could also be outfitted with a twin-linked Bolter during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy-era, or in the case of recently captured or reequipped Dreadnoughts a Storm Bolter.

The Khornate Assault Claw looks like a much more up-to-date and practical weapon than the Slaaneshi Dreadnought Pincer Claw.

===Brass Scorpion Pincer Claw===
[[File:Pincer_Claws.JPG|200px|right|thumb|Brass Scorpion Pincer Claw]]

The giant Pincer Claws found on the [[Brass Scorpion]].

Each of these claws are fully capable of tearing armored vehicles into pieces and wiping out entire infantry squads in one fell sweep. The creature's claws are protected on their outer sides by large Warp-forged alloy shields.

When the beast places its claws in front of itself, these shields are able to protect its entire body from harm. The Claws also feature three large in-built Chain Weapons, allowing them to cause even more damage during combat. There also exist variants of the Brass Scorpion outfitted with massive spinning blades instead of pincers.

===Great Cleaver of Khorne===
[[File:Great_Cleaver_of_Khorne.JPG|200px|right|thumb|Great Cleaver of Khorne]]

Axe of Khorne on acid or a Chain Axe that has overfed on growth hormones.

A Great Cleaver of Khorne is a Daemon Weapon in the form of a massive Chainaxe that is wielded by the [[Lord of Skulls]] and [[Kytan]] Daemon Engine. Like the Lord of Skulls that wields it, the Great Cleaver of Khorne is festooned with the remains of its victims, their skulls forever trapped within. The weapon is large enough that the Lord of Skulls can make use of it as easily as if it was a normal-sized melee weapon, and is capable of tearing apart tanks as if they were human heads. The Great Cleaver is fully capable of cutting entire vehicles into pieces and taking out entire groups of infantry. It is a weapon forged from murder and rage -- and it delivers the very same to its victims.

When activated, the Great Cleaver will erupt with eldritch power, the teeth rotating so fast as to become a blurred edge.

This is [[RIP AND TEAR]] INCARNATE!

==Eldar Variants==

===Scorpion Chainsword===
[[image:Eldar_Scorpion_Chainsword.png|right|200px|thumb|Scorpion Chainsword]]
An Eldar variant of the Chainsword fielded by the Striking Scorpions. It's like the Imperial Chainsword but incorporates advanced equipment that increases the wielder's strength and incorporates a sleeker, less bulky design.

There's been fluff that suggests they are actually a lot more advanced than Imperial chainswords, consisting of a heavily serrated 41st millennium mono-molecular blade which doesn't whirl around most of the time. Rather, upon hitting an opponent, and the blade gets stuck in their body/armor, THAT's when it goes all chainsaw, ripping armor and people apart and ensuring that the blade doesn't ever get stuck in someone; it'll either go through them or at least rip whatever it's stuck in enough to be pulled out, while also being a lot quieter since the motor's not constantly humming.

<gallery>
image:ScorpionSwordZoomed.png
</gallery>

===Chainsabre===
[[File:Dragon's_Tooth_Chainsaber.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Chainsabre, ''Dragon's Tooth'']]
One of the Scorpion Exarch's unique variation of the Scorpion Chainsword. Chainsabres are unique weaponry used by Striking Scorpion Exarchs. These Chainswords are paired with ancient gauntlets which incorporate twin-linked [[Shuriken Catapult|Shuriken Pistols.]] Exarchs who use these weapons train to wield two of them at once, allowing them to level an unrelenting storm of attacks upon their opponent.

On the tabletop 8th edition, the Chainsabres are two one-handed chain weapons that can [[Fist_of_the_North_Star|land a truly staggering amount of blows on a target]]. In melee they function the exact same as the Scorpion Chainsword, though these will grant another melee attack and have the Shuriken Pistol profile for your ranged attacks. Considered the most versatile of the bunch.

<gallery>
Image:Striking_scorpions_exarchs_1_5.jpg|Chainsabre with Shuriken Pistol attatchment
</gallery>

===Biting Blade===
[[File:Biting_Blade.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Biting Blade]]
One of the Scorpion Exarch's unique variation of the Scorpion Chainsword. Essentially the Eldar copy of the Eviscerator. Biting Blades are large, two-handed, long-bladed Chainswords reminiscent of the massive Eviscerators used by zealots within the Imperium. However, where Imperial Eviscerators are heavy, noisy machines, Biting Blades are slender and quiet, but no less deadly for their relatively light weight. The advanced monomolecular-edged teeth of the blade tear through flesh as though it were parchment and equally shred bone and armor, easily cleaving a man-size target in two.

On the tabletop, the Biting Blade is a massive two-handed weapon whose effectiveness increases as a target is hit. Basically it is a two handed Chainsword that bumps up to S+2 (S5) AP-1 and 2 D compared to the run of the mill Scorpion Chainsword. The least expensive of the Exarch's selections, but it also costs him both his pistol and Scorpion Chainsword to use.

==Ork Variants==

===Chain Choppa===
[[image:Chainchoppa.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Chain Choppa]]
The Chain Choppa is the Ork version of the chainsword. The weapon is a handheld chainsaw (though it sometimes takes the form of a sword or axe) used for almost anything. Really, you name it. In a pinch it can stand in for anything ranging from a weapon to a household tool.

Regular garden variety [[Ork_Boy|Ork Boyz]] rarely have these weapons, while richer Orks like the [[Warboss]] or a [[Nob]] might have it because it's killy and flash. Many are simply war trophies picked up from loyalist and traitor Space Marines.

<gallery>
image:ChainChoppaZoomed.png
</gallery>

{{Clear}}

===Big Chain Choppa===
[[File:OrkChainAxe.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Big Chain Choppa]]
The Chain Hammer of the Ork Horde.

Sometimes simply called the Ork Chainaxe. It is basically a Big Choppa with a motor system attached to it. Like the smaller Chain Choppa, certain Orks prefer this over the average Big Choppa due to the amount or carnage it can spew out.

The sheer size and relative complexity in making one means that only the biggest, strongest and wealthiest Orks could purchase one, like Nobs, Meganobs, Warbosses and Warlords. Like most Ork weapons, there are no standardization for the Big Chain Choppa.
{{clear}}

===Crusha===
[[File:OrkCrusha.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Crusha]]

''[[Derp|Not to be confused with the similarly named]] [[Miscellaneous Klose Kombat Weapons#Krusha|Krusha]]''

The Ork's Dreadnought Chainfist.

An oversized set of mechanical Chain Klaws which may or may not be the unholy lovechild of a Dread Klaw and a Chain Choppa.

The Crushas are basically the little brother of the Klaw of Gork/Mork and are meant to rip apart armored opponents with its pneumatic strength and powered piercing pincers. Whether they are actually Power Weapons is not known. What is known is that they feature a built-in Chain Weapon on the Klaws which can enable the Deff Dread to both capture and rip apart enemies at the same time.

Despite this, they are grouped all under the Killa Kan/Deff Dread Close Combat Weapons and thus, all share the same profile of a Dread Klaw/Kan Klaw (Depending on the walker using them). [[Derp|Which means that this non-Power Weapons share the same function as an ''actual'' Power Weapon.]] Although at the very least, the Crusha could at least be hand waved to function like the Chainfist.

===Mega-Choppa===
[[File:Mega-Choppa.PNG|200px|right|thumb|Mega-Choppa]]
The Orks saw the Imperium's Titan-sized Chainfists and proceeded to one-up them in both [[/d/|length, size and ''girth''.]]

A giant ECKSBAWKSHUEG Chainsword that are mounted only on biggest Ork walkers - from Stompas to Gargants and to see one in action is to witness a truly apocalyptic scene. These Mega-Choppas are designed to grind and rip apart enemy Titans with several swoops.

On tabletop, the Mega-Choppa is a Stompa's go-to carving weapon. It comes with 2 attack profiles. The first one is '''Smash''' which double's a Stompa's strength. Has a -5 AP. Causes 6 wounds per hit. Double S is inconsequential as there is nothing with T10. 6 wounds guaranteed are nice if you need exactly that, but more attacks are usually better. So you might want to use it for -5AP mostly.

The second attack profile is '''Slash''' which is only user-Strength, with a somehow lower AP than a Power Klaw (-2 as opposed to a klaw's -3), does D3 wounds per hit instead of the Smash's 6, BUT it lets you make 3 hit rolls for each Attack.
{{clear}}

== Notable Chainweapons ==

[[File:Torchlight chainswords by LaithArkham.jpg|left|thumb|300px|The mêlée weaponry of the 41st millennium offer a variety of implements for violently lacerating the opposition]]

'''Storm's Teeth''' - Take [[Berserk|Gut's]] DragonSlayer, turn it into a Chainsword, and then make it Bigger so only a [[Primarch]] can use it. Thats Storm's Teeth. Used by [[Rogal Dorn]] himself, it was said to be Dorn's favored weapon and is what he used against <s>[[Alpharius]]</s> some random Legionary. He also broke it when he found the Emperor barely alive after his duel with Horus, but that's fine since its remains would be used to create the sword used by the Black Templars High Marshal.

'''Frostfang''' - An ancient chainsword used by [[Ragnar Blackmane]]. The techniques used to make it were kept a secret by Fergus Forgrim to his deathbed so no one knows how it was made, because it's not like that could have been important or helpful later, right?

'''Gorefather and Gorechild''' - <s>THE BEST WEAPONS IN THE WHOLE OF 40K</s> {{BLAM}} {{BLAM}} {{BLAM|''DOUBLE HERESY!''}}Two chainaxes used by [[Angron]] during the [[Great Crusade]] and [[Horus Heresy]]. The teeth of these weapons came from a [[Awesome|MOTHERFUCKING MICA-DRAGON]], and are lubricated by [[Khorne|BLOOD]] (these weapons are so metal, they bring envy to the [[Iron Hands]] and [[Iron Warriors]]). Gorechild is currently being used by that [[Kharn|Swell guy]], and Gorefather <s>is nowhere to be seen, but it might show up again</s> was sadly destroyed on Armatura during the Great Crusade.

'''Teeth of Terra''' - Origin unknown, and with a tendency to show up in possession of many different chapters and disappear just as quickly, the Teeth of Terra is an ancient chainsword with obsidian teeth. It strikes hard and deep and allows the bearer to swing in huge, sweeping arcs.

'''Blood Reaver''' - An Eviscerator wielded by [[Gabriel Seth]]. Because nothing says [[rip and tear]] like a fuckheug chainsword, and the Flesh Tearers are masters of that particular craft.

{{clear}}

==Gallery==
<gallery>
DornStorm'sTeeth.png|<center>''Storm's Teeth''</center>
BlackmaneFrostfang.png|<center>''Frostfang''</center>
AngronGoreFatherChild.png|<center>''Gorefather & Gorechild''</center>
GoreChild.jpg|<center>''Gorechild'' (Present)</center>
GabrielSethBloodReaver.png|<center>''Blood Reaver''</center>
</gallery>

==Video Links==
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gj8pAN7Y7E DIY Chainsword, Blood Angel variant]

{{Template:40k-Imperial-Weapons}}
{{40k-GenestealerCults-Weapons}}
{{40k-Chaos-Weapons}}
{{40k-Eldar-Weapons}}
{{40k-Ork-Weapons}}
[[Category:Warhammer 40,000]][[Category:Imperial]][[Category:Chaos]][[Category:Eldar]][[Category:Orks]]

Chain Weapon

2019-09-26T12:33:19Z

2600:1006:B105:8611:58CC:338D:D9D2:B1D4: /* Chainscythe */

[[File:Chainsword06.jpg|180px|right|thumb|A typically poor rendition of a chainsword - as you can see, the housing surrounds the teeth, which would interfere with penetration (but would allow it to parry). Still dangerous though.]]

{{Topquote|Problems? '''Problems?''' There is no problem I cannot solve with this...|Commander Mad Chainsaw Johnson of the [[White Scars]], [[White Dwarf|White Dwarf 93]]}}

A Chain weapon is a fuck-awesome melee weapon, heavily used by [[Imperium|Imperial]] forces, although variants are fielded by the [[Eldar]], [[Ork]]s, and [[Chaos Space Marines]].

Apparently in the 41st Millennium, chainsaws have been re-purposed for hacking down things/aliens/people instead of simply harvesting lumber. By far the most common Chain weapon is the chainsword.

As its name implies, the chainsword is a bladed weapon with a rotating chainsaw blade in-between, that's powered by a motor mounted on the hilt and activated with a trigger on the grip. Of course, the sheer manliness in this weapon makes it pretty damn heavy, so it's actually really fucking awesome. But since almost all the users of it have some combination of power armor, bionics, or natural strength to swing them around, the weight is a lot less of an issue. More likely it’s due to lightweight materials because it’s tens of millennia into the future.

Although the chainsword is issued to virtually all forces of the [[Imperium]], it is most famous with the [[Space Marines|Spehss mahreens]] who widely use the chainsword as the primary weapon of their assault troops and veteran soldiers.

The standard chainsword used to have the same rules as any other close-combat weapon. Which is dumb, considering most of the fluff describes it as cutting through armour with ease, even Terminator armour, with some additional effort. [[Derp|Because a giant chainsaw does as much damage as a combat knife.]] 8e changed it up a bit, though- while it still doesn't do more damage than a basic close combat weapon, it does grant a bonus attack. This (along with its low point cost) makes it a good choice of melee weapon when the quantity of your attacks matters more than their quality (e.g. against [[Hormagaunt]] swarms and mobs of [[Ork]] Boyz).

==Imperial Variants==
The Chainsword also has several variants that have been developed by both the Imperium of Man and Xenos. Here are some examples:

===Chainblade===
[[File:ChainBladeBolter.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Chainblade]]

The smallest known Chainweapon.

These weapons are small enough to be considered as an attachment to most rifles. As such it is a smaller Chain bayonet that is attached to a Bolter and utilized as a close-combat weapon during assaults. Although, to be honest, it seems more practical to just have a large, sharpened serrated blade than a gas-guzzling weapon that will become useless once it runs out of fuel, and seeing how small the weapon (and thus, fuel supply) is, its gonna run out of fuel relatively quickly.

Basically it was the lancer assault rifle from Gears of War before Gears of War even existed.

===Chainsword===
[[File:Imperial_Chainsword.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Chainsword]]
A chainsword is just a chainsaw with a sword grip. Most versions make use of monomolecular-edged or otherwise razor sharp teeth.

Like many examples of human invention, the chainsword’s many variants seem to have their roots in the shrouded heresies of the Dark Age of Technology. Some in /tg/ like to speculate that it was some AdMech Priest who had mistaken a weirdly designed Chainsaw for a sword, unfortunately official fluff dictates that it saw consistent use in the armored fists of techno-barbarians during the Age of Strife, and among the Emperor’s own armies during his [[Thunder Warriors]]’ conquest of Terra during the Unification Wars.

But whilst Techpriests debate on the origin of the Chainsword, a particularly amusing theory surface that states it was an [[Heresy|inspiration stolen from]] [[Eldar|an alien race,]] [[War in Heaven|in a war that may never be remembered.]] [[Troll|If this theorem ever bears fruit, it is distinctly possible that the galaxy’s first wielders of chainswords were the prissy armored warriors of the ancient Eldar,]] [[Not As Planned|not us Humans.]]

There are multiple varieties of Chainsword such as the '''Ironfang Chainsword''', which is a variant of the chainsword created to allow human heretics to approximate the deadly blows of a Legion chainsword, this variant features a thick, bladed area with chained teeth nearly twice the width of an ordinary chainsword, and powered by a backpack-mounted fuel supply. Its greater tearing strength and weighted nose allow it to deal viciously violent heavy slashing blows. Needless to say, this weapon is heavy - 12 kilograms in weight, complete with power supply - and unbalanced, ie. a very heavy ''regular'' chainsaw.

<gallery>
File:PreacherChainsword.png
File:ThunderEdgeChainsword.jpg|Horus Heresy Chainsword
</gallery>

===Frost Blade===
[[File:FrostBlade.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Frost Blade]]

A unique Chainsword and possibly one of the only ones that could actually cut anything worth a damn rather than bludgeoning the enemies of man to death. The Frost Blade is yet, [[Mary Sue|another special weapon and equipment exclusive to the]] [[Space Wolves]].

Like the Frost Axe, each blade is hand-crafted by a Master [[Iron Priest]], and many incorporate the diamond-hard fangs of the Fenrisian Ice Kraken. They are highly sought after and in the skilled hands of a Space Marine they can be comparable in effect to most Power Weapons.

In the legends of the chapter, the finest Frost Blades are made of ice harvested from the heart of a glacier, and then [[Wat|tempered inside a Kraken's belly.]]

===Heavy Chainblade/Chainsword===
[[File:Heavy_Chainblade_HH.JPG|200px|right|thumb|Heavy Chainsword]]
The Eviscerator's pussy brother, the Heavy Chainblade is a massive chainsword, significantly larger than one of the standard chainswords but far weaker than an actual Eviscerator, possibly because it was meant more for construction than combat. This also made it to it's combat stats, instead of the Eviscerator's manly SX2, AP2 with Armourbane, it's a weak S+2 AP4, with no additional bonuses (and being two-handed as well, so forget using it to get another attack). About the only thing it has on the Eviscerator is that it's not so huge that it's unwieldy.

Being used mainly by the Mechanicum in the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy, it's unsurprising these seem to have mostly fallen out of favour in the 41st millennium, given how everyone seems to have swapped to the Eviscerator.

Not to be confused with the similarly named "Heavy Chainsword", used by the Legions Astartes, an even wimpier version that shares the same profile except for being AP 5 instead of AP 4. These also seem to have fallen out of favour when the Eviscerator rolled around, much to nobody's surprise.

<gallery>
Image:Twin_Handed_Chainsword_1024x1024.JPG|Another Heavy Chainsword.
</gallery>

===Eviscerator===
[[File:Evisercator.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Eviscerator]]
Chainsword but ECKS BAWKS HUEG. Used by the Ecclesiarchy's priests and by the [[Sisters Repentia]] of the [[Sisters of Battle]] (as well as Chapter Master [[Gabriel Seth|Gabriel 'IN THE BALLS' Seth]]). Most recently however, Eviscerators have found their way into the hand of 7E assault marine sergeants, because meltabombs just weren't enough.

The Eviscerator is twice the size of a regular chainsword and so heavy that a normal soldier will need to wield it using both hands. The Eviscerator might also incorporate an exterminator, a portable flame unit that will not only help it breach armor, but also scare the fuck out of any normal man upon seeing a whacked up priest/nun swinging a fucking huge flaming sword-chainsaw. The Eviscerator is also extra effective against armored units.

In some works the Eviscerator is described as having a disruptor field weaker than those of energy weapons, which still helps carving through ceramite.

<gallery>
Image:Catalogue_Eviscerator.jpg|The classic chainsaw variant
image:RepentiaEvisceratorZoomed.png|REPENT MOTHERFUCKER!
</gallery>

===Chain Spear===
[[File:Chain_Spear.PNG|200px|right|thumb|Chain Spear]]

Another long-range Chainweapon.

Similarly to the chain glaive, this weapon combines reach with lethality, mounting a chainsaw-bladed length at the end of a long haft, ensuring that jabs and thrusts can tear open flesh with the lightest touch whilst keeping the wielder out of harm's way, in contrast to the chain glaive whose curved blade and hilt aims for a more slashing and cutting motion to dismember enemies from a distance.

According to ''Tome of Blood'', some variants actually sport the [[Wat|sharpened teeth of the bearer's former victims as the cutting edges, which are enough to cause even the slightest hit to become a spray of blood and torn flesh. ]].

===Chainfist===
[[image:Chainfist.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Chainfist]]
Intended to assist Terminators' not stellar mobility when involved in boarding actions, the Chainfist is a [[Power weapon|Power Fist]] that incorporates a powerful chainsaw blade for the purposes of slicing through armored bulkheads. The weapon is commonly used by Terminators both as a CQC weapon and a convenient tool to cut themselves a way through the average [[Space Hulk]]'s too small doors/walls/ceilings/floors... during boarding actions. Of course, since it can penetrate thick metal with little trouble, it's also often used for ripping open enemy vehicles and bunkers.

The reason it's so effective is simple: the powerfist's energy field also encompasses the chainblade. That's right, the chainfist effectively marries a chainsword and power fist. Remember how a regular power sword cuts most stuff like a hot knife through butter? Now bring a chainsaw with hot knives for teeth into this butter world, ''wear it like a glove'' and that's how a chainfist feels. That's just plain scary. If anything, it's like hitting a target with a power sword at [[Fist of the North Star|40 strikes per second]], so that the powerfield weakens the target and then the teeth hack it away. The alternative is having a static piece of metal that is still cutting, but just not as efficiently.

The easiest way to use a chainfist in combat is to wield it like a Tonfa. As its mounted just under the left wrist parallel to the arm.

<gallery>
Image:TerminatorChainfistZoomed.png
image:SpaceMarineHeroChainfist.png|<center>Heresy-era</center>
</gallery>

===Dreadnought Chainfist===
[[File:DreadCF.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Dreadnought Chainfist]]

A Chainfist but fuckhueg.

In the Imperium, a Dreadnought Chainfist can exclusively be found attached to the Ironclad Dreadnought, although more vanilla Dreadnoughts are able to wield one if given the proper modifications. Unlike the smaller Chainfist which are used to open blastdoors, the Dreadnoughts use theirs to open tank hulls. This arm consists of a massive chainsaw shaped to fit a dreadnought power fist. This is a devastating weapon capable of tearing apart infantry and light armor.

The Forces of Chaos also makes use of Dreadnought-sized Chainfists, more specifically the force of [[Khorne]] due to its brutal blood-grinding method of destruction. It is not uncommon to see a World Eaters or other Khornate dreadnought equipped with dual Chainfists for maximum [[RIP AND TEAR]].

In 8th edition, the Dreadnought Chainfist deals 4 damage per attack but retains the high AP and loses the penalty to hit which makes it great against fighting whatever poor MEQs, GEQs, TEQs and light vehicles that gets in its way. Although against larger walkers, it starts to obviously suffer.
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===Reaper Chain-Cleaver===
[[File:Reaper_Chain-Cleaver.JPG|200px|right|thumb|Reaper Chain-Cleaver]]

The kid brother of the much larger Reaper Chainsword. The Reaper Chain-Cleaver is still a relatively large Chain Weapon carried by the combat walkers of the Imperial Knights, particularly the smallest class of Knights known as Knights Armiger. The Reaper Chain-cleaver is a saw-toothed weapon similar to but smaller than its much larger relative that mangles metal and gnaws flesh to ruin with each shuddering impact.

Unlike say, the Dreadnought Chainfist, the Reaper Chain-Cleaver is much better at fighting due to the more flexible joint placement of the Knight Armigers. That, and the fact that Knight Armigers are relatively slim and not as clunky, awkward and bulky; traits that usually characterize the servo-motors of Space Marine Dreadnoughts, specifically [[METAL BOXES|the more boxy design]] of the 41st Millennium.

To give credit where credit is due. The Chain-Cleaver ''actually'' looks like a proper cleaver. More specifically, it bears some resemblance to a Chinese cleaver.

On tabletop, the current Imperial Knight codex from 8th edition gives the Reaper Chain-Cleaver a weapon with two attack options: Strike and Sweep. Strike is Sx2/AP-3/3D and Sweep S-/AP-2/1D but doubles the amount of hit rolls you can make with it. So this gives the Armiger some very nice added adaptability in their close combat.

===Reaper Chainfist===
[[File:Reaper_Chainfist_of_the_Knight_Acheron.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Reaper Chainfist]]

A chainfist but really [[Rape|ECKS BAWKS HUEG]].

The Reaper Chainfist is a weapon used by the Cerastus Knight-Acheron. Usually carried on the Knight's right weapon arm, the Reaper Chainfist is employed alongside the Acheron's Acheron-Pattern Flame Cannons as a weapon of extermination used to inspire fear in the foe.

The Reaper Chainfist is actually a set of two Chain Weapons linked together, with each one spinning in opposite directions to maximize damage. The blades are capable of tearing through both armor and fortified walls with ease.

The weapon also features a built-in set of twin-linked Heavy Bolters to be used against infantry when the Knight needs to conserve fuel for its Flame Cannon, these Bolters are often used as a last resort or when the Knight really wants something dead in its tracks.

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===Reaper Chainsword===
[[image:ReaperChainsword2.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Reaper Chainsword]]

The standard superheavy weapon in the Chain Weaponry, the Reaper Chainsword is the main weapon of most models of [[Imperial Knight]]. Unlike most Chainweapons you see here, it was originally designed as a Logging device for feudal colonists (You know, like modern chainsaws), though only the height of three men, the Reaper's adamantine teeth are no less deadly and thus, also works incredibly well as a massive melee weapon.

The Chainsword can be swung with all the power of the Knight's servo-motors, the Reaper is capable of cleaving through practically anything, from the thick ferrocrete walls of a defensive bunker and capable of carving open a Super-Heavy Tank with a single blow.

<gallery>
image:ReaperChainswordZoomed.png
</gallery>

{{Clear}}

===Titan Chainfist===
[[File:Rtchainfist1.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Titan Chainfist]]

The big daddy-o of the Chainfist family. The Titan Chainfist takes the form of a large chainsaw attachment like the Chainfist, but on a gigantic scale. Thanks to the available power from the Titan's massive plasma reactor, Titan-grade Chainfists are also equipped with a secondary Melta Array, to soften up the target while cutting through it.

The Reaver Titan is the biggest user of these weapons.

Crunchwise, they are similiar to the Titan Power Fist, at Sx2 AP-5 10 D. However it can also cause -1 to hit. However, any to wound roll of 6 where a VEHICLE, MONSTER, or BUILDING is targeted deals 2D6 extra mortal wounds. Remember that void shields do not work against melee attacks, so against Titans and Titan-equivalents that lack melee weapons those Mortal Wounds can be a a big deal.

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==Chaos Variants==

Chaos use a overwhelmingly amount of chain weapons in contrast to power weapons. The majority of these users are [[Khorne|Khornate warbands]] and seeing how GW has a [[Waifu|unhealthy obsession with Khorne,]] you can see why. The majority of chain weapons of Chaos originally came from the Imperium, so it is unsurprising to see some old Imperial worlds to still incorporate these weapons in its armories. Its just that the force of Chaos has re-appropriated it for Chaos needs.

===Tzaangor Chainsword===
[[File:Tzaangor_Blades.JPG|200px|right|thumb|Tzaangor Chainswords]]
Unique Chainswords made specifically for the Tzaangors of the Thousand Sons.

These blades are warped by the sorcerous and psychic nature of their home planet of Sortiarius. With their savage nature, a Tzaangor would hack apart even power armor with sheer ferocious speed from their blades.

On tabletop, Tzaangor Chainswords are basically your typical Chainswords, its just best to stick with your Tzaangor Blades as it is just that but with an additional AP-1. No need to switch for a largely inferior weapon.

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===Chainaxe===
[[image:Chainaxe.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Chainaxe]]
Imagine doomguy but a weapon. Yes, Warhammer has chainsaw axes, as insane it sounds. The custom weapon of [[Khorne|Khornate]] champions, the Chainaxe was a fairly common weapon among Imperial troops pre-[[Horus Heresy|heresy]]. It's basically a huge axe with a powerful chainsaw as a blade. Pre-heresy it was practically standard issue among the [[World Eaters]]. The sheer weight of the axe and the fact that most Khorne Chaos Marine champions are super strong and completely fucking nuts ensures these will tear through most infantry armor.

It's wielded by non-Khornate Chaos Marines as well, due to the greater damage it inflicts, but mostly because of the showers of gore they call "wounds" - represented in 40k rules by being AP4, a straight upgrade from a regular chainsword and the woe of anyone not wearing power armour. Among Imperial forces, a chain-axe is most likely to be seen in the hands of a [[Space Wolves|Space Wolf]] or a [[Raven Guard]] - the former due to the fact that they just don't give a flying fuck that it might associate them with Chaos, and the latter due to the fact that they mostly have older equipment due to infrequent resupplies. They are also very common among [[Flesh Tearers]] because they basically [[Heresy|already are]] a Khornate cult.

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Image:KhornateChainaxeZoomed.png
Image:ReaverAxe.jpg|Great Crusade era
Image:Chain_Axe.jpg
</gallery>

===Chainscythe===
[[File:Manreaper_Chain-Power_Scythe_Hybrid.PNG|200px|right|thumb|Chainscythe]]

A even more unconventional and unwieldy weapon than the Power Scythe. But not really since a power scythe would be covered with an energy field so the shape of the weapon would be utterly irrelevant.

The Chainscythe is both a incredibly rare and extremely difficult to wield. It is telling that only one unit from oldschool [[Necromunda]] was seen carrying this thing around.
It is only seen wielded by the [[Spyrer]] Matriarchs, this variant of the chainglaive mounts the blade at a horizontal angle to the tip of the shaft.

Seriously though, how the hell do you fight with this thing? Not only does it share the same stupid profile of all chainweapons (That is the metal piece mounted on the blades are interfering with its cutting power), but it also shares the same awkward handle of a scythe. Try and hit someone with that thing, there is a reason why warscythes have their blades turned 90 degrees upwards like halberd to increase chances of it actually hitting anything.

Certain [[Death Guard]] [[Deathshroud|Deathshrouds]] are known to use a special hybrid variant of a Power Scythe with chain teeth. Similar to the Chainfist, these specially modified Manreaper Scythes combine the disruptive nature of a power weapon with the raw and savage cutting power of a chain weapon. [[Mortarion|Ol'Morty]]'s own personal Manreaper ''"Silence"'' also incorporates chain teeth, but at a lesser extant.

<gallery>
image:ChainscytheMatriarch.png|The only person insane enough to use this as a weapon
File:Chainscythe.PNG
</gallery>

===Chain Glaive===
[[image:Chain_Glaive.PNG|200px|right|thumb|Chain Glaive]]

Also known as Chain Halberds, the Chainglaive is an evolution of the Chainaxe, giving it a longer blade and haft allowing for wide, sweeping strikes capable of rending power armour without much trouble. It's used extensively by Vanguard Marines and Chaos close-combat specialists. An ancient design by modern standards, it's by no means common, and sees use primarily with the traitor legions due to this (particularly with the [[Night Lords]], who had always favored its use).

They are also used by Rough Riders as a secondary or even primary weapon due to the weapon's reach and strength. These weapons come in a startling variety based on the sundry Forge Worlds and eras in which they were manufactured, but all are extremely deadly.

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===Chain Hammer===
[[File:Chain_Hammer.PNG|200px|right|thumb|Chain Hammer]]

Another rare and obscure Chainweapon.

Chainaxe not insane enough for you? [[Black Crusade]] introduces the chain Hammer, a massive, normally two-handed weapon shaped into either a maul outfitted with multiple rows of spinning metal teeth on the club-like head, or four chainaxe heads fused into a shape of a maul which can both rip apart flesh and smash bone into pulp with the brutal impact of this insane weapon.

Chain hammers are known to be used by orks and the pit brutes of Kurse in the Screaming Vortex. Powered versions capable of splitting Power Armour were also wielded by the Accusators of the Black Judges.

It is as ridiculous as it sounds.

===Chaos Dreadnought Chainfist===
[[FIle:Chaos_DredChainfist.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Chaos Dreadnought Chainfist]]

A Chainaxe upscaled to a Dreadnought for all your Khornate needs.

The Chaos Dreadnought Chainfist is similar to the one found on Imperial Castraferrum Pattern Dreadnoughts such as the Ironclad Dreadnought. The Chaos variant is covered in dark, runic symbols of the Dark Tongue and macabre ornamentation.

These weapons are favoured by Chaos Space Marines who follow the [[Chaos God]] [[Khorne]]. Khornate Berzerker Dreadnoughts usually are armed with two Dreadnought Chainfists, one on each of its weapon arms. The weapon is outfitted with a hull-mounted twin-linked Bolter, a Combi-Bolter, a Heavy Flamer, or in the case of captured or recently turned Dreadnoughts, a Storm Bolter.

The Chaos version can be differentiated by its more pronounced cutting teeth.

The Contemptor Dreadnought also has its own variant. The weapon looks as if a standard Asatartes Chainsword has been used to replace one of the Power Fist's fingers, unlike the Dreadnought Chain Fist used by the Castraferrum Pattern Dreadnought, which takes up the entire weapon arm. Like most Contemptor Dreadnought Close Combat Weapons the Contemptor Chainfist is also armed with a Combi-Bolter slotted within its palm.

<gallery>
Image:Chaos_Contempt_Chainfist.jpg|Contemptor variant
</gallery>

===Chaos Dreadnought Pincer Claw===
[[File:Pincer_Claw_Dread.png|200px|right|thumb|Chaos Dreadnought Pincer Claw]]

A very oldschool weapon that shows its age.

The Chaos Dreadnought Pincer Claw is a variant of the Dreadnought Chainfist, and consists of a pincer-like double Chain Weapon. These weapons are known to be found on Chaos Dreadnoughts that are dedicated to the Chaos God [[Slaanesh]], such as Sonic Dreadnoughts.

The shape of the weapon indicates a heavy influence from Slaaneshi Daemon Weapons. Seeing how pincer weapons are as pronounced in Slaanesh as Chainaxes are the staple of Khorne, this isn't that surprising.

Thus, it could be assume that the Emperor's Children merely took inspiration to their new master and fashioned their Dreadnoughts with a weapon that makes them visually closer to the Daemons of Slaanesh. [[Grimdark|Of course, being a Dreadnought, they are incapable of feeling the emotions and pleasure whilst stuck perpetually inside a tank.]] [[Troll|So the Dreadnought ends up raging in despair...much to the amusement of Slaanesh he/her/itself.]]

The Pincer Claw is designed to grab its prey and slowly mutilate its victims, however as an actual weapon for warfare, it is relatively poor. It is unable to effectively parry other like-minded weapons and its design makes it poor as both a cutting and bludgeoning weapon.

No wonder why this thing has not seen the light of day.

===Khornate Assault Claw===
[[File:Khornate_Assault_Claw.png|200px|right|thumb|Khornate Assault Claw]]

In no way should it be confused with the [[Drop Pod#Kharybdis Assault Claw|Kharybdis Assault Claw.]]

The Chaos Dreadnought Chainfist given a even more Khornate upgrade.

The Khornate Assault Claw is a variant of the standard Contemptor Claw, and is used by Chaos Contemptor Pattern Dreadnoughts dedicated to the Chaos God of blood and war, Khorne. The Khornate Assault Claw replaces the standard Power Claw's fingers with miniature Chain Weapons, making it especially devastating against infantry.

Like most Contemptor Dreadnought Close Combat Weapons the Contemptor Chain Fist is also armed with a Combi-Bolter slotted within its palm. The weapon could also be outfitted with a twin-linked Bolter during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy-era, or in the case of recently captured or reequipped Dreadnoughts a Storm Bolter.

The Khornate Assault Claw looks like a much more up-to-date and practical weapon than the Slaaneshi Dreadnought Pincer Claw.

===Brass Scorpion Pincer Claw===
[[File:Pincer_Claws.JPG|200px|right|thumb|Brass Scorpion Pincer Claw]]

The giant Pincer Claws found on the [[Brass Scorpion]].

Each of these claws are fully capable of tearing armored vehicles into pieces and wiping out entire infantry squads in one fell sweep. The creature's claws are protected on their outer sides by large Warp-forged alloy shields.

When the beast places its claws in front of itself, these shields are able to protect its entire body from harm. The Claws also feature three large in-built Chain Weapons, allowing them to cause even more damage during combat. There also exist variants of the Brass Scorpion outfitted with massive spinning blades instead of pincers.

===Great Cleaver of Khorne===
[[File:Great_Cleaver_of_Khorne.JPG|200px|right|thumb|Great Cleaver of Khorne]]

Axe of Khorne on acid or a Chain Axe that has overfed on growth hormones.

A Great Cleaver of Khorne is a Daemon Weapon in the form of a massive Chainaxe that is wielded by the [[Lord of Skulls]] and [[Kytan]] Daemon Engine. Like the Lord of Skulls that wields it, the Great Cleaver of Khorne is festooned with the remains of its victims, their skulls forever trapped within. The weapon is large enough that the Lord of Skulls can make use of it as easily as if it was a normal-sized melee weapon, and is capable of tearing apart tanks as if they were human heads. The Great Cleaver is fully capable of cutting entire vehicles into pieces and taking out entire groups of infantry. It is a weapon forged from murder and rage -- and it delivers the very same to its victims.

When activated, the Great Cleaver will erupt with eldritch power, the teeth rotating so fast as to become a blurred edge.

This is [[RIP AND TEAR]] INCARNATE!

==Eldar Variants==

===Scorpion Chainsword===
[[image:Eldar_Scorpion_Chainsword.png|right|200px|thumb|Scorpion Chainsword]]
An Eldar variant of the Chainsword fielded by the Striking Scorpions. It's like the Imperial Chainsword but incorporates advanced equipment that increases the wielder's strength and incorporates a sleeker, less bulky design.

There's been fluff that suggests they are actually a lot more advanced than Imperial chainswords, consisting of a heavily serrated 41st millennium mono-molecular blade which doesn't whirl around most of the time. Rather, upon hitting an opponent, and the blade gets stuck in their body/armor, THAT's when it goes all chainsaw, ripping armor and people apart and ensuring that the blade doesn't ever get stuck in someone; it'll either go through them or at least rip whatever it's stuck in enough to be pulled out, while also being a lot quieter since the motor's not constantly humming.

<gallery>
image:ScorpionSwordZoomed.png
</gallery>

===Chainsabre===
[[File:Dragon's_Tooth_Chainsaber.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Chainsabre, ''Dragon's Tooth'']]
One of the Scorpion Exarch's unique variation of the Scorpion Chainsword. Chainsabres are unique weaponry used by Striking Scorpion Exarchs. These Chainswords are paired with ancient gauntlets which incorporate twin-linked [[Shuriken Catapult|Shuriken Pistols.]] Exarchs who use these weapons train to wield two of them at once, allowing them to level an unrelenting storm of attacks upon their opponent.

On the tabletop 8th edition, the Chainsabres are two one-handed chain weapons that can [[Fist_of_the_North_Star|land a truly staggering amount of blows on a target]]. In melee they function the exact same as the Scorpion Chainsword, though these will grant another melee attack and have the Shuriken Pistol profile for your ranged attacks. Considered the most versatile of the bunch.

<gallery>
Image:Striking_scorpions_exarchs_1_5.jpg|Chainsabre with Shuriken Pistol attatchment
</gallery>

===Biting Blade===
[[File:Biting_Blade.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Biting Blade]]
One of the Scorpion Exarch's unique variation of the Scorpion Chainsword. Essentially the Eldar copy of the Eviscerator. Biting Blades are large, two-handed, long-bladed Chainswords reminiscent of the massive Eviscerators used by zealots within the Imperium. However, where Imperial Eviscerators are heavy, noisy machines, Biting Blades are slender and quiet, but no less deadly for their relatively light weight. The advanced monomolecular-edged teeth of the blade tear through flesh as though it were parchment and equally shred bone and armor, easily cleaving a man-size target in two.

On the tabletop, the Biting Blade is a massive two-handed weapon whose effectiveness increases as a target is hit. Basically it is a two handed Chainsword that bumps up to S+2 (S5) AP-1 and 2 D compared to the run of the mill Scorpion Chainsword. The least expensive of the Exarch's selections, but it also costs him both his pistol and Scorpion Chainsword to use.

==Ork Variants==

===Chain Choppa===
[[image:Chainchoppa.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Chain Choppa]]
The Chain Choppa is the Ork version of the chainsword. The weapon is a handheld chainsaw (though it sometimes takes the form of a sword or axe) used for almost anything. Really, you name it. In a pinch it can stand in for anything ranging from a weapon to a household tool.

Regular garden variety [[Ork_Boy|Ork Boyz]] rarely have these weapons, while richer Orks like the [[Warboss]] or a [[Nob]] might have it because it's killy and flash. Many are simply war trophies picked up from loyalist and traitor Space Marines.

<gallery>
image:ChainChoppaZoomed.png
</gallery>

{{Clear}}

===Big Chain Choppa===
[[File:OrkChainAxe.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Big Chain Choppa]]
The Chain Hammer of the Ork Horde.

Sometimes simply called the Ork Chainaxe. It is basically a Big Choppa with a motor system attached to it. Like the smaller Chain Choppa, certain Orks prefer this over the average Big Choppa due to the amount or carnage it can spew out.

The sheer size and relative complexity in making one means that only the biggest, strongest and wealthiest Orks could purchase one, like Nobs, Meganobs, Warbosses and Warlords. Like most Ork weapons, there are no standardization for the Big Chain Choppa.
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===Crusha===
[[File:OrkCrusha.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Crusha]]

''[[Derp|Not to be confused with the similarly named]] [[Miscellaneous Klose Kombat Weapons#Krusha|Krusha]]''

The Ork's Dreadnought Chainfist.

An oversized set of mechanical Chain Klaws which may or may not be the unholy lovechild of a Dread Klaw and a Chain Choppa.

The Crushas are basically the little brother of the Klaw of Gork/Mork and are meant to rip apart armored opponents with its pneumatic strength and powered piercing pincers. Whether they are actually Power Weapons is not known. What is known is that they feature a built-in Chain Weapon on the Klaws which can enable the Deff Dread to both capture and rip apart enemies at the same time.

Despite this, they are grouped all under the Killa Kan/Deff Dread Close Combat Weapons and thus, all share the same profile of a Dread Klaw/Kan Klaw (Depending on the walker using them). [[Derp|Which means that this non-Power Weapons share the same function as an ''actual'' Power Weapon.]] Although at the very least, the Crusha could at least be hand waved to function like the Chainfist.

===Mega-Choppa===
[[File:Mega-Choppa.PNG|200px|right|thumb|Mega-Choppa]]
The Orks saw the Imperium's Titan-sized Chainfists and proceeded to one-up them in both [[/d/|length, size and ''girth''.]]

A giant ECKSBAWKSHUEG Chainsword that are mounted only on biggest Ork walkers - from Stompas to Gargants and to see one in action is to witness a truly apocalyptic scene. These Mega-Choppas are designed to grind and rip apart enemy Titans with several swoops.

On tabletop, the Mega-Choppa is a Stompa's go-to carving weapon. It comes with 2 attack profiles. The first one is '''Smash''' which double's a Stompa's strength. Has a -5 AP. Causes 6 wounds per hit. Double S is inconsequential as there is nothing with T10. 6 wounds guaranteed are nice if you need exactly that, but more attacks are usually better. So you might want to use it for -5AP mostly.

The second attack profile is '''Slash''' which is only user-Strength, with a somehow lower AP than a Power Klaw (-2 as opposed to a klaw's -3), does D3 wounds per hit instead of the Smash's 6, BUT it lets you make 3 hit rolls for each Attack.
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== Notable Chainweapons ==

[[File:Torchlight chainswords by LaithArkham.jpg|left|thumb|300px|The mêlée weaponry of the 41st millennium offer a variety of implements for violently lacerating the opposition]]

'''Storm's Teeth''' - Take [[Berserk|Gut's]] DragonSlayer, turn it into a Chainsword, and then make it Bigger so only a [[Primarch]] can use it. Thats Storm's Teeth. Used by [[Rogal Dorn]] himself, it was said to be Dorn's favored weapon and is what he used against <s>[[Alpharius]]</s> some random Legionary. He also broke it when he found the Emperor barely alive after his duel with Horus, but that's fine since its remains would be used to create the sword used by the Black Templars High Marshal.

'''Frostfang''' - An ancient chainsword used by [[Ragnar Blackmane]]. The techniques used to make it were kept a secret by Fergus Forgrim to his deathbed so no one knows how it was made, because it's not like that could have been important or helpful later, right?

'''Gorefather and Gorechild''' - <s>THE BEST WEAPONS IN THE WHOLE OF 40K</s> {{BLAM}} {{BLAM}} {{BLAM|''DOUBLE HERESY!''}}Two chainaxes used by [[Angron]] during the [[Great Crusade]] and [[Horus Heresy]]. The teeth of these weapons came from a [[Awesome|MOTHERFUCKING MICA-DRAGON]], and are lubricated by [[Khorne|BLOOD]] (these weapons are so metal, they bring envy to the [[Iron Hands]] and [[Iron Warriors]]). Gorechild is currently being used by that [[Kharn|Swell guy]], and Gorefather <s>is nowhere to be seen, but it might show up again</s> was sadly destroyed on Armatura during the Great Crusade.

'''Teeth of Terra''' - Origin unknown, and with a tendency to show up in possession of many different chapters and disappear just as quickly, the Teeth of Terra is an ancient chainsword with obsidian teeth. It strikes hard and deep and allows the bearer to swing in huge, sweeping arcs.

'''Blood Reaver''' - An Eviscerator wielded by [[Gabriel Seth]]. Because nothing says [[rip and tear]] like a fuckheug chainsword, and the Flesh Tearers are masters of that particular craft.

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==Gallery==
<gallery>
DornStorm'sTeeth.png|<center>''Storm's Teeth''</center>
BlackmaneFrostfang.png|<center>''Frostfang''</center>
AngronGoreFatherChild.png|<center>''Gorefather & Gorechild''</center>
GoreChild.jpg|<center>''Gorechild'' (Present)</center>
GabrielSethBloodReaver.png|<center>''Blood Reaver''</center>
</gallery>

==Video Links==
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gj8pAN7Y7E DIY Chainsword, Blood Angel variant]

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{{40k-GenestealerCults-Weapons}}
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[[Category:Warhammer 40,000]][[Category:Imperial]][[Category:Chaos]][[Category:Eldar]][[Category:Orks]]

Chain Weapon

2019-09-26T12:31:35Z

2600:1006:B105:8611:58CC:338D:D9D2:B1D4:

[[File:Chainsword06.jpg|180px|right|thumb|A typically poor rendition of a chainsword - as you can see, the housing surrounds the teeth, which would interfere with penetration (but would allow it to parry). Still dangerous though.]]

{{Topquote|Problems? '''Problems?''' There is no problem I cannot solve with this...|Commander Mad Chainsaw Johnson of the [[White Scars]], [[White Dwarf|White Dwarf 93]]}}

A Chain weapon is a fuck-awesome melee weapon, heavily used by [[Imperium|Imperial]] forces, although variants are fielded by the [[Eldar]], [[Ork]]s, and [[Chaos Space Marines]].

Apparently in the 41st Millennium, chainsaws have been re-purposed for hacking down things/aliens/people instead of simply harvesting lumber. By far the most common Chain weapon is the chainsword.

As its name implies, the chainsword is a bladed weapon with a rotating chainsaw blade in-between, that's powered by a motor mounted on the hilt and activated with a trigger on the grip. Of course, the sheer manliness in this weapon makes it pretty damn heavy, so it's actually really fucking awesome. But since almost all the users of it have some combination of power armor, bionics, or natural strength to swing them around, the weight is a lot less of an issue. More likely it’s due to lightweight materials because it’s tens of millennia into the future.

Although the chainsword is issued to virtually all forces of the [[Imperium]], it is most famous with the [[Space Marines|Spehss mahreens]] who widely use the chainsword as the primary weapon of their assault troops and veteran soldiers.

The standard chainsword used to have the same rules as any other close-combat weapon. Which is dumb, considering most of the fluff describes it as cutting through armour with ease, even Terminator armour, with some additional effort. [[Derp|Because a giant chainsaw does as much damage as a combat knife.]] 8e changed it up a bit, though- while it still doesn't do more damage than a basic close combat weapon, it does grant a bonus attack. This (along with its low point cost) makes it a good choice of melee weapon when the quantity of your attacks matters more than their quality (e.g. against [[Hormagaunt]] swarms and mobs of [[Ork]] Boyz).

==Imperial Variants==
The Chainsword also has several variants that have been developed by both the Imperium of Man and Xenos. Here are some examples:

===Chainblade===
[[File:ChainBladeBolter.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Chainblade]]

The smallest known Chainweapon.

These weapons are small enough to be considered as an attachment to most rifles. As such it is a smaller Chain bayonet that is attached to a Bolter and utilized as a close-combat weapon during assaults. Although, to be honest, it seems more practical to just have a large, sharpened serrated blade than a gas-guzzling weapon that will become useless once it runs out of fuel, and seeing how small the weapon (and thus, fuel supply) is, its gonna run out of fuel relatively quickly.

Basically it was the lancer assault rifle from Gears of War before Gears of War even existed.

===Chainsword===
[[File:Imperial_Chainsword.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Chainsword]]
A chainsword is just a chainsaw with a sword grip. Most versions make use of monomolecular-edged or otherwise razor sharp teeth.

Like many examples of human invention, the chainsword’s many variants seem to have their roots in the shrouded heresies of the Dark Age of Technology. Some in /tg/ like to speculate that it was some AdMech Priest who had mistaken a weirdly designed Chainsaw for a sword, unfortunately official fluff dictates that it saw consistent use in the armored fists of techno-barbarians during the Age of Strife, and among the Emperor’s own armies during his [[Thunder Warriors]]’ conquest of Terra during the Unification Wars.

But whilst Techpriests debate on the origin of the Chainsword, a particularly amusing theory surface that states it was an [[Heresy|inspiration stolen from]] [[Eldar|an alien race,]] [[War in Heaven|in a war that may never be remembered.]] [[Troll|If this theorem ever bears fruit, it is distinctly possible that the galaxy’s first wielders of chainswords were the prissy armored warriors of the ancient Eldar,]] [[Not As Planned|not us Humans.]]

There are multiple varieties of Chainsword such as the '''Ironfang Chainsword''', which is a variant of the chainsword created to allow human heretics to approximate the deadly blows of a Legion chainsword, this variant features a thick, bladed area with chained teeth nearly twice the width of an ordinary chainsword, and powered by a backpack-mounted fuel supply. Its greater tearing strength and weighted nose allow it to deal viciously violent heavy slashing blows. Needless to say, this weapon is heavy - 12 kilograms in weight, complete with power supply - and unbalanced, ie. a very heavy ''regular'' chainsaw.

<gallery>
File:PreacherChainsword.png
File:ThunderEdgeChainsword.jpg|Horus Heresy Chainsword
</gallery>

===Frost Blade===
[[File:FrostBlade.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Frost Blade]]

A unique Chainsword and possibly one of the only ones that could actually cut anything worth a damn rather than bludgeoning the enemies of man to death. The Frost Blade is yet, [[Mary Sue|another special weapon and equipment exclusive to the]] [[Space Wolves]].

Like the Frost Axe, each blade is hand-crafted by a Master [[Iron Priest]], and many incorporate the diamond-hard fangs of the Fenrisian Ice Kraken. They are highly sought after and in the skilled hands of a Space Marine they can be comparable in effect to most Power Weapons.

In the legends of the chapter, the finest Frost Blades are made of ice harvested from the heart of a glacier, and then [[Wat|tempered inside a Kraken's belly.]]

===Heavy Chainblade/Chainsword===
[[File:Heavy_Chainblade_HH.JPG|200px|right|thumb|Heavy Chainsword]]
The Eviscerator's pussy brother, the Heavy Chainblade is a massive chainsword, significantly larger than one of the standard chainswords but far weaker than an actual Eviscerator, possibly because it was meant more for construction than combat. This also made it to it's combat stats, instead of the Eviscerator's manly SX2, AP2 with Armourbane, it's a weak S+2 AP4, with no additional bonuses (and being two-handed as well, so forget using it to get another attack). About the only thing it has on the Eviscerator is that it's not so huge that it's unwieldy.

Being used mainly by the Mechanicum in the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy, it's unsurprising these seem to have mostly fallen out of favour in the 41st millennium, given how everyone seems to have swapped to the Eviscerator.

Not to be confused with the similarly named "Heavy Chainsword", used by the Legions Astartes, an even wimpier version that shares the same profile except for being AP 5 instead of AP 4. These also seem to have fallen out of favour when the Eviscerator rolled around, much to nobody's surprise.

<gallery>
Image:Twin_Handed_Chainsword_1024x1024.JPG|Another Heavy Chainsword.
</gallery>

===Eviscerator===
[[File:Evisercator.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Eviscerator]]
Chainsword but ECKS BAWKS HUEG. Used by the Ecclesiarchy's priests and by the [[Sisters Repentia]] of the [[Sisters of Battle]] (as well as Chapter Master [[Gabriel Seth|Gabriel 'IN THE BALLS' Seth]]). Most recently however, Eviscerators have found their way into the hand of 7E assault marine sergeants, because meltabombs just weren't enough.

The Eviscerator is twice the size of a regular chainsword and so heavy that a normal soldier will need to wield it using both hands. The Eviscerator might also incorporate an exterminator, a portable flame unit that will not only help it breach armor, but also scare the fuck out of any normal man upon seeing a whacked up priest/nun swinging a fucking huge flaming sword-chainsaw. The Eviscerator is also extra effective against armored units.

In some works the Eviscerator is described as having a disruptor field weaker than those of energy weapons, which still helps carving through ceramite.

<gallery>
Image:Catalogue_Eviscerator.jpg|The classic chainsaw variant
image:RepentiaEvisceratorZoomed.png|REPENT MOTHERFUCKER!
</gallery>

===Chain Spear===
[[File:Chain_Spear.PNG|200px|right|thumb|Chain Spear]]

Another long-range Chainweapon.

Similarly to the chain glaive, this weapon combines reach with lethality, mounting a chainsaw-bladed length at the end of a long haft, ensuring that jabs and thrusts can tear open flesh with the lightest touch whilst keeping the wielder out of harm's way, in contrast to the chain glaive whose curved blade and hilt aims for a more slashing and cutting motion to dismember enemies from a distance.

According to ''Tome of Blood'', some variants actually sport the [[Wat|sharpened teeth of the bearer's former victims as the cutting edges, which are enough to cause even the slightest hit to become a spray of blood and torn flesh. ]].

===Chainfist===
[[image:Chainfist.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Chainfist]]
Intended to assist Terminators' not stellar mobility when involved in boarding actions, the Chainfist is a [[Power weapon|Power Fist]] that incorporates a powerful chainsaw blade for the purposes of slicing through armored bulkheads. The weapon is commonly used by Terminators both as a CQC weapon and a convenient tool to cut themselves a way through the average [[Space Hulk]]'s too small doors/walls/ceilings/floors... during boarding actions. Of course, since it can penetrate thick metal with little trouble, it's also often used for ripping open enemy vehicles and bunkers.

The reason it's so effective is simple: the powerfist's energy field also encompasses the chainblade. That's right, the chainfist effectively marries a chainsword and power fist. Remember how a regular power sword cuts most stuff like a hot knife through butter? Now bring a chainsaw with hot knives for teeth into this butter world, ''wear it like a glove'' and that's how a chainfist feels. That's just plain scary. If anything, it's like hitting a target with a power sword at [[Fist of the North Star|40 strikes per second]], so that the powerfield weakens the target and then the teeth hack it away. The alternative is having a static piece of metal that is still cutting, but just not as efficiently.

The easiest way to use a chainfist in combat is to wield it like a Tonfa. As its mounted just under the left wrist parallel to the arm.

<gallery>
Image:TerminatorChainfistZoomed.png
image:SpaceMarineHeroChainfist.png|<center>Heresy-era</center>
</gallery>

===Dreadnought Chainfist===
[[File:DreadCF.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Dreadnought Chainfist]]

A Chainfist but fuckhueg.

In the Imperium, a Dreadnought Chainfist can exclusively be found attached to the Ironclad Dreadnought, although more vanilla Dreadnoughts are able to wield one if given the proper modifications. Unlike the smaller Chainfist which are used to open blastdoors, the Dreadnoughts use theirs to open tank hulls. This arm consists of a massive chainsaw shaped to fit a dreadnought power fist. This is a devastating weapon capable of tearing apart infantry and light armor.

The Forces of Chaos also makes use of Dreadnought-sized Chainfists, more specifically the force of [[Khorne]] due to its brutal blood-grinding method of destruction. It is not uncommon to see a World Eaters or other Khornate dreadnought equipped with dual Chainfists for maximum [[RIP AND TEAR]].

In 8th edition, the Dreadnought Chainfist deals 4 damage per attack but retains the high AP and loses the penalty to hit which makes it great against fighting whatever poor MEQs, GEQs, TEQs and light vehicles that gets in its way. Although against larger walkers, it starts to obviously suffer.
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===Reaper Chain-Cleaver===
[[File:Reaper_Chain-Cleaver.JPG|200px|right|thumb|Reaper Chain-Cleaver]]

The kid brother of the much larger Reaper Chainsword. The Reaper Chain-Cleaver is still a relatively large Chain Weapon carried by the combat walkers of the Imperial Knights, particularly the smallest class of Knights known as Knights Armiger. The Reaper Chain-cleaver is a saw-toothed weapon similar to but smaller than its much larger relative that mangles metal and gnaws flesh to ruin with each shuddering impact.

Unlike say, the Dreadnought Chainfist, the Reaper Chain-Cleaver is much better at fighting due to the more flexible joint placement of the Knight Armigers. That, and the fact that Knight Armigers are relatively slim and not as clunky, awkward and bulky; traits that usually characterize the servo-motors of Space Marine Dreadnoughts, specifically [[METAL BOXES|the more boxy design]] of the 41st Millennium.

To give credit where credit is due. The Chain-Cleaver ''actually'' looks like a proper cleaver. More specifically, it bears some resemblance to a Chinese cleaver.

On tabletop, the current Imperial Knight codex from 8th edition gives the Reaper Chain-Cleaver a weapon with two attack options: Strike and Sweep. Strike is Sx2/AP-3/3D and Sweep S-/AP-2/1D but doubles the amount of hit rolls you can make with it. So this gives the Armiger some very nice added adaptability in their close combat.

===Reaper Chainfist===
[[File:Reaper_Chainfist_of_the_Knight_Acheron.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Reaper Chainfist]]

A chainfist but really [[Rape|ECKS BAWKS HUEG]].

The Reaper Chainfist is a weapon used by the Cerastus Knight-Acheron. Usually carried on the Knight's right weapon arm, the Reaper Chainfist is employed alongside the Acheron's Acheron-Pattern Flame Cannons as a weapon of extermination used to inspire fear in the foe.

The Reaper Chainfist is actually a set of two Chain Weapons linked together, with each one spinning in opposite directions to maximize damage. The blades are capable of tearing through both armor and fortified walls with ease.

The weapon also features a built-in set of twin-linked Heavy Bolters to be used against infantry when the Knight needs to conserve fuel for its Flame Cannon, these Bolters are often used as a last resort or when the Knight really wants something dead in its tracks.

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===Reaper Chainsword===
[[image:ReaperChainsword2.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Reaper Chainsword]]

The standard superheavy weapon in the Chain Weaponry, the Reaper Chainsword is the main weapon of most models of [[Imperial Knight]]. Unlike most Chainweapons you see here, it was originally designed as a Logging device for feudal colonists (You know, like modern chainsaws), though only the height of three men, the Reaper's adamantine teeth are no less deadly and thus, also works incredibly well as a massive melee weapon.

The Chainsword can be swung with all the power of the Knight's servo-motors, the Reaper is capable of cleaving through practically anything, from the thick ferrocrete walls of a defensive bunker and capable of carving open a Super-Heavy Tank with a single blow.

<gallery>
image:ReaperChainswordZoomed.png
</gallery>

{{Clear}}

===Titan Chainfist===
[[File:Rtchainfist1.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Titan Chainfist]]

The big daddy-o of the Chainfist family. The Titan Chainfist takes the form of a large chainsaw attachment like the Chainfist, but on a gigantic scale. Thanks to the available power from the Titan's massive plasma reactor, Titan-grade Chainfists are also equipped with a secondary Melta Array, to soften up the target while cutting through it.

The Reaver Titan is the biggest user of these weapons.

Crunchwise, they are similiar to the Titan Power Fist, at Sx2 AP-5 10 D. However it can also cause -1 to hit. However, any to wound roll of 6 where a VEHICLE, MONSTER, or BUILDING is targeted deals 2D6 extra mortal wounds. Remember that void shields do not work against melee attacks, so against Titans and Titan-equivalents that lack melee weapons those Mortal Wounds can be a a big deal.

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==Chaos Variants==

Chaos use a overwhelmingly amount of chain weapons in contrast to power weapons. The majority of these users are [[Khorne|Khornate warbands]] and seeing how GW has a [[Waifu|unhealthy obsession with Khorne,]] you can see why. The majority of chain weapons of Chaos originally came from the Imperium, so it is unsurprising to see some old Imperial worlds to still incorporate these weapons in its armories. Its just that the force of Chaos has re-appropriated it for Chaos needs.

===Tzaangor Chainsword===
[[File:Tzaangor_Blades.JPG|200px|right|thumb|Tzaangor Chainswords]]
Unique Chainswords made specifically for the Tzaangors of the Thousand Sons.

These blades are warped by the sorcerous and psychic nature of their home planet of Sortiarius. With their savage nature, a Tzaangor would hack apart even power armor with sheer ferocious speed from their blades.

On tabletop, Tzaangor Chainswords are basically your typical Chainswords, its just best to stick with your Tzaangor Blades as it is just that but with an additional AP-1. No need to switch for a largely inferior weapon.

{{Clear}}

===Chainaxe===
[[image:Chainaxe.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Chainaxe]]
Imagine doomguy but a weapon. Yes, Warhammer has chainsaw axes, as insane it sounds. The custom weapon of [[Khorne|Khornate]] champions, the Chainaxe was a fairly common weapon among Imperial troops pre-[[Horus Heresy|heresy]]. It's basically a huge axe with a powerful chainsaw as a blade. Pre-heresy it was practically standard issue among the [[World Eaters]]. The sheer weight of the axe and the fact that most Khorne Chaos Marine champions are super strong and completely fucking nuts ensures these will tear through most infantry armor.

It's wielded by non-Khornate Chaos Marines as well, due to the greater damage it inflicts, but mostly because of the showers of gore they call "wounds" - represented in 40k rules by being AP4, a straight upgrade from a regular chainsword and the woe of anyone not wearing power armour. Among Imperial forces, a chain-axe is most likely to be seen in the hands of a [[Space Wolves|Space Wolf]] or a [[Raven Guard]] - the former due to the fact that they just don't give a flying fuck that it might associate them with Chaos, and the latter due to the fact that they mostly have older equipment due to infrequent resupplies. They are also very common among [[Flesh Tearers]] because they basically [[Heresy|already are]] a Khornate cult.

<gallery>
Image:KhornateChainaxeZoomed.png
Image:ReaverAxe.jpg|Great Crusade era
Image:Chain_Axe.jpg
</gallery>

===Chainscythe===
[[File:Manreaper_Chain-Power_Scythe_Hybrid.PNG|200px|right|thumb|Chainscythe]]

A even more unconventional and unwieldy weapon than the Power Scythe.

The Chainscythe is both a incredibly rare and extremely difficult to wield. It is telling that only one unit from oldschool [[Necromunda]] was seen carrying this thing around.
It is only seen wielded by the [[Spyrer]] Matriarchs, this variant of the chainglaive mounts the blade at a horizontal angle to the tip of the shaft.

Seriously though, how the hell do you fight with this thing? Not only does it share the same stupid profile of all chainweapons (That is the metal piece mounted on the blades are interfering with its cutting power), but it also shares the same awkward handle of a scythe. Try and hit someone with that thing, there is a reason why warscythes have their blades turned 90 degrees upwards like halberd to increase chances of it actually hitting anything.

Certain [[Death Guard]] [[Deathshroud|Deathshrouds]] are known to use a special hybrid variant of a Power Scythe with chain teeth. Similar to the Chainfist, these specially modified Manreaper Scythes combine the disruptive nature of a power weapon with the raw and savage cutting power of a chain weapon. [[Mortarion|Ol'Morty]]'s own personal Manreaper ''"Silence"'' also incorporates chain teeth, but at a lesser extant.

<gallery>
image:ChainscytheMatriarch.png|The only person insane enough to use this as a weapon
File:Chainscythe.PNG
</gallery>

===Chain Glaive===
[[image:Chain_Glaive.PNG|200px|right|thumb|Chain Glaive]]

Also known as Chain Halberds, the Chainglaive is an evolution of the Chainaxe, giving it a longer blade and haft allowing for wide, sweeping strikes capable of rending power armour without much trouble. It's used extensively by Vanguard Marines and Chaos close-combat specialists. An ancient design by modern standards, it's by no means common, and sees use primarily with the traitor legions due to this (particularly with the [[Night Lords]], who had always favored its use).

They are also used by Rough Riders as a secondary or even primary weapon due to the weapon's reach and strength. These weapons come in a startling variety based on the sundry Forge Worlds and eras in which they were manufactured, but all are extremely deadly.

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===Chain Hammer===
[[File:Chain_Hammer.PNG|200px|right|thumb|Chain Hammer]]

Another rare and obscure Chainweapon.

Chainaxe not insane enough for you? [[Black Crusade]] introduces the chain Hammer, a massive, normally two-handed weapon shaped into either a maul outfitted with multiple rows of spinning metal teeth on the club-like head, or four chainaxe heads fused into a shape of a maul which can both rip apart flesh and smash bone into pulp with the brutal impact of this insane weapon.

Chain hammers are known to be used by orks and the pit brutes of Kurse in the Screaming Vortex. Powered versions capable of splitting Power Armour were also wielded by the Accusators of the Black Judges.

It is as ridiculous as it sounds.

===Chaos Dreadnought Chainfist===
[[FIle:Chaos_DredChainfist.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Chaos Dreadnought Chainfist]]

A Chainaxe upscaled to a Dreadnought for all your Khornate needs.

The Chaos Dreadnought Chainfist is similar to the one found on Imperial Castraferrum Pattern Dreadnoughts such as the Ironclad Dreadnought. The Chaos variant is covered in dark, runic symbols of the Dark Tongue and macabre ornamentation.

These weapons are favoured by Chaos Space Marines who follow the [[Chaos God]] [[Khorne]]. Khornate Berzerker Dreadnoughts usually are armed with two Dreadnought Chainfists, one on each of its weapon arms. The weapon is outfitted with a hull-mounted twin-linked Bolter, a Combi-Bolter, a Heavy Flamer, or in the case of captured or recently turned Dreadnoughts, a Storm Bolter.

The Chaos version can be differentiated by its more pronounced cutting teeth.

The Contemptor Dreadnought also has its own variant. The weapon looks as if a standard Asatartes Chainsword has been used to replace one of the Power Fist's fingers, unlike the Dreadnought Chain Fist used by the Castraferrum Pattern Dreadnought, which takes up the entire weapon arm. Like most Contemptor Dreadnought Close Combat Weapons the Contemptor Chainfist is also armed with a Combi-Bolter slotted within its palm.

<gallery>
Image:Chaos_Contempt_Chainfist.jpg|Contemptor variant
</gallery>

===Chaos Dreadnought Pincer Claw===
[[File:Pincer_Claw_Dread.png|200px|right|thumb|Chaos Dreadnought Pincer Claw]]

A very oldschool weapon that shows its age.

The Chaos Dreadnought Pincer Claw is a variant of the Dreadnought Chainfist, and consists of a pincer-like double Chain Weapon. These weapons are known to be found on Chaos Dreadnoughts that are dedicated to the Chaos God [[Slaanesh]], such as Sonic Dreadnoughts.

The shape of the weapon indicates a heavy influence from Slaaneshi Daemon Weapons. Seeing how pincer weapons are as pronounced in Slaanesh as Chainaxes are the staple of Khorne, this isn't that surprising.

Thus, it could be assume that the Emperor's Children merely took inspiration to their new master and fashioned their Dreadnoughts with a weapon that makes them visually closer to the Daemons of Slaanesh. [[Grimdark|Of course, being a Dreadnought, they are incapable of feeling the emotions and pleasure whilst stuck perpetually inside a tank.]] [[Troll|So the Dreadnought ends up raging in despair...much to the amusement of Slaanesh he/her/itself.]]

The Pincer Claw is designed to grab its prey and slowly mutilate its victims, however as an actual weapon for warfare, it is relatively poor. It is unable to effectively parry other like-minded weapons and its design makes it poor as both a cutting and bludgeoning weapon.

No wonder why this thing has not seen the light of day.

===Khornate Assault Claw===
[[File:Khornate_Assault_Claw.png|200px|right|thumb|Khornate Assault Claw]]

In no way should it be confused with the [[Drop Pod#Kharybdis Assault Claw|Kharybdis Assault Claw.]]

The Chaos Dreadnought Chainfist given a even more Khornate upgrade.

The Khornate Assault Claw is a variant of the standard Contemptor Claw, and is used by Chaos Contemptor Pattern Dreadnoughts dedicated to the Chaos God of blood and war, Khorne. The Khornate Assault Claw replaces the standard Power Claw's fingers with miniature Chain Weapons, making it especially devastating against infantry.

Like most Contemptor Dreadnought Close Combat Weapons the Contemptor Chain Fist is also armed with a Combi-Bolter slotted within its palm. The weapon could also be outfitted with a twin-linked Bolter during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy-era, or in the case of recently captured or reequipped Dreadnoughts a Storm Bolter.

The Khornate Assault Claw looks like a much more up-to-date and practical weapon than the Slaaneshi Dreadnought Pincer Claw.

===Brass Scorpion Pincer Claw===
[[File:Pincer_Claws.JPG|200px|right|thumb|Brass Scorpion Pincer Claw]]

The giant Pincer Claws found on the [[Brass Scorpion]].

Each of these claws are fully capable of tearing armored vehicles into pieces and wiping out entire infantry squads in one fell sweep. The creature's claws are protected on their outer sides by large Warp-forged alloy shields.

When the beast places its claws in front of itself, these shields are able to protect its entire body from harm. The Claws also feature three large in-built Chain Weapons, allowing them to cause even more damage during combat. There also exist variants of the Brass Scorpion outfitted with massive spinning blades instead of pincers.

===Great Cleaver of Khorne===
[[File:Great_Cleaver_of_Khorne.JPG|200px|right|thumb|Great Cleaver of Khorne]]

Axe of Khorne on acid or a Chain Axe that has overfed on growth hormones.

A Great Cleaver of Khorne is a Daemon Weapon in the form of a massive Chainaxe that is wielded by the [[Lord of Skulls]] and [[Kytan]] Daemon Engine. Like the Lord of Skulls that wields it, the Great Cleaver of Khorne is festooned with the remains of its victims, their skulls forever trapped within. The weapon is large enough that the Lord of Skulls can make use of it as easily as if it was a normal-sized melee weapon, and is capable of tearing apart tanks as if they were human heads. The Great Cleaver is fully capable of cutting entire vehicles into pieces and taking out entire groups of infantry. It is a weapon forged from murder and rage -- and it delivers the very same to its victims.

When activated, the Great Cleaver will erupt with eldritch power, the teeth rotating so fast as to become a blurred edge.

This is [[RIP AND TEAR]] INCARNATE!

==Eldar Variants==

===Scorpion Chainsword===
[[image:Eldar_Scorpion_Chainsword.png|right|200px|thumb|Scorpion Chainsword]]
An Eldar variant of the Chainsword fielded by the Striking Scorpions. It's like the Imperial Chainsword but incorporates advanced equipment that increases the wielder's strength and incorporates a sleeker, less bulky design.

There's been fluff that suggests they are actually a lot more advanced than Imperial chainswords, consisting of a heavily serrated 41st millennium mono-molecular blade which doesn't whirl around most of the time. Rather, upon hitting an opponent, and the blade gets stuck in their body/armor, THAT's when it goes all chainsaw, ripping armor and people apart and ensuring that the blade doesn't ever get stuck in someone; it'll either go through them or at least rip whatever it's stuck in enough to be pulled out, while also being a lot quieter since the motor's not constantly humming.

<gallery>
image:ScorpionSwordZoomed.png
</gallery>

===Chainsabre===
[[File:Dragon's_Tooth_Chainsaber.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Chainsabre, ''Dragon's Tooth'']]
One of the Scorpion Exarch's unique variation of the Scorpion Chainsword. Chainsabres are unique weaponry used by Striking Scorpion Exarchs. These Chainswords are paired with ancient gauntlets which incorporate twin-linked [[Shuriken Catapult|Shuriken Pistols.]] Exarchs who use these weapons train to wield two of them at once, allowing them to level an unrelenting storm of attacks upon their opponent.

On the tabletop 8th edition, the Chainsabres are two one-handed chain weapons that can [[Fist_of_the_North_Star|land a truly staggering amount of blows on a target]]. In melee they function the exact same as the Scorpion Chainsword, though these will grant another melee attack and have the Shuriken Pistol profile for your ranged attacks. Considered the most versatile of the bunch.

<gallery>
Image:Striking_scorpions_exarchs_1_5.jpg|Chainsabre with Shuriken Pistol attatchment
</gallery>

===Biting Blade===
[[File:Biting_Blade.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Biting Blade]]
One of the Scorpion Exarch's unique variation of the Scorpion Chainsword. Essentially the Eldar copy of the Eviscerator. Biting Blades are large, two-handed, long-bladed Chainswords reminiscent of the massive Eviscerators used by zealots within the Imperium. However, where Imperial Eviscerators are heavy, noisy machines, Biting Blades are slender and quiet, but no less deadly for their relatively light weight. The advanced monomolecular-edged teeth of the blade tear through flesh as though it were parchment and equally shred bone and armor, easily cleaving a man-size target in two.

On the tabletop, the Biting Blade is a massive two-handed weapon whose effectiveness increases as a target is hit. Basically it is a two handed Chainsword that bumps up to S+2 (S5) AP-1 and 2 D compared to the run of the mill Scorpion Chainsword. The least expensive of the Exarch's selections, but it also costs him both his pistol and Scorpion Chainsword to use.

==Ork Variants==

===Chain Choppa===
[[image:Chainchoppa.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Chain Choppa]]
The Chain Choppa is the Ork version of the chainsword. The weapon is a handheld chainsaw (though it sometimes takes the form of a sword or axe) used for almost anything. Really, you name it. In a pinch it can stand in for anything ranging from a weapon to a household tool.

Regular garden variety [[Ork_Boy|Ork Boyz]] rarely have these weapons, while richer Orks like the [[Warboss]] or a [[Nob]] might have it because it's killy and flash. Many are simply war trophies picked up from loyalist and traitor Space Marines.

<gallery>
image:ChainChoppaZoomed.png
</gallery>

{{Clear}}

===Big Chain Choppa===
[[File:OrkChainAxe.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Big Chain Choppa]]
The Chain Hammer of the Ork Horde.

Sometimes simply called the Ork Chainaxe. It is basically a Big Choppa with a motor system attached to it. Like the smaller Chain Choppa, certain Orks prefer this over the average Big Choppa due to the amount or carnage it can spew out.

The sheer size and relative complexity in making one means that only the biggest, strongest and wealthiest Orks could purchase one, like Nobs, Meganobs, Warbosses and Warlords. Like most Ork weapons, there are no standardization for the Big Chain Choppa.
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===Crusha===
[[File:OrkCrusha.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Crusha]]

''[[Derp|Not to be confused with the similarly named]] [[Miscellaneous Klose Kombat Weapons#Krusha|Krusha]]''

The Ork's Dreadnought Chainfist.

An oversized set of mechanical Chain Klaws which may or may not be the unholy lovechild of a Dread Klaw and a Chain Choppa.

The Crushas are basically the little brother of the Klaw of Gork/Mork and are meant to rip apart armored opponents with its pneumatic strength and powered piercing pincers. Whether they are actually Power Weapons is not known. What is known is that they feature a built-in Chain Weapon on the Klaws which can enable the Deff Dread to both capture and rip apart enemies at the same time.

Despite this, they are grouped all under the Killa Kan/Deff Dread Close Combat Weapons and thus, all share the same profile of a Dread Klaw/Kan Klaw (Depending on the walker using them). [[Derp|Which means that this non-Power Weapons share the same function as an ''actual'' Power Weapon.]] Although at the very least, the Crusha could at least be hand waved to function like the Chainfist.

===Mega-Choppa===
[[File:Mega-Choppa.PNG|200px|right|thumb|Mega-Choppa]]
The Orks saw the Imperium's Titan-sized Chainfists and proceeded to one-up them in both [[/d/|length, size and ''girth''.]]

A giant ECKSBAWKSHUEG Chainsword that are mounted only on biggest Ork walkers - from Stompas to Gargants and to see one in action is to witness a truly apocalyptic scene. These Mega-Choppas are designed to grind and rip apart enemy Titans with several swoops.

On tabletop, the Mega-Choppa is a Stompa's go-to carving weapon. It comes with 2 attack profiles. The first one is '''Smash''' which double's a Stompa's strength. Has a -5 AP. Causes 6 wounds per hit. Double S is inconsequential as there is nothing with T10. 6 wounds guaranteed are nice if you need exactly that, but more attacks are usually better. So you might want to use it for -5AP mostly.

The second attack profile is '''Slash''' which is only user-Strength, with a somehow lower AP than a Power Klaw (-2 as opposed to a klaw's -3), does D3 wounds per hit instead of the Smash's 6, BUT it lets you make 3 hit rolls for each Attack.
{{clear}}

== Notable Chainweapons ==

[[File:Torchlight chainswords by LaithArkham.jpg|left|thumb|300px|The mêlée weaponry of the 41st millennium offer a variety of implements for violently lacerating the opposition]]

'''Storm's Teeth''' - Take [[Berserk|Gut's]] DragonSlayer, turn it into a Chainsword, and then make it Bigger so only a [[Primarch]] can use it. Thats Storm's Teeth. Used by [[Rogal Dorn]] himself, it was said to be Dorn's favored weapon and is what he used against <s>[[Alpharius]]</s> some random Legionary. He also broke it when he found the Emperor barely alive after his duel with Horus, but that's fine since its remains would be used to create the sword used by the Black Templars High Marshal.

'''Frostfang''' - An ancient chainsword used by [[Ragnar Blackmane]]. The techniques used to make it were kept a secret by Fergus Forgrim to his deathbed so no one knows how it was made, because it's not like that could have been important or helpful later, right?

'''Gorefather and Gorechild''' - <s>THE BEST WEAPONS IN THE WHOLE OF 40K</s> {{BLAM}} {{BLAM}} {{BLAM|''DOUBLE HERESY!''}}Two chainaxes used by [[Angron]] during the [[Great Crusade]] and [[Horus Heresy]]. The teeth of these weapons came from a [[Awesome|MOTHERFUCKING MICA-DRAGON]], and are lubricated by [[Khorne|BLOOD]] (these weapons are so metal, they bring envy to the [[Iron Hands]] and [[Iron Warriors]]). Gorechild is currently being used by that [[Kharn|Swell guy]], and Gorefather <s>is nowhere to be seen, but it might show up again</s> was sadly destroyed on Armatura during the Great Crusade.

'''Teeth of Terra''' - Origin unknown, and with a tendency to show up in possession of many different chapters and disappear just as quickly, the Teeth of Terra is an ancient chainsword with obsidian teeth. It strikes hard and deep and allows the bearer to swing in huge, sweeping arcs.

'''Blood Reaver''' - An Eviscerator wielded by [[Gabriel Seth]]. Because nothing says [[rip and tear]] like a fuckheug chainsword, and the Flesh Tearers are masters of that particular craft.

{{clear}}

==Gallery==
<gallery>
DornStorm'sTeeth.png|<center>''Storm's Teeth''</center>
BlackmaneFrostfang.png|<center>''Frostfang''</center>
AngronGoreFatherChild.png|<center>''Gorefather & Gorechild''</center>
GoreChild.jpg|<center>''Gorechild'' (Present)</center>
GabrielSethBloodReaver.png|<center>''Blood Reaver''</center>
</gallery>

==Video Links==
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gj8pAN7Y7E DIY Chainsword, Blood Angel variant]

{{Template:40k-Imperial-Weapons}}
{{40k-GenestealerCults-Weapons}}
{{40k-Chaos-Weapons}}
{{40k-Eldar-Weapons}}
{{40k-Ork-Weapons}}
[[Category:Warhammer 40,000]][[Category:Imperial]][[Category:Chaos]][[Category:Eldar]][[Category:Orks]]

Spyrer

2019-09-26T12:27:37Z

2600:1006:B105:8611:58CC:338D:D9D2:B1D4: /* Orrus */

'''Spyrers''' (or '''Spyre Hunters''') are a subsect of high nobility from some [[hive world]]s in the [[Imperium]], especially in [[Necromunda]], which is also the game where the term comes from.

==Overview==
Within the industrial underhives of a hive city, the poor people are forming gangs to fight for the scraps of the scarce resources. Sometimes the rich people, the upper nobility, send "gangs" for a different purpose. Spyrer groups are hardly more than the kids of the noble houses, sent to the Underhive to undertake a vow that has been impressed upon them by a sponsor '''Patriarch''' or '''Matriarch''', either to survive on their own or to get a designated number of kills. They are sent down and will come back with their task done or not at all. [[grimdark|Or they just felt like working off some stress.]]

In other words, they're either the [[Grimdark]] version of the bored rich kid who's out to callously cause mischief no matter who it hurts; or they're on a [[Grimdark]] rite of passage by surviving or killing people in the dangerous, rundown Underhive, which is infested by gangs, mutants, monsters, and sometimes other weird shit.

In the Imperium, where everything is fucked up, and especially in Necromunda, where things are ''really'' fucked up, this makes a certain amount of sense. If they come back having survived, and even killed a few people, this proves that the youth in question is resourceful and ruthless enough to do well in Hive politics. On most other Imperial worlds, most of these kids would end up debauchees and wannabe socialites, maybe inheriting a part of their family's interests or saddled into a political marriage, or they might buy a commissioned rank in the Imperial Guard or Navy. Some of them might even be good at what they do. But in Necromunda, you're going to be good or you won't live to see adulthood. ''Hardcore.''

As a last note, sometimes Spyrers actually like going on a hunting trip in the wilderness of the Underhive, so they'll end up coming back as a hobby, or sponsor other gangs as a Matriarch or Patriarch. Also, we know about the logical gap of the survival rate of weeding out the weak in your kids. Necromunda nobles must either have ''lots'' of kids, or toughen them up with a steady diet of diesel fuel and broken glass.

==Equipment==
Even though becoming a Spyrer is supposed to be a genuine test of ability and the will to survive, rich kids ''still'' get all the nice stuff. Each Spyrer is given a unique '''Hunting Rig''' which is a ''serious'' piece of hardware that outstrips most of the stuff in most Imperial institutions, unless you're a mid-to-high ranking [[Adeptus Mechanicus|robot]], a [[Space Marine|biologically enhanced killing machine]], a [[Inquisition|state sanctioned asshole]], or a [[Officio Assassinorum|state sanctioned asshole with a hit list]]. Hunting Rigs act as a suit of armour with built-in weaponry and cybernetic enhancements.

It is self-sustaining, providing sustenance to the wearer so that they are not burdened by the requirement of food. It is also self-repairing, so that they do not require regular maintenance. (Meaning that survival challenge can by done by finding a nice little hidey hole and holing up for a few days. Way to go, guys.) However the most important feature of the hunting rig is their power boosting system. As the wearer fights and gains experience in combat, the hunting rig will adapt and evolve to suit the wearer by increasing power to certain systems, (essentially [[Level|Leveling up]]) unlocking previously unavailable abilities and new potential as the hunt continues.

These suits are locked onto implants connected to the wearers central nervous system ensuring a seamlessly perfect fit, though make it practically impossible for someone else to wear the suit and even then they would have to have exactly the same body size and shape, so they are essentially useless as loot items or salvage.

[[Dark Heresy]] presents pieces of wargear built by the [[Jokaero]] for nobles in the Calixis sector, which are essentially the same as the ones found on Necromunda, these suits are scary as hell. Boosting the wearer's WS, Strength, Agility and Perception as well as granting a butt-ton of additional talents, turning the wearer into a 40k [[Ninja]]. However, the actual armour protection of the suit itself amounts to very little, so the user must rely on their enhanced reflexes to avoid injury or on some suits alternative defensive capabilities such as force fields or shields.

An alternate theory is that the hunting rigs are the creation of [[Tau]] battlesuit engineering. This is strongly supported in the Tau 3rd edition codex, which defines several words that phonetically identical to the rig designations while being thematically accurate to the suit's functions:
* Orrus = Or'es (powerful)
* Jakara = J'karra (mirror)
* Malcadon = Mal'caor (spider)
* Yeld = Y'eldi (winged one)

Of course, considering the rigs are clearly much more advanced (such as freaking evolving), it is likely the nobles once upon a time illegally purchased Tau suits and hired hereteks to combine the knowledge gleaned with power armor to make something special and the names of the rig designations are due wanting to cover up the origins while also giving an arrogant finger to the law in plain sight. Or the rigs were inspired by Eldar Aspects and the ignorant nobles used Tau words due to being stupid.

==Hunting Rig Classifications==
Although each Hunting Rig is unique, they are designed to incorporate ritualised combinations of weaponry, so that groupings of hunting styles can be identified. But as the suits adapt to suit the wearer, even two suits that were similarly designed may be completely different by the end of the hunt.

===Orrus===
The Orrus is the most brutal of the Spyre aspects. Specialising in brute force, they are characterised by oversized, piston-powered arms containing [[Bolter|Bolt Launchers]] built into the fists. They are also protected from shooting attacks by a force field. Orrus rigs typically evolve by increasing the caliber and firing rate of the Bolt Launchers or by increasing the effectiveness of their force field. Both of these scientifically unsound aspects sound suspiciously like the transforming abilities of [[Necrons|Necrodermis]]...or something [[Chaos|else]]. Of course, that’s true for all the rigs.

At its most basic, this suit increases the wearers WS, S & A by +1, provides a 4+ armour save and a 6+ invulnerable save.

The Bolt Launchers are functionally identical to ''Twin Linked'' boltguns, albeit with an 18" range.

===Jakara===
Jakara are the lightest but most agile of the Spyre hunters, specialising in speed and mobility. They are equipped with a Sword with a Monomolecular edge and a unique Mirror Shield which can absorb energy-based attacks and fire it back at their enemies. Jakara rigs evolve by increasing the mobility and speed of the wearer, of their sword. They also adapt by expanding the types of energy absorbed by their shield.

===Malcadon===
The most subtle and cunning of the Spyre groups. They are armed like spiders, with Web Spinnerets designed to immobilise the enemy so they can be torn apart by their vicious claws. They are also equipped with climbing hooks and hydraulic pistons to allow the wearer to reach perfect ambush points. The Spinneret weapons can also be used to generate strands of web to aid in climbing. These suits evolve by synthesising neurotoxins for application to their claws, or by increasing the range and area of their Spinnaret weapons.

===Yeld===
Are the most peculiar Spyrers, being equipped with Chameleonic armour and razor-edged wings. They are armed with multiple [[Lasgun|laser]] tubes built into their gauntlets. Though their wings do allow them to fly, they make for better gliders. Their wings also incorporate the chameleonic technology which makes them difficult to track. Yeld can evolve by increasing the chameleonic response and the sharpness of their wing-blades, as well as by increasing the focus and fire-rate of their laser gauntlets.

A starting Yeld gains +1 to BS ''(and movement, but this has no bearing in "modern" rulesets)'' as well as a 5+ armour save.

Their laser gauntlets start out identical to a pair of laspistols, but with a 20" range. ''(the original rules have them as identical to short ranged lasguns, but held as pistols; laspistols had considerably different accuracies)''.

Their wings give them the "Jet Infantry" type as well as inflicting a -1 on to-hit rolls when weapons fire at them from over half range.

===Patriarch===
This armour offers the best protection of all the Spyrer armours, and it is only worn by those who have already proven themselves and cannot evolve further. It is equipped with four Mechadendrite arms; two wielding [[Power Fist|power claw]]s and two with pulse [[Lasgun|laser]]s that can track and target multiple opponents simultaneously due to the advanced sensor arrays built into the rig.

===Matriarch===
Designed for quietly stalking opponents from the shadows and slaying them up close, equipped with a camo-cloak to hide their position and mask their movements so that they cannot be tracked either at range or in melee. They expertly dual-wield a large [[chainsword|chainscythe]] and a monomolecular blade. Their armour offers the highest levels of speed and mobility and cannot evolve any further.

[[Category:Necromunda]]
[[category:Skirmish-Level Wargames]]
[[category:Wargames]]
[[category:Warhammer 40,000]]

Spyrer

2019-09-26T12:24:59Z

2600:1006:B105:8611:58CC:338D:D9D2:B1D4: /* Equipment */

'''Spyrers''' (or '''Spyre Hunters''') are a subsect of high nobility from some [[hive world]]s in the [[Imperium]], especially in [[Necromunda]], which is also the game where the term comes from.

==Overview==
Within the industrial underhives of a hive city, the poor people are forming gangs to fight for the scraps of the scarce resources. Sometimes the rich people, the upper nobility, send "gangs" for a different purpose. Spyrer groups are hardly more than the kids of the noble houses, sent to the Underhive to undertake a vow that has been impressed upon them by a sponsor '''Patriarch''' or '''Matriarch''', either to survive on their own or to get a designated number of kills. They are sent down and will come back with their task done or not at all. [[grimdark|Or they just felt like working off some stress.]]

In other words, they're either the [[Grimdark]] version of the bored rich kid who's out to callously cause mischief no matter who it hurts; or they're on a [[Grimdark]] rite of passage by surviving or killing people in the dangerous, rundown Underhive, which is infested by gangs, mutants, monsters, and sometimes other weird shit.

In the Imperium, where everything is fucked up, and especially in Necromunda, where things are ''really'' fucked up, this makes a certain amount of sense. If they come back having survived, and even killed a few people, this proves that the youth in question is resourceful and ruthless enough to do well in Hive politics. On most other Imperial worlds, most of these kids would end up debauchees and wannabe socialites, maybe inheriting a part of their family's interests or saddled into a political marriage, or they might buy a commissioned rank in the Imperial Guard or Navy. Some of them might even be good at what they do. But in Necromunda, you're going to be good or you won't live to see adulthood. ''Hardcore.''

As a last note, sometimes Spyrers actually like going on a hunting trip in the wilderness of the Underhive, so they'll end up coming back as a hobby, or sponsor other gangs as a Matriarch or Patriarch. Also, we know about the logical gap of the survival rate of weeding out the weak in your kids. Necromunda nobles must either have ''lots'' of kids, or toughen them up with a steady diet of diesel fuel and broken glass.

==Equipment==
Even though becoming a Spyrer is supposed to be a genuine test of ability and the will to survive, rich kids ''still'' get all the nice stuff. Each Spyrer is given a unique '''Hunting Rig''' which is a ''serious'' piece of hardware that outstrips most of the stuff in most Imperial institutions, unless you're a mid-to-high ranking [[Adeptus Mechanicus|robot]], a [[Space Marine|biologically enhanced killing machine]], a [[Inquisition|state sanctioned asshole]], or a [[Officio Assassinorum|state sanctioned asshole with a hit list]]. Hunting Rigs act as a suit of armour with built-in weaponry and cybernetic enhancements.

It is self-sustaining, providing sustenance to the wearer so that they are not burdened by the requirement of food. It is also self-repairing, so that they do not require regular maintenance. (Meaning that survival challenge can by done by finding a nice little hidey hole and holing up for a few days. Way to go, guys.) However the most important feature of the hunting rig is their power boosting system. As the wearer fights and gains experience in combat, the hunting rig will adapt and evolve to suit the wearer by increasing power to certain systems, (essentially [[Level|Leveling up]]) unlocking previously unavailable abilities and new potential as the hunt continues.

These suits are locked onto implants connected to the wearers central nervous system ensuring a seamlessly perfect fit, though make it practically impossible for someone else to wear the suit and even then they would have to have exactly the same body size and shape, so they are essentially useless as loot items or salvage.

[[Dark Heresy]] presents pieces of wargear built by the [[Jokaero]] for nobles in the Calixis sector, which are essentially the same as the ones found on Necromunda, these suits are scary as hell. Boosting the wearer's WS, Strength, Agility and Perception as well as granting a butt-ton of additional talents, turning the wearer into a 40k [[Ninja]]. However, the actual armour protection of the suit itself amounts to very little, so the user must rely on their enhanced reflexes to avoid injury or on some suits alternative defensive capabilities such as force fields or shields.

An alternate theory is that the hunting rigs are the creation of [[Tau]] battlesuit engineering. This is strongly supported in the Tau 3rd edition codex, which defines several words that phonetically identical to the rig designations while being thematically accurate to the suit's functions:
* Orrus = Or'es (powerful)
* Jakara = J'karra (mirror)
* Malcadon = Mal'caor (spider)
* Yeld = Y'eldi (winged one)

Of course, considering the rigs are clearly much more advanced (such as freaking evolving), it is likely the nobles once upon a time illegally purchased Tau suits and hired hereteks to combine the knowledge gleaned with power armor to make something special and the names of the rig designations are due wanting to cover up the origins while also giving an arrogant finger to the law in plain sight. Or the rigs were inspired by Eldar Aspects and the ignorant nobles used Tau words due to being stupid.

==Hunting Rig Classifications==
Although each Hunting Rig is unique, they are designed to incorporate ritualised combinations of weaponry, so that groupings of hunting styles can be identified. But as the suits adapt to suit the wearer, even two suits that were similarly designed may be completely different by the end of the hunt.

===Orrus===
The Orrus is the most brutal of the Spyre aspects. Specialising in brute force, they are characterised by oversized, piston-powered arms containing [[Bolter|Bolt Launchers]] built into the fists. They are also protected from shooting attacks by a force field. Orrus rigs typically evolve by increasing the caliber and firing rate of the Bolt Launchers or by increasing the effectiveness of their force field.

At its most basic, this suit increases the wearers WS, S & A by +1, provides a 4+ armour save and a 6+ invulnerable save.

The Bolt Launchers are functionally identical to ''Twin Linked'' boltguns, albeit with an 18" range.

===Jakara===
Jakara are the lightest but most agile of the Spyre hunters, specialising in speed and mobility. They are equipped with a Sword with a Monomolecular edge and a unique Mirror Shield which can absorb energy-based attacks and fire it back at their enemies. Jakara rigs evolve by increasing the mobility and speed of the wearer, of their sword. They also adapt by expanding the types of energy absorbed by their shield.

===Malcadon===
The most subtle and cunning of the Spyre groups. They are armed like spiders, with Web Spinnerets designed to immobilise the enemy so they can be torn apart by their vicious claws. They are also equipped with climbing hooks and hydraulic pistons to allow the wearer to reach perfect ambush points. The Spinneret weapons can also be used to generate strands of web to aid in climbing. These suits evolve by synthesising neurotoxins for application to their claws, or by increasing the range and area of their Spinnaret weapons.

===Yeld===
Are the most peculiar Spyrers, being equipped with Chameleonic armour and razor-edged wings. They are armed with multiple [[Lasgun|laser]] tubes built into their gauntlets. Though their wings do allow them to fly, they make for better gliders. Their wings also incorporate the chameleonic technology which makes them difficult to track. Yeld can evolve by increasing the chameleonic response and the sharpness of their wing-blades, as well as by increasing the focus and fire-rate of their laser gauntlets.

A starting Yeld gains +1 to BS ''(and movement, but this has no bearing in "modern" rulesets)'' as well as a 5+ armour save.

Their laser gauntlets start out identical to a pair of laspistols, but with a 20" range. ''(the original rules have them as identical to short ranged lasguns, but held as pistols; laspistols had considerably different accuracies)''.

Their wings give them the "Jet Infantry" type as well as inflicting a -1 on to-hit rolls when weapons fire at them from over half range.

===Patriarch===
This armour offers the best protection of all the Spyrer armours, and it is only worn by those who have already proven themselves and cannot evolve further. It is equipped with four Mechadendrite arms; two wielding [[Power Fist|power claw]]s and two with pulse [[Lasgun|laser]]s that can track and target multiple opponents simultaneously due to the advanced sensor arrays built into the rig.

===Matriarch===
Designed for quietly stalking opponents from the shadows and slaying them up close, equipped with a camo-cloak to hide their position and mask their movements so that they cannot be tracked either at range or in melee. They expertly dual-wield a large [[chainsword|chainscythe]] and a monomolecular blade. Their armour offers the highest levels of speed and mobility and cannot evolve any further.

[[Category:Necromunda]]
[[category:Skirmish-Level Wargames]]
[[category:Wargames]]
[[category:Warhammer 40,000]]

War of Beasts

2019-09-25T20:44:06Z

2600:1006:B105:8611:58CC:338D:D9D2:B1D4: /* Like Primarch, Like Chapter Master */

''Not to be confused with the [[War of the Beast]] that took place in M32''

[[File:Vigilus_Defiant.jpeg|320px|thumb|right|From backwater to Armageddon 2.0]]

The '''War of Beasts''' (aka Armageddon on steroids, later the '''War of Nightmares''') is the term used to label the ongoing conflict between the forces of the [[Imperium|Imperium of Mankind]] and the various [[Xenos]] and [[Chaos]] forces trying to wrest its control of the strategic planet of [[Vigilus]]. The loss of Vigilus would mean the loss of a vital staging area for the Imperium for any kind of crusade into the Dark Imperium, and as such it is important for it to stay in Imperial hands.

== '''The Opening Phases''' ==
===The Speed Freekz Cometh===

The first major threat to hit the planet in the wake of the Great Rift opening was a massive [[WAAAGH|Waaagh!]] of [[Orks]]. Bursting from the Rift seemingly at random, and led by powerful [[Speed_Freek|Speed Freeks]], the Ork fleet easily broke through the naval cordon and landed its boyz in the deserts between the great hives.

While most of the fleet crashed and burned, the Orks soon used remains of the downed fleet to create ramshackle scrap-cities, and from there '''Speedboss Krooldakka''' roared out at the head of a massive force of bikes, trukks, and battlewagons. Still reeling from the birth of the Rift, the Imperial forces gathered could do nothing to stop it.

At first, the Orks met little success, as the force fields were too strong. Growing bored, they resorted to raiding caravans or battling and racing each other in the massive deserts outside of the hives. This state of affairs didn't last however; the Great Rift continued to grow, and with its expansion Warp Storms washed over Vigilus.

The bastion fields soon flickered, then failed outright, which was what the Orks were waiting for. The green tide rushed to each Hive, and despite the best efforts of the [[Imperial Guard]], the [[Skitarii]] of the Adeptus Mechanicus, and the [[Sisters of Battle]], it was all they could do to avoid being overwhelmed.

===They Came From Underneath===

Despite the threat of the Orks, there were threats to the defense of Vigilus much closer to home. Centuries before, a [[Genestealer Cult]] derived from the '''Pauper Princes''' had managed to get a single Purestrain Genestealer onto the world. The Genestealer grew into the [[Genestealer Patriarch]] called the '''Grandsire Wurm''', and its cult refused to let its years of preparation go to waste due to the unexpected greenskin arrivals. Uprisings that were supposed to be triggered decades down the road were forced to do so prematurely, and soon every Hivesprawl was in chaos due to the simultaneous insurrections. Imperial defenders fell to synchronized ambushes across the planet, as the Cult consolidated its hold on the Hives.

The response to the Genestealer Cult-led revolt was slow, as the Imperial Government initially thought it was the work of criminals and malcontents, and instead focused on shoring up its defenses. These uprisings, plus the constant ork raids, essentially forced the industry on the planet to grind to a halt. Things were, to put it mildly, looking grim.

===Tooth and Claw===

[[File:Vigilus_tooth_and_claw.jpg|320px|thumb|right|Bugs vs. Furries.]]

It was at this point that a task force of [[Space Marines]] made of elements from the [[Iron Hands]] and the [[Brazen Claws]], decided to throw their hats into the proceedings. On the way to the Stygies Front, they made a detour to Vigilus once contacted by their Mechanicus allies. Led by [[Kardan Stronos]], the Astartes made a massed [[Steel Rain|drop pod assault]] on the outskirts of each major Hivesprawl, before converging toward Megaborealis. Expecting to find Orks, they found cultists and [[Genestealers]] instead. Battles with these cultists would keep the sons of [[Ferrus Manus]] busy for many months.

Later on, a second task force of Astartes, this time [[Space Wolves]] from the Great Company of [[Ragnar Blackmane]] arrived to do battle with the xenos occupying the Oteck Hivesprawl. There was little coordination between the Wolves and the Iron Hands, and hilariously ''none'' of these Chapters saw fit to inform the Vigilus ruling council of what the heck was going on in their cities.

===The Megaborealis Throwdown===

A Mechanicus stronghold, Megaborealis was thought unassailable by '''Ipluvius XIV''', the [[Tech_Priest_Dominus|Magus Dominus]] in command of the Skitarii forces there, enough that he let himself get distracted by his studies. However, a squad of Ork [[Ork_Kommando|Kommandos]] begged to disagree, and brought down the hive's forcefield. The massive speed freekz attack that followed, coupled with a [[Just As Planned|simultaneous attack by genestealer cultists]], caused the magos' cogitators to freeze up due to the stress, leaving the defenders without coordination. It was bad enough that the cultists were able to steal [[Warp_Weapons#Imperial_Variants|Vortex Missiles]] and detonate it in the middle of the Hivesprawl, destroying countless Imperial war assets (including the [[Warlord Titan]] '''Dominus Rex''').

In a decisive move, Archmagos '''Nesium Caldrike''' took control of the remaining defenders, and coordinating with elements of the [[Iron Hands]] Clan Kaargul put a stop to the Genestealer shenanigans, for now at least.

While all of '''this''' was happening, the [[Imperial Guard]] was making a large-scale counterattack, with the aim of reinforcing Megaborealis. The armored convoys of [[Leman_Russ_Battle_Tank|Leman Russes]] and [[Chimera#In_Warhammer_40000|Chimeras]] took a heavy toll on the greenskins, but all this just seemed to draw more and more mobs of speed freekz to the convoys.

===Chaos Crashes The Party (Literally)===

At Hivesprawl Dontoria, already under pressure from mysterious attackers (who turned out to be [[Dark Eldar]] opportunists), an unknown spacecraft decided to crash into the hive's center, despite the best efforts from the anti-air emplacements surrounding it. From its ruined depths came the mutants of the '''Gellerpox Infected''', but the worse was to come, as in their wake came the Heretic Astartes of the '''[[Death Guard]]'''.

While the [[Tempestus Scions]] there were able to repel the Infected's assault, the sons of [[Mortarion]] soon overwhelmed the defenses. In desperation the Hive's lower levels were firebombed in a two-mile radius, but this was not enough to contain Nurgle's followers, and soon the Gellerpox spread through Dontoria. Despite the warnings of Rogue Trader '''Delarique du Languille''', the Aquilarian Council was slow to react to the threat. Acting on a warning from her psyker servant that the Gellerpox would threaten Terra if left unchecked, she took matters into her own hands. The Rogue Trader was able to halt shipping offworld and intercept and destroy what was thought to be the only Gellerpox-infected vessel departing Vigilus- but it was later found that two other infected ships had escaped and were now headed directly to [[Terra]].

===Here Come Guilliman's Boys===

After receiving a vision from [[Varro_Tigurius|Tigurius]], as well as a message from [[Roboute Guilliman]] to not allow Vigilus to fall, [[Chapter Master]] '''[[Marneus Calgar]]''' rushed as many of the [[Ultramarines]] that he could spare to the planet's defense. The going was difficult, and even with Tigurius' guidance many [[Librarian#Ranks|Epistolaries]] die to get the Chapter to the world on time.

Once there, he swiftly had those in the Aquilarian Council he determined to be Genestealer Cult infiltrators executed, and had the Vigilus Senate set up in its place.

===Wolf Bites Bug===

[[File:Tooth_And_Claw_Oteck_Rumble_2.jpg|320px|thumb|right|Rumble in the Hive Sumps, take 2!]]

The [[Space Wolves]] of course, were not idle. At Oteck Hivesprawl they tried to reclaim the all-important water supply back from the cultists. Things turned nasty very quickly when the Wolves' artillery support in the Imperial Guard turned out to have been controlled by the Cultists, and a whole lot of Hive City was suddenly dropped on the Wolves' heads. Many died, but enough Battle Brothers remained to continue the hunt for the xenos. The cultists were finally cornered and annihilated, but in their wake they left the water supply mostly tainted.

'''Haldor Icepelt''', the commander of the Space Wolves there, ordered whatever explosives the cultists stockpiled found, and then used these to bury the polluted water source under tons of rubble, preventing its spread to other hives.

== '''The Conflict Escalates even MORE''' ==
===Wake the Dead===

[[File:Wake-the-Dead.jpg|320px|thumb|right|AKA, I got Angry so I'll do Chaos' work for it!]]

It was at this point that one '''[[Farseer]] Keltoc''' from [[Craftworld]] [[Saim-Hann]] had a vision suggesting that it was important for its forces to intervene in the conflict, as ''something'' there would influence the future of the [[Eldar]] race. Apparently a home-grown [[Tzeentch|Tzeentchian]] cult led by one Vannadan planned to trigger a magma explosion that would eventually wipe out the leaders of Vigilus' defense, which would lead to the loss of the planet to Chaos, so they can't have that now, can they? Amazingly, one of the times the Eldar had genuinely good intentions (for themselves like usual, but in a way that honestly benefits someone else).

Using an underground [[Webway]] gate to avoid their dark kin, the Saim-Hann task force, led by [[Autarch]] '''Rhyloor''' and [[Spiritseer]] '''Quelanaris''', swiftly isolated the Chaos cultists and slaughtered them to a man. Word of their arrival spread to the [[Imperial Guard]] stormtroopers stationed nearby however, and the Imperials rushed to the location, fully convinced that these were the same Eldar who had been gleefully raiding the Hivesprawls during the past few months (and the Imperium does not distinguish between types of Eldar because all xenos are equally deserving of annihilation, but mostly because the only noteworthy difference between Eldar types beyond aesthetics is that Dark Eldar usually take prisoners)).

Quelanaris and Rhyloor tried desperately to explain to the arriving Stormtroopers that, no, they looked nothing like the [[Dark Eldar]] dicks who ''were'' the cause of all the trouble and that they had just eliminated a major threat to the planet (keep in mind the Imperials had no idea that the humans they had just killed were Chaos Cultists or indeed even knew there was a Chaos cult in the planet). The Tempestor Prime in charge, however, did not know or care about the difference between the Craftworlders and Dark Eldar let alone believe their story, and so the Imperials opened fire. This is what happens when you spend ten thousand years lying through your teeth, ruining operations that doom billions of innocents, and generally work very hard to earn everyone’s mistrust and undying hatred. Like usual, their asstard nature bit the spelves in the ass.

Many Eldar were cut down, including Rhyloor, but Quelanaris managed to escape with his fallen comrades' spirit stones. Vowing vengeance for an incident of his own people’s making and for his own invasion of an Imperial World shockingly getting his warriors shot to pieces (because Imperials are famous for loving it when xenos pop up on their worlds without permission), he had the spirit stones installed into waiting Wraith Constructs and led a second strike Force back to Vigilus to avenge the Autarch (y’know, by trying to kill the people whose deaths would doom his Craftworld, the usual Elfdar stupidity).

Some time later, this strike force attempted a direct attack on the Imperial leadership council as revenge for their recent losses. Primaris Lieutenant '''Eothrus''' of the Ultramarines attempted to talk down the Spiritseer, having heard about Saim-Hann assisting the Space Wolves on Stygius from Haldor Ice-Pelt, but Quelanaris refused to listen to reason and ordered his forces to attack. Since killing that leadership (who by the way are ironically innocent of blame for what happened) is what he was sent to prevent in the first place because it would ultimately doom his Craftworld, it will be curious to know what Saim-Hann thinks of him trying to kill those people himself now...probably not gonna be too pleased. To be fair, he’s not going around murdering people and isn’t technically trying to harm the Imperial forces, he’s just trying to kill the people he believes are ultimately responsible for their distant subordinates’ actions...and too cowardly to face the Stormtroopers that curbstomped his forces earlier.

===The Carnival of Pain===

While the Imperial Guard wasted their time with the Craftworlders, the ''actual'' Dark Eldar continued their merry time harassing and generally making the residents of Hivesprawls Hyperia and Oteck ''wish'' for the swift release of death. Led primarily by the [[Haemonculi]] coven of '''The Altered''', [[Kabalite_Warriors|Kabalite]] troops joined with Wych cults and Haemonculi constructs in raids that were both spectacular and deadly. The Altered in particular had a specific beef with the [[Ultramarines]], as Guilliman had kicked their ass in during the [[Indomitus Crusade]], and took particular amusement in hauling entire ''squads'' of Ultramarines back to [[Commorragh]] for "entertainment". Although, taking entire squads of Astartes is honestly not believable. If they could do that then the Dark Eldar would be basically invincible. Which they’re very much not.

===Holding Back The Foul Tide===

Back in Dontoria Hive, the newly-arrived Primaris Chapter [[Necropolis Hawks]] fought to hold back the Gellerpox Infected, while the [[Crimson Fists]] and the [[Iron Hands]] worked to create a barrier with the assistance of du Languille to hold back the Chaos-spawned plague. Using the PDF's [[Hellhound#Warhammer_40.2C000|hellhound tanks]], the Fists set fire to the hive's promethium pipelines, creating a literal firewall around the infected zone.

===The Mortwald Defense===

With the destruction of the waterworks at Oteck Hivesprawl, water was getting harder to come by at Vigilus. Dontoria's own water source was also in danger of contamination, due to everyone forgetting that the [[Death Guard]] had already made landfall.

Mortwald, the source of most of the planet's food and medicine, was also under threat. Defending it were regiments of '''Ventrillian Nobles''', '''Vostroyan Firstborn''', and '''Cadian Shock Troopers''', all under the command of '''Deinos''', the [[Awesome|surprisingly-competent]] brother of the Imperial governor.

When the Greenskins came, the trench network Deinos had prepared showed its worth, and slowed down the advance of the Orks for Weeks. Within the walls of the Hivesprawl, the Guard proved themselves equally adept at putting down Genestealer Cult uprisings. Lord Deinos was adamant -- '''Mortwald will not fall''' -- and his mantra became the rallying cry of the defenders there. This stalwart defense was only improved by the arrival of the [[Imperial Fists]] 5th Company under '''Brother-Captain Dravatis Fane''', though his forces would be tested as Ork [[Stompa|Stompas]] emerged by the hundreds. Although his forces had to retreat to higher ground, Fane would counter-attack. With him were loyalists [[Imperial Knight|Knights]] from '''House Terryn''', as well as Freeblades formerly from the traitorous House Mandrakor.

In a charge that was the stuff of legends, the knights attacked the Stompa horde. Supported by the [[Reaver_Battle_Titan|Reaver Titan]] '''Heresium's Bane''', the Knights actually forced the Orks to break. Rather than running them down, the Imperials halted (notwithstanding the Freeblades who wanted to pursue them), as they insisted that the [[Noblebright|defending the people of Mortwald came first]]. This decision would soon bite them in the arse however, as a few days later the Orks attacked. While it was driven off easily enough, these attacks increased in strength week after work, until the Imperials were facing machines the size of ''reavers''.

Fane had enough. He ordered an expedition into the wastelands to find the factories churning these machines out, and put them out of commission. Permanently.

The Imperial forces found a large scrap city east of Mortwald and, under the cover of a dust storm, attacked. With [[Warhound_Scout_Titan|Warhounds]] as support, the Knights identified, then destroyed the major factories. With the mission completed, Fane ordered a withdrawal, but the Freeblades in their zeal to redeem themselves ignored this, and [[RAGE|charged straight into the ''next'' scrap city]]. Much facepalming ensued, as while the Knights killed countless orks in their reckless attack, they soon found themselves surrounded.

Fane led an airborne rescue force alongside elements of the [[White Scars]] Brotherhood led by '''Olujin Khan''' and [[Dark Angels]] Ravenwing commanded by '''Meneraeus''' to aid the beleaguered Knights. The [[Stormtalon|Stormtalons]] of the White Scars destroyed the anti-air and artillery emplacements, and without these the [[Bike_Squad|Bike Squads]] of the two Chapters cut a path through the Orks.

Without warning, the Ravenwing [[Fallen|suddenly abandoned the attack, and thundered into the dusty wilderness of the Vhulian Swirl]]. The White Scars, now bereft of support, found themselves on the verge of being swamped by Greenskins, so Olujin was forced to call a fighting withdrawal. Odd as if sounds, this behavior is weird for most Unforgiven Chapters. They balance hunting Fallen with their duties to the Imperium. Besides, hunting is mostly a Deathwing thing. Abandoning a battle important to saving a hive city crucial to defending a planet critical to the Imperium is not something they would do. Risking the Imperium for their secret is not a line they would cross. Seems to be writer error for not knowing more than the surface basics of Dark Angel lore.

===Water War===

Back at Megaborealis the Mechanicus and Iron Hands was getting their Genestealer problem somewhat under control. The Sons of Manus would lead the attacks, then the Mechanicus would handle clean-up. Using xenos-detection tech, the Genestealer nests were found and destroyed, which forced the Pauper Princes to slink back into the shadows and resort to guerilla warfare to strike back.

The same could ''not'' be said of the Stygian Spires region, which controlled the asteroid water mining operations of Megaborealis. Led by the Grandsire Wurm itself, the Cultists overwhelmed the Skitarii defenders. Before long, the top levels of the water plant were taken over by the Patriarch and its kin.

=='''Bad Portents, Bad People'''==

Despite all of this, the general consensus of the population was that things had stabilized enough that the Imperium just ''might'' eke a win out of all this. This, despite Calgar being forced to have Dirkden's civilian population evacuated.

===Raptor Rampage===

[[File:Urban_Conquest_Vigilus.jpg|320px|thumb|right|From Bad, to the Worst]]

Then things really started to go tits up. Reports of disappearances and horrible monsters in the upper spires started to spread, with everyone trying to investigate vanishing without a trace. The Great Rift seemed to darken in the sky, and readings of the Emperor's Tarot all produced the same ominous reading.

By the time the [[Ordo Malleus]] had deciphered the mumbling of comatose Imperial Psykers as a warning about a "Dark King", the monsters had been identified as a scouting force of [[Black Legion]] [[Chaos Raptor|Raptors]], [[Heldrake]]s, and [[Warp Talons]].

Soon afterward, every vox network on the planet received a message from '''[[Haarken Worldclaimer]]''', the Chaos Raptor Lord leading the Black Legion forces and Herald of the Apocalypse: Vigilus now belonged to '''[[Abaddon]]''' and the Despoiler would soon arrive to oversee its conquest personally.

As the Vigilus Senate convened to discuss the alarming turn of events, they were [[Awesome|attacked by a]] [[Heldrake]] [[Awesome|that smashed through the Senate spire's ceiling.]] The Victrix Guard were able to prevent it from harming Calgar, but now they had to deal with the impending arrival of the Warmaster himself.

Meanwhile, [[Thousand Sons]] [[Rubric Marines]] were burning their way through Oteck Hivesprawl, a new Gellerpox outbreak in Mortwald led the nobles to hoard food and water for themselves and inadvertently inspire even ''more'' Chaos and Genestealer Cult uprisings, and the defenses of the planet were being stretched thinner and thinner. And the bulk of the Black Legion's forces hadn't even shown up yet.

Haarken had boasted that Vigilus would fall within 80 days of his arrival. Sure enough, after 80 days a massive number of Warp signatures was detected in the Nachmund Gauntlet.

The War of Nightmares had begun.

===Shadowspear At Nemendghast===

During all of this madness, at the outskirts of the Vigilus System a taskforce of Vanguard Primaris are covertly inserted into the planet '''Nemendghast''' after receiving a distress call from there. To their horror, they find that the world had already been taken over the Dark Powers, and its forges used to churn out Daemon Engines for the [[Black Legion]]. As it turns out, it had been trapped within the Great Rift for a time and Abaddon had taken the opportunity to capture it as a staging area for his planned invasion force.

Although heavily outnumbered by the [[Possessed|Daemonkin]] there, the task force, led by Ultramarines Librarian '''Maltis''', try to sabotage the forges ruled over by Master of Possession '''Vorash Soulflayer'''. It succeeded, but at great cost, with only Maltis escaping to bring word to Calgar of the Black Legion fleet's imminent arrival.

===Clash in the Void===
Having learned of the approaching fleet from Maltis, Calgar called for a double cordon to intercept the Chaos armada. In spite of a torpedo barrage meant to box in the fleet, the Imperials were pushed back after the Chaos forces began summoning daemons onto the Imperial ships. Even Calgar's own flagship ''Laurels of Victory'' was not spared, and he was wounded by the [[Keeper of Secrets]] that manifested onboard. Yeah, normal daemon incursions the Imperials can handle, greater daemons on ships not so much.

Following his return, Calgar had no choice but to abandon Dirkden Hivesprawl and Kaelac's Bane in favor of shoring up the defenses of Mortwald, Megaborealis, Oteck, and Dontoria.

===Vannadan's Legacy===
While Vannadan's plan had been thwarted by the Eldar intervention, the pyroclastic cults of Storvhal soon rallied around Haarken Worldclaimer. After defeating the local Skitarii defenders, they were able to open a Warp portal to summon an army of daemons of Tzeentch; soon even the volcanoes were erupting with warpfire.

The quick thinking of '''Fabricator Vosch''' was able to stop the continent from being swallowed by Chaos by using [[Tectonic Fragdrill]]s to trigger a massive but more conventional eruption that wiped out both Chaos forces and whatever AdMech couldn't get out of the way. Even then, Storvhal remained in Chaos hands, with Worldclaimer's Raptor packs using the ash to conceal their movements.

===Stormclaw Revisited===
Around this time, another detachment of Space Wolves led by '''[[Krom Dragongaze]]''' arrived to reinforce Vigilus. Showing his well-known disregard for little things like "waiting for orders", he immediately led an assault on the Ork-held Space Hulk ''Worldsmasha''. Following the destruction of several smaller hulks by the Wolves' Battle-Barges, Krom's forces were able to teleport directly to the ''Worldsmasha'' and kill its Big Mek commander before sending the Space Hulk on a crash course with an Ork settlement.

Marneus Calgar was less than impressed with Krom's recklessness, but news of a renewed greenskin threat in Hyperia prevented them from coming to blows over the matter.

===Creepy Crawlies===
The arrival of Abaddon's fleet had demoralized the population even further. Looting and rioting were widespread, and many of the despairing populace had turned to the Genestealer Cults or Chaos if they had not simply become Zealots for the Imperial Cult.

However, Abaddon had underestimated the strength of the xenos on Vigilus. Initial attempts at capturing the spires were stymied by Orks and the Pauper Princes, forcing Haarken to change his initial plans. An attack on Dirkden by the [[Night Lords]] and [[The Scourged]] killed millions of the cultists, but ultimately failed under a massive assault by Metamorphs and Aberrants.

===Sisters of Battle: Not Jobbing This Time===
The Genestealer Cultists had also started to tunnel underneath Dirkden into Oteck in the hopes of spreading their uprising further, but the Sisters of Battle from the Order of the Argent Shroud and the Order of the Last Prioress were able to keep them contained. Exploration of the tunnels revealed that they had already begun infiltrating Hyperia, though, and the Sisters' plans to counter-attack through the tunnels had to be put on hold.

The Orders Dialogus had also kept busy by mapping the Ork Speedwaaagh! races, allowing Imperial convoys to be ready for the greenskins' raids. This frustrated the Orks enough to get them to go out of their way to hunt down convoys protected by the Sisters. No idea how they knew who to blame, though.

===Retaking the Hoist===
To deal with their water problem, the Imperials set out to recapture the Omnissian Hoist from the Genestealers. The cults had already been weakened by a prior skirmish with the Magma Hounds warband, allowing a combined force of Iron Hands and Skitarii to push through the alien hordes.

The Grandsire Wurm itself was forced to lead the counter-attack, eventually sealing itself into the hoist's main control center in a final effort to deny it to the AdMech. But it hadn't counted on the Onager Dunecrawlers that had crawled up the structure, and it was forced to retreat after being wounded. After that, the Dunecrawlers were able to mop up the remaining Purestrains without difficulty.

===Vigilus Ablaze===
Hyperia Hivesprawl had at this point come under heavy attack by the [[Iron Warriors]] and the [[Word Bearers]], the latter of which had taken the time to build Noctilith Crowns to summon even more daemons. After receiving news that the Black Legion had led a major assault into a critical water purification plant on top of another Gellerpox outbreak, Calgar had no choice but to take desperate measures.

On the advice of the Planetary Governor, massive fires were started in each of the major Hivesprawls to prevent their corruption from spreading further. "Calgar's Fires" did manage to eliminate considerable parts of the xenos and Chaos forces, but only at a terrible cost. Even worse, the ''[[Vengeful Spirit]]'' had arrived on Vigilus and was effortlessly destroying every Imperial vessel sent to repel it.

===The Fallen Angels are Assholes===
Abaddon's first course of action was to pay a visit to the center of the Vhulian Swirl. The great storms were in fact artificial, and intended to conceal the location of a fortress called the Citadel Vigilant that had been occupied by a group of [[Fallen Angels]] that had forged a blood pact with Abaddon during the Pandorax campaign. Their leader, the former Librarian '''Osandus''', had come into possession of a gravitic weapon dating from the Dark Age of Technology, dubbed the Voidclaw.

Osandus had originally planned to lure the Dark Angels to Vigilus using hints from Fallen that let themselves be captured as bait; they would bring the Rock with them, and the Voidclaw would then be used to destroy it and wipe out the Dark Angels in the process (yeah, right, the Rock’s shields shrugged off the bombardment that destroyed Caliban utterly). Abaddon sought to use it on the space between Vigilus and its moon Neo-Vellum, altering the planet's orbit in a way that would reshape the Nachmund Gauntlet if not close it completely, thus ensuring that the Imperium Nihilus was lost for good.

The Fallen Librarian was pleased to help with such a major blow against the Imperium, and the Voidclaw was fired. Needless to say, this royally fucked over just about '''''everybody''''' on Vigilus. Mercifully, the Dark Angels were later able to find the Citadel Vigilant, destroy the Voidclaw before it could close the Gauntlet, and deal with the Fallen in their usual manner.

=='''All Downhill From Here'''==
As you would probably expect, the Imperials were left badly reeling from the Voidclaw's activation. Calgar managed to salvage things somewhat by manipulating Chaos forces into clashes with the Speedwaaagh!, but even then the Imperials were struggling and countless hives had been badly damaged if not outright destroyed.

===Mortwald Falls===
At Mortwald, the Imperial Fists and Iron Warriors had been engaged in a long trench war, but when they and Deinos' elite forces were forced to redeploy against other threats the Hivesprawl fell to the forces of Chaos. The nobles that had been hoarding food all this time unsurprisingly fell to Slaanesh, a situation that the [[Flawless Host]] used to their advantage by overwhelming the defenders with Daemonettes as they shut down the automated defenses. By the time the Imperial Fists could respond, the rioters opposing the corrupt nobles had devolved into cultists of Khorne. None of this makes sense, of course. The whole reason Mortwald was defended was its food and medicine production, so the defenders letting the nobles hoard food so much the locals riot makes less than zero sense. At that point there wouldn’t be a difference between having and not having the city. Plus, while the Imperial Fists are no Blood Angels, they do care about the citizens and uphold the Emperor’s vision of the Imperium. A vision in which hoarding food from a starving populace gets you a chainsword enema.

===Purge-ing Dontoria===
At the peak of the Death Guard invasion of Dontoria Hivesprawl, the Gellerpox-infected freighters that had departed near the beginning of the war came back, now full of mutants eager to claim Dontoria for Nurgle.

[[The Purge]] were insulted by the Death Guard's sudden influx of corrupted life, and sought to deal with it in their traditional manner: with lots of chemical weaponry. Citizens and mutants alike were thrown into manufactorums, producing a foul miasma that suffocated everything it came into contact with. As you might expect, the Death Guard and the Gellerpox Infected did not appreciate the interference and the two Nurglite armies quickly turned on each other.

Marneus Calgar decided that breaking their stalemate would not be worth it; even if the Nurglites could be driven off, Dontoria was now a hopelessly corrupted shithole too far gone to be saved.

===Blizzard Battles===
The Dark Eldar and the Thousand Sons spent most of the later parts of the war fighting over the Webway Gate at Kaelac's Bane. The Dark Eldar seemingly triumphed after unleashing stolen terraforming devices that froze the Rubric Marines solid, but before retreating to the Webway their sorcerers left them a "parting gift": a Keeper of Secrets. This particular Keeper of Secrets, known as "The Pale Stalker", was able to blend in perfectly with the blizzards, and within three weeks it had slain nearly a third of the Dark Eldar forces. The survivors were left so petrified of the daemon that they abandoned Vigilus outright. After one last slave raid, of course.

===Like Primarch, Like Chapter Master===
The Imperial forces were increasingly confronted with the possibility that they were going to lose. Chaos kept gaining ground, and the remaining relay stations on Neo-Vellum were warning that the Great Rift was expanding closer to Vigilus. Left unchecked, the world would be lost to the Warp and the entirety of the Imperium Nihilus with it. Nice going, Eldar. We really appreciate you keeping a lot of our forces busy and killing many others and also ignoring your Dark Eldar kin and their raiding and your non-assistance in saving the galaxy from literal evil itself. I’m sure Chaos will totally ignore your Craftworld if we lose...oh wait no, they’re totally going to eat your souls next.

Some among the Vigilus Senate brought up the prospect of Exterminatus, but Marneus Calgar reminded them that Guilliman told them not to abandon the planet under any circumstances. More importantly, the Chaos forces were still being weakened by the xenos and Imperial forces were still eking out victories here and there.

While seeking the aid of the Orks was out of the question, Calgar decided that an alliance with the Eldar of Saim-Hann would work to their mutual advantage. During a lull in the fighting, Calgar was able to call for a parley and meet with Farseer Keltoc. While Keltoc was still upset with the death of Autarch Rhyloor, the Farseer agreed that the Eldar could not afford for Vigilus to fall. Weird for him, considering he had done everything in his power to doom it.

The exact details of the pact Calgar made with Keltoc are uncertain, but given that the Farseer and his senior chieftains were allowed into the Governor's Palace and that the Planetary Governor and the other members of the former Aquilarian Council who had a role in Rhyloor's death were never heard from again, it isn't difficult to figure out the terms. In exchange, the Eldar agreed to allow the Imperials the use of the stealth ship ''Vaul's Ghost'', which Calgar needed to carry out his plan to force the Black Legion's withdrawal.

The Eldar soon began to create a diversion for the Imperials, leading Orks into Chaos Space Marines strongpoints across Vigilus. While countless battles continued to rage, only Calgar, Keltoc, and a handful of Ultramarines commanders knew that only one- the battle for New Vitae Docks- mattered. Countless bulk freighters were sent into low orbit despite the Iron Warriors' best efforts to shoot them down. Most were decoys, but one of them was carrying a payload of six Deathstrike Missiles- including two Vortex Missiles. Meanwhile, the Imperial fleet had been hastily reassembled to engage the Black Legion's fleet, in the hopes that it would buy enough time for the ''Vaul's Ghost'' to pick up the missiles.

===The Main Event===
To ensure that the Warmaster couldn't catch onto what the Imperial fleet was planning, Marneus Calgar challenged Abaddon to a duel at Saint's Haven. The Despoiler was eager to humiliate the Chapter Master, and promptly teleported there with a retinue of Terminators and Possessed.

As their bodyguards fought, Calgar and Abaddon exchanged volleys of bolter fire before a loose flagstone left the Chapter Master off-balance long enough for the Warmaster to damage one of the Gauntlets of Ultramar. Calgar countered with a punch strong enough to knock Abaddon off his feet, but a slash from Drach'nyen cut off two of Calgar's fingers, badly damaged his armor, and destroyed his secondary heart.

As Abaddon prepared to finish off Calgar, he received an urgent warning from Worldclaimer: the ''Vaul's Ghost'' had crashed into the ''Vengeful Spirit'', detonating the Deathstrike Missiles in its hold and blowing a massive hole in the Black Legion's flagship. The critically damaged battleship would soon make an emergency Warp jump out of the Vigilus system, and Abaddon would have no choice but to teleport back to attend to the ship.

The Despoiler chose to leave his Possessed retinue behind to make sure Calgar didn't have the chance to learn his plan worked, but his Belisarian Furnace kicked in just in time to help him fight them off. By the time the Victrix Guard arrived, Calgar was on death's door (again) but was saved by his Apothecaries. However, he hasn't taken the field personally since then and is likely still recovering.

=='''The Aftermath'''==
The war didn't immediately end with Abaddon's departure, but without him to hold them together the forces of Chaos have splintered and begun fighting among themselves. The Despoiler has not allowed his setback to stop his plans to close the Gauntlet, though. In fact, he has already planned an attack on Vigilus' sister world of Sangua Terra, to be spearheaded by the [[Planet Killer]] itself.

Megaborealis was retaken by the combined forces of the AdMech and the Iron Hands, and while the Black Legion was able to destroy much of the Blackstone deposits that kept the Nachmund Gauntlet open with a cyclonic torpedo bombardment the cogboys kept enough of the stuff hidden away for the Gauntlet to stay stable. Hyperia is still contested, but Oteck and Dirkden are considered lost.

Speedboss Krooldakka was slain during the Black Legion's bombardment of Megaborealis, and while the Orks are a spent force in Vigilus' cities they still hold a considerable amount of territory in the wastelands. Two-thirds of their scrap cities are estimated to be intact, and word of Vigilus being a fun fight has attracted Orks to the world, just like on Armageddon.

With the Black Legion repelled and their honor avenged, the Eldar of Saim-Hann left without much fanfare from anyone.

The Pauper Princes still infest the entirety of Dirkden Hivesprawl, but their plans have suffered a blow that they may not be able to recover from. They now look to the stars for salvation, hoping their [[Tyranids|Star Saviors]] come to their aid. Grandsire Wurm was slain by a trio of Callidus Assassins disguised as Neophyte Hybrids, but the cult had spread far enough for multiple Patriarchs to arise, with one of them becoming the new Grandsire Wurm. In the meantime, they have managed to spread to Vigilus' moon, Neo-Vellum.

Vigilus itself is about as badly fucked over as you would think, but with the threats to Vigilus now being at relatively manageable levels the Imperium can now consider the planet to be safely in their hands. For now, anyway.

{{40k-Timeline}}

War of Beasts

2019-09-25T20:29:09Z

2600:1006:B105:8611:58CC:338D:D9D2:B1D4: /* Sisters of Battle: Not Jobbing This Time */

''Not to be confused with the [[War of the Beast]] that took place in M32''

[[File:Vigilus_Defiant.jpeg|320px|thumb|right|From backwater to Armageddon 2.0]]

The '''War of Beasts''' (aka Armageddon on steroids, later the '''War of Nightmares''') is the term used to label the ongoing conflict between the forces of the [[Imperium|Imperium of Mankind]] and the various [[Xenos]] and [[Chaos]] forces trying to wrest its control of the strategic planet of [[Vigilus]]. The loss of Vigilus would mean the loss of a vital staging area for the Imperium for any kind of crusade into the Dark Imperium, and as such it is important for it to stay in Imperial hands.

== '''The Opening Phases''' ==
===The Speed Freekz Cometh===

The first major threat to hit the planet in the wake of the Great Rift opening was a massive [[WAAAGH|Waaagh!]] of [[Orks]]. Bursting from the Rift seemingly at random, and led by powerful [[Speed_Freek|Speed Freeks]], the Ork fleet easily broke through the naval cordon and landed its boyz in the deserts between the great hives.

While most of the fleet crashed and burned, the Orks soon used remains of the downed fleet to create ramshackle scrap-cities, and from there '''Speedboss Krooldakka''' roared out at the head of a massive force of bikes, trukks, and battlewagons. Still reeling from the birth of the Rift, the Imperial forces gathered could do nothing to stop it.

At first, the Orks met little success, as the force fields were too strong. Growing bored, they resorted to raiding caravans or battling and racing each other in the massive deserts outside of the hives. This state of affairs didn't last however; the Great Rift continued to grow, and with its expansion Warp Storms washed over Vigilus.

The bastion fields soon flickered, then failed outright, which was what the Orks were waiting for. The green tide rushed to each Hive, and despite the best efforts of the [[Imperial Guard]], the [[Skitarii]] of the Adeptus Mechanicus, and the [[Sisters of Battle]], it was all they could do to avoid being overwhelmed.

===They Came From Underneath===

Despite the threat of the Orks, there were threats to the defense of Vigilus much closer to home. Centuries before, a [[Genestealer Cult]] derived from the '''Pauper Princes''' had managed to get a single Purestrain Genestealer onto the world. The Genestealer grew into the [[Genestealer Patriarch]] called the '''Grandsire Wurm''', and its cult refused to let its years of preparation go to waste due to the unexpected greenskin arrivals. Uprisings that were supposed to be triggered decades down the road were forced to do so prematurely, and soon every Hivesprawl was in chaos due to the simultaneous insurrections. Imperial defenders fell to synchronized ambushes across the planet, as the Cult consolidated its hold on the Hives.

The response to the Genestealer Cult-led revolt was slow, as the Imperial Government initially thought it was the work of criminals and malcontents, and instead focused on shoring up its defenses. These uprisings, plus the constant ork raids, essentially forced the industry on the planet to grind to a halt. Things were, to put it mildly, looking grim.

===Tooth and Claw===

[[File:Vigilus_tooth_and_claw.jpg|320px|thumb|right|Bugs vs. Furries.]]

It was at this point that a task force of [[Space Marines]] made of elements from the [[Iron Hands]] and the [[Brazen Claws]], decided to throw their hats into the proceedings. On the way to the Stygies Front, they made a detour to Vigilus once contacted by their Mechanicus allies. Led by [[Kardan Stronos]], the Astartes made a massed [[Steel Rain|drop pod assault]] on the outskirts of each major Hivesprawl, before converging toward Megaborealis. Expecting to find Orks, they found cultists and [[Genestealers]] instead. Battles with these cultists would keep the sons of [[Ferrus Manus]] busy for many months.

Later on, a second task force of Astartes, this time [[Space Wolves]] from the Great Company of [[Ragnar Blackmane]] arrived to do battle with the xenos occupying the Oteck Hivesprawl. There was little coordination between the Wolves and the Iron Hands, and hilariously ''none'' of these Chapters saw fit to inform the Vigilus ruling council of what the heck was going on in their cities.

===The Megaborealis Throwdown===

A Mechanicus stronghold, Megaborealis was thought unassailable by '''Ipluvius XIV''', the [[Tech_Priest_Dominus|Magus Dominus]] in command of the Skitarii forces there, enough that he let himself get distracted by his studies. However, a squad of Ork [[Ork_Kommando|Kommandos]] begged to disagree, and brought down the hive's forcefield. The massive speed freekz attack that followed, coupled with a [[Just As Planned|simultaneous attack by genestealer cultists]], caused the magos' cogitators to freeze up due to the stress, leaving the defenders without coordination. It was bad enough that the cultists were able to steal [[Warp_Weapons#Imperial_Variants|Vortex Missiles]] and detonate it in the middle of the Hivesprawl, destroying countless Imperial war assets (including the [[Warlord Titan]] '''Dominus Rex''').

In a decisive move, Archmagos '''Nesium Caldrike''' took control of the remaining defenders, and coordinating with elements of the [[Iron Hands]] Clan Kaargul put a stop to the Genestealer shenanigans, for now at least.

While all of '''this''' was happening, the [[Imperial Guard]] was making a large-scale counterattack, with the aim of reinforcing Megaborealis. The armored convoys of [[Leman_Russ_Battle_Tank|Leman Russes]] and [[Chimera#In_Warhammer_40000|Chimeras]] took a heavy toll on the greenskins, but all this just seemed to draw more and more mobs of speed freekz to the convoys.

===Chaos Crashes The Party (Literally)===

At Hivesprawl Dontoria, already under pressure from mysterious attackers (who turned out to be [[Dark Eldar]] opportunists), an unknown spacecraft decided to crash into the hive's center, despite the best efforts from the anti-air emplacements surrounding it. From its ruined depths came the mutants of the '''Gellerpox Infected''', but the worse was to come, as in their wake came the Heretic Astartes of the '''[[Death Guard]]'''.

While the [[Tempestus Scions]] there were able to repel the Infected's assault, the sons of [[Mortarion]] soon overwhelmed the defenses. In desperation the Hive's lower levels were firebombed in a two-mile radius, but this was not enough to contain Nurgle's followers, and soon the Gellerpox spread through Dontoria. Despite the warnings of Rogue Trader '''Delarique du Languille''', the Aquilarian Council was slow to react to the threat. Acting on a warning from her psyker servant that the Gellerpox would threaten Terra if left unchecked, she took matters into her own hands. The Rogue Trader was able to halt shipping offworld and intercept and destroy what was thought to be the only Gellerpox-infected vessel departing Vigilus- but it was later found that two other infected ships had escaped and were now headed directly to [[Terra]].

===Here Come Guilliman's Boys===

After receiving a vision from [[Varro_Tigurius|Tigurius]], as well as a message from [[Roboute Guilliman]] to not allow Vigilus to fall, [[Chapter Master]] '''[[Marneus Calgar]]''' rushed as many of the [[Ultramarines]] that he could spare to the planet's defense. The going was difficult, and even with Tigurius' guidance many [[Librarian#Ranks|Epistolaries]] die to get the Chapter to the world on time.

Once there, he swiftly had those in the Aquilarian Council he determined to be Genestealer Cult infiltrators executed, and had the Vigilus Senate set up in its place.

===Wolf Bites Bug===

[[File:Tooth_And_Claw_Oteck_Rumble_2.jpg|320px|thumb|right|Rumble in the Hive Sumps, take 2!]]

The [[Space Wolves]] of course, were not idle. At Oteck Hivesprawl they tried to reclaim the all-important water supply back from the cultists. Things turned nasty very quickly when the Wolves' artillery support in the Imperial Guard turned out to have been controlled by the Cultists, and a whole lot of Hive City was suddenly dropped on the Wolves' heads. Many died, but enough Battle Brothers remained to continue the hunt for the xenos. The cultists were finally cornered and annihilated, but in their wake they left the water supply mostly tainted.

'''Haldor Icepelt''', the commander of the Space Wolves there, ordered whatever explosives the cultists stockpiled found, and then used these to bury the polluted water source under tons of rubble, preventing its spread to other hives.

== '''The Conflict Escalates even MORE''' ==
===Wake the Dead===

[[File:Wake-the-Dead.jpg|320px|thumb|right|AKA, I got Angry so I'll do Chaos' work for it!]]

It was at this point that one '''[[Farseer]] Keltoc''' from [[Craftworld]] [[Saim-Hann]] had a vision suggesting that it was important for its forces to intervene in the conflict, as ''something'' there would influence the future of the [[Eldar]] race. Apparently a home-grown [[Tzeentch|Tzeentchian]] cult led by one Vannadan planned to trigger a magma explosion that would eventually wipe out the leaders of Vigilus' defense, which would lead to the loss of the planet to Chaos, so they can't have that now, can they? Amazingly, one of the times the Eldar had genuinely good intentions (for themselves like usual, but in a way that honestly benefits someone else).

Using an underground [[Webway]] gate to avoid their dark kin, the Saim-Hann task force, led by [[Autarch]] '''Rhyloor''' and [[Spiritseer]] '''Quelanaris''', swiftly isolated the Chaos cultists and slaughtered them to a man. Word of their arrival spread to the [[Imperial Guard]] stormtroopers stationed nearby however, and the Imperials rushed to the location, fully convinced that these were the same Eldar who had been gleefully raiding the Hivesprawls during the past few months (and the Imperium does not distinguish between types of Eldar because all xenos are equally deserving of annihilation, but mostly because the only noteworthy difference between Eldar types beyond aesthetics is that Dark Eldar usually take prisoners)).

Quelanaris and Rhyloor tried desperately to explain to the arriving Stormtroopers that, no, they looked nothing like the [[Dark Eldar]] dicks who ''were'' the cause of all the trouble and that they had just eliminated a major threat to the planet (keep in mind the Imperials had no idea that the humans they had just killed were Chaos Cultists or indeed even knew there was a Chaos cult in the planet). The Tempestor Prime in charge, however, did not know or care about the difference between the Craftworlders and Dark Eldar let alone believe their story, and so the Imperials opened fire. This is what happens when you spend ten thousand years lying through your teeth, ruining operations that doom billions of innocents, and generally work very hard to earn everyone’s mistrust and undying hatred. Like usual, their asstard nature bit the spelves in the ass.

Many Eldar were cut down, including Rhyloor, but Quelanaris managed to escape with his fallen comrades' spirit stones. Vowing vengeance for an incident of his own people’s making and for his own invasion of an Imperial World shockingly getting his warriors shot to pieces (because Imperials are famous for loving it when xenos pop up on their worlds without permission), he had the spirit stones installed into waiting Wraith Constructs and led a second strike Force back to Vigilus to avenge the Autarch (y’know, by trying to kill the people whose deaths would doom his Craftworld, the usual Elfdar stupidity).

Some time later, this strike force attempted a direct attack on the Imperial leadership council as revenge for their recent losses. Primaris Lieutenant '''Eothrus''' of the Ultramarines attempted to talk down the Spiritseer, having heard about Saim-Hann assisting the Space Wolves on Stygius from Haldor Ice-Pelt, but Quelanaris refused to listen to reason and ordered his forces to attack. Since killing that leadership (who by the way are ironically innocent of blame for what happened) is what he was sent to prevent in the first place because it would ultimately doom his Craftworld, it will be curious to know what Saim-Hann thinks of him trying to kill those people himself now...probably not gonna be too pleased. To be fair, he’s not going around murdering people and isn’t technically trying to harm the Imperial forces, he’s just trying to kill the people he believes are ultimately responsible for their distant subordinates’ actions...and too cowardly to face the Stormtroopers that curbstomped his forces earlier.

===The Carnival of Pain===

While the Imperial Guard wasted their time with the Craftworlders, the ''actual'' Dark Eldar continued their merry time harassing and generally making the residents of Hivesprawls Hyperia and Oteck ''wish'' for the swift release of death. Led primarily by the [[Haemonculi]] coven of '''The Altered''', [[Kabalite_Warriors|Kabalite]] troops joined with Wych cults and Haemonculi constructs in raids that were both spectacular and deadly. The Altered in particular had a specific beef with the [[Ultramarines]], as Guilliman had kicked their ass in during the [[Indomitus Crusade]], and took particular amusement in hauling entire ''squads'' of Ultramarines back to [[Commorragh]] for "entertainment". Although, taking entire squads of Astartes is honestly not believable. If they could do that then the Dark Eldar would be basically invincible. Which they’re very much not.

===Holding Back The Foul Tide===

Back in Dontoria Hive, the newly-arrived Primaris Chapter [[Necropolis Hawks]] fought to hold back the Gellerpox Infected, while the [[Crimson Fists]] and the [[Iron Hands]] worked to create a barrier with the assistance of du Languille to hold back the Chaos-spawned plague. Using the PDF's [[Hellhound#Warhammer_40.2C000|hellhound tanks]], the Fists set fire to the hive's promethium pipelines, creating a literal firewall around the infected zone.

===The Mortwald Defense===

With the destruction of the waterworks at Oteck Hivesprawl, water was getting harder to come by at Vigilus. Dontoria's own water source was also in danger of contamination, due to everyone forgetting that the [[Death Guard]] had already made landfall.

Mortwald, the source of most of the planet's food and medicine, was also under threat. Defending it were regiments of '''Ventrillian Nobles''', '''Vostroyan Firstborn''', and '''Cadian Shock Troopers''', all under the command of '''Deinos''', the [[Awesome|surprisingly-competent]] brother of the Imperial governor.

When the Greenskins came, the trench network Deinos had prepared showed its worth, and slowed down the advance of the Orks for Weeks. Within the walls of the Hivesprawl, the Guard proved themselves equally adept at putting down Genestealer Cult uprisings. Lord Deinos was adamant -- '''Mortwald will not fall''' -- and his mantra became the rallying cry of the defenders there. This stalwart defense was only improved by the arrival of the [[Imperial Fists]] 5th Company under '''Brother-Captain Dravatis Fane''', though his forces would be tested as Ork [[Stompa|Stompas]] emerged by the hundreds. Although his forces had to retreat to higher ground, Fane would counter-attack. With him were loyalists [[Imperial Knight|Knights]] from '''House Terryn''', as well as Freeblades formerly from the traitorous House Mandrakor.

In a charge that was the stuff of legends, the knights attacked the Stompa horde. Supported by the [[Reaver_Battle_Titan|Reaver Titan]] '''Heresium's Bane''', the Knights actually forced the Orks to break. Rather than running them down, the Imperials halted (notwithstanding the Freeblades who wanted to pursue them), as they insisted that the [[Noblebright|defending the people of Mortwald came first]]. This decision would soon bite them in the arse however, as a few days later the Orks attacked. While it was driven off easily enough, these attacks increased in strength week after work, until the Imperials were facing machines the size of ''reavers''.

Fane had enough. He ordered an expedition into the wastelands to find the factories churning these machines out, and put them out of commission. Permanently.

The Imperial forces found a large scrap city east of Mortwald and, under the cover of a dust storm, attacked. With [[Warhound_Scout_Titan|Warhounds]] as support, the Knights identified, then destroyed the major factories. With the mission completed, Fane ordered a withdrawal, but the Freeblades in their zeal to redeem themselves ignored this, and [[RAGE|charged straight into the ''next'' scrap city]]. Much facepalming ensued, as while the Knights killed countless orks in their reckless attack, they soon found themselves surrounded.

Fane led an airborne rescue force alongside elements of the [[White Scars]] Brotherhood led by '''Olujin Khan''' and [[Dark Angels]] Ravenwing commanded by '''Meneraeus''' to aid the beleaguered Knights. The [[Stormtalon|Stormtalons]] of the White Scars destroyed the anti-air and artillery emplacements, and without these the [[Bike_Squad|Bike Squads]] of the two Chapters cut a path through the Orks.

Without warning, the Ravenwing [[Fallen|suddenly abandoned the attack, and thundered into the dusty wilderness of the Vhulian Swirl]]. The White Scars, now bereft of support, found themselves on the verge of being swamped by Greenskins, so Olujin was forced to call a fighting withdrawal. Odd as if sounds, this behavior is weird for most Unforgiven Chapters. They balance hunting Fallen with their duties to the Imperium. Besides, hunting is mostly a Deathwing thing. Abandoning a battle important to saving a hive city crucial to defending a planet critical to the Imperium is not something they would do. Risking the Imperium for their secret is not a line they would cross. Seems to be writer error for not knowing more than the surface basics of Dark Angel lore.

===Water War===

Back at Megaborealis the Mechanicus and Iron Hands was getting their Genestealer problem somewhat under control. The Sons of Manus would lead the attacks, then the Mechanicus would handle clean-up. Using xenos-detection tech, the Genestealer nests were found and destroyed, which forced the Pauper Princes to slink back into the shadows and resort to guerilla warfare to strike back.

The same could ''not'' be said of the Stygian Spires region, which controlled the asteroid water mining operations of Megaborealis. Led by the Grandsire Wurm itself, the Cultists overwhelmed the Skitarii defenders. Before long, the top levels of the water plant were taken over by the Patriarch and its kin.

=='''Bad Portents, Bad People'''==

Despite all of this, the general consensus of the population was that things had stabilized enough that the Imperium just ''might'' eke a win out of all this. This, despite Calgar being forced to have Dirkden's civilian population evacuated.

===Raptor Rampage===

[[File:Urban_Conquest_Vigilus.jpg|320px|thumb|right|From Bad, to the Worst]]

Then things really started to go tits up. Reports of disappearances and horrible monsters in the upper spires started to spread, with everyone trying to investigate vanishing without a trace. The Great Rift seemed to darken in the sky, and readings of the Emperor's Tarot all produced the same ominous reading.

By the time the [[Ordo Malleus]] had deciphered the mumbling of comatose Imperial Psykers as a warning about a "Dark King", the monsters had been identified as a scouting force of [[Black Legion]] [[Chaos Raptor|Raptors]], [[Heldrake]]s, and [[Warp Talons]].

Soon afterward, every vox network on the planet received a message from '''[[Haarken Worldclaimer]]''', the Chaos Raptor Lord leading the Black Legion forces and Herald of the Apocalypse: Vigilus now belonged to '''[[Abaddon]]''' and the Despoiler would soon arrive to oversee its conquest personally.

As the Vigilus Senate convened to discuss the alarming turn of events, they were [[Awesome|attacked by a]] [[Heldrake]] [[Awesome|that smashed through the Senate spire's ceiling.]] The Victrix Guard were able to prevent it from harming Calgar, but now they had to deal with the impending arrival of the Warmaster himself.

Meanwhile, [[Thousand Sons]] [[Rubric Marines]] were burning their way through Oteck Hivesprawl, a new Gellerpox outbreak in Mortwald led the nobles to hoard food and water for themselves and inadvertently inspire even ''more'' Chaos and Genestealer Cult uprisings, and the defenses of the planet were being stretched thinner and thinner. And the bulk of the Black Legion's forces hadn't even shown up yet.

Haarken had boasted that Vigilus would fall within 80 days of his arrival. Sure enough, after 80 days a massive number of Warp signatures was detected in the Nachmund Gauntlet.

The War of Nightmares had begun.

===Shadowspear At Nemendghast===

During all of this madness, at the outskirts of the Vigilus System a taskforce of Vanguard Primaris are covertly inserted into the planet '''Nemendghast''' after receiving a distress call from there. To their horror, they find that the world had already been taken over the Dark Powers, and its forges used to churn out Daemon Engines for the [[Black Legion]]. As it turns out, it had been trapped within the Great Rift for a time and Abaddon had taken the opportunity to capture it as a staging area for his planned invasion force.

Although heavily outnumbered by the [[Possessed|Daemonkin]] there, the task force, led by Ultramarines Librarian '''Maltis''', try to sabotage the forges ruled over by Master of Possession '''Vorash Soulflayer'''. It succeeded, but at great cost, with only Maltis escaping to bring word to Calgar of the Black Legion fleet's imminent arrival.

===Clash in the Void===
Having learned of the approaching fleet from Maltis, Calgar called for a double cordon to intercept the Chaos armada. In spite of a torpedo barrage meant to box in the fleet, the Imperials were pushed back after the Chaos forces began summoning daemons onto the Imperial ships. Even Calgar's own flagship ''Laurels of Victory'' was not spared, and he was wounded by the [[Keeper of Secrets]] that manifested onboard. Yeah, normal daemon incursions the Imperials can handle, greater daemons on ships not so much.

Following his return, Calgar had no choice but to abandon Dirkden Hivesprawl and Kaelac's Bane in favor of shoring up the defenses of Mortwald, Megaborealis, Oteck, and Dontoria.

===Vannadan's Legacy===
While Vannadan's plan had been thwarted by the Eldar intervention, the pyroclastic cults of Storvhal soon rallied around Haarken Worldclaimer. After defeating the local Skitarii defenders, they were able to open a Warp portal to summon an army of daemons of Tzeentch; soon even the volcanoes were erupting with warpfire.

The quick thinking of '''Fabricator Vosch''' was able to stop the continent from being swallowed by Chaos by using [[Tectonic Fragdrill]]s to trigger a massive but more conventional eruption that wiped out both Chaos forces and whatever AdMech couldn't get out of the way. Even then, Storvhal remained in Chaos hands, with Worldclaimer's Raptor packs using the ash to conceal their movements.

===Stormclaw Revisited===
Around this time, another detachment of Space Wolves led by '''[[Krom Dragongaze]]''' arrived to reinforce Vigilus. Showing his well-known disregard for little things like "waiting for orders", he immediately led an assault on the Ork-held Space Hulk ''Worldsmasha''. Following the destruction of several smaller hulks by the Wolves' Battle-Barges, Krom's forces were able to teleport directly to the ''Worldsmasha'' and kill its Big Mek commander before sending the Space Hulk on a crash course with an Ork settlement.

Marneus Calgar was less than impressed with Krom's recklessness, but news of a renewed greenskin threat in Hyperia prevented them from coming to blows over the matter.

===Creepy Crawlies===
The arrival of Abaddon's fleet had demoralized the population even further. Looting and rioting were widespread, and many of the despairing populace had turned to the Genestealer Cults or Chaos if they had not simply become Zealots for the Imperial Cult.

However, Abaddon had underestimated the strength of the xenos on Vigilus. Initial attempts at capturing the spires were stymied by Orks and the Pauper Princes, forcing Haarken to change his initial plans. An attack on Dirkden by the [[Night Lords]] and [[The Scourged]] killed millions of the cultists, but ultimately failed under a massive assault by Metamorphs and Aberrants.

===Sisters of Battle: Not Jobbing This Time===
The Genestealer Cultists had also started to tunnel underneath Dirkden into Oteck in the hopes of spreading their uprising further, but the Sisters of Battle from the Order of the Argent Shroud and the Order of the Last Prioress were able to keep them contained. Exploration of the tunnels revealed that they had already begun infiltrating Hyperia, though, and the Sisters' plans to counter-attack through the tunnels had to be put on hold.

The Orders Dialogus had also kept busy by mapping the Ork Speedwaaagh! races, allowing Imperial convoys to be ready for the greenskins' raids. This frustrated the Orks enough to get them to go out of their way to hunt down convoys protected by the Sisters. No idea how they knew who to blame, though.

===Retaking the Hoist===
To deal with their water problem, the Imperials set out to recapture the Omnissian Hoist from the Genestealers. The cults had already been weakened by a prior skirmish with the Magma Hounds warband, allowing a combined force of Iron Hands and Skitarii to push through the alien hordes.

The Grandsire Wurm itself was forced to lead the counter-attack, eventually sealing itself into the hoist's main control center in a final effort to deny it to the AdMech. But it hadn't counted on the Onager Dunecrawlers that had crawled up the structure, and it was forced to retreat after being wounded. After that, the Dunecrawlers were able to mop up the remaining Purestrains without difficulty.

===Vigilus Ablaze===
Hyperia Hivesprawl had at this point come under heavy attack by the [[Iron Warriors]] and the [[Word Bearers]], the latter of which had taken the time to build Noctilith Crowns to summon even more daemons. After receiving news that the Black Legion had led a major assault into a critical water purification plant on top of another Gellerpox outbreak, Calgar had no choice but to take desperate measures.

On the advice of the Planetary Governor, massive fires were started in each of the major Hivesprawls to prevent their corruption from spreading further. "Calgar's Fires" did manage to eliminate considerable parts of the xenos and Chaos forces, but only at a terrible cost. Even worse, the ''[[Vengeful Spirit]]'' had arrived on Vigilus and was effortlessly destroying every Imperial vessel sent to repel it.

===The Fallen Angels are Assholes===
Abaddon's first course of action was to pay a visit to the center of the Vhulian Swirl. The great storms were in fact artificial, and intended to conceal the location of a fortress called the Citadel Vigilant that had been occupied by a group of [[Fallen Angels]] that had forged a blood pact with Abaddon during the Pandorax campaign. Their leader, the former Librarian '''Osandus''', had come into possession of a gravitic weapon dating from the Dark Age of Technology, dubbed the Voidclaw.

Osandus had originally planned to lure the Dark Angels to Vigilus using hints from Fallen that let themselves be captured as bait; they would bring the Rock with them, and the Voidclaw would then be used to destroy it and wipe out the Dark Angels in the process (yeah, right, the Rock’s shields shrugged off the bombardment that destroyed Caliban utterly). Abaddon sought to use it on the space between Vigilus and its moon Neo-Vellum, altering the planet's orbit in a way that would reshape the Nachmund Gauntlet if not close it completely, thus ensuring that the Imperium Nihilus was lost for good.

The Fallen Librarian was pleased to help with such a major blow against the Imperium, and the Voidclaw was fired. Needless to say, this royally fucked over just about '''''everybody''''' on Vigilus. Mercifully, the Dark Angels were later able to find the Citadel Vigilant, destroy the Voidclaw before it could close the Gauntlet, and deal with the Fallen in their usual manner.

=='''All Downhill From Here'''==
As you would probably expect, the Imperials were left badly reeling from the Voidclaw's activation. Calgar managed to salvage things somewhat by manipulating Chaos forces into clashes with the Speedwaaagh!, but even then the Imperials were struggling and countless hives had been badly damaged if not outright destroyed.

===Mortwald Falls===
At Mortwald, the Imperial Fists and Iron Warriors had been engaged in a long trench war, but when they and Deinos' elite forces were forced to redeploy against other threats the Hivesprawl fell to the forces of Chaos. The nobles that had been hoarding food all this time unsurprisingly fell to Slaanesh, a situation that the [[Flawless Host]] used to their advantage by overwhelming the defenders with Daemonettes as they shut down the automated defenses. By the time the Imperial Fists could respond, the rioters opposing the corrupt nobles had devolved into cultists of Khorne. None of this makes sense, of course. The whole reason Mortwald was defended was its food and medicine production, so the defenders letting the nobles hoard food so much the locals riot makes less than zero sense. At that point there wouldn’t be a difference between having and not having the city. Plus, while the Imperial Fists are no Blood Angels, they do care about the citizens and uphold the Emperor’s vision of the Imperium. A vision in which hoarding food from a starving populace gets you a chainsword enema.

===Purge-ing Dontoria===
At the peak of the Death Guard invasion of Dontoria Hivesprawl, the Gellerpox-infected freighters that had departed near the beginning of the war came back, now full of mutants eager to claim Dontoria for Nurgle.

[[The Purge]] were insulted by the Death Guard's sudden influx of corrupted life, and sought to deal with it in their traditional manner: with lots of chemical weaponry. Citizens and mutants alike were thrown into manufactorums, producing a foul miasma that suffocated everything it came into contact with. As you might expect, the Death Guard and the Gellerpox Infected did not appreciate the interference and the two Nurglite armies quickly turned on each other.

Marneus Calgar decided that breaking their stalemate would not be worth it; even if the Nurglites could be driven off, Dontoria was now a hopelessly corrupted shithole too far gone to be saved.

===Blizzard Battles===
The Dark Eldar and the Thousand Sons spent most of the later parts of the war fighting over the Webway Gate at Kaelac's Bane. The Dark Eldar seemingly triumphed after unleashing stolen terraforming devices that froze the Rubric Marines solid, but before retreating to the Webway their sorcerers left them a "parting gift": a Keeper of Secrets. This particular Keeper of Secrets, known as "The Pale Stalker", was able to blend in perfectly with the blizzards, and within three weeks it had slain nearly a third of the Dark Eldar forces. The survivors were left so petrified of the daemon that they abandoned Vigilus outright. After one last slave raid, of course.

===Like Primarch, Like Chapter Master===
The Imperial forces were increasingly confronted with the possibility that they were going to lose. Chaos kept gaining ground, and the remaining relay stations on Neo-Vellum were warning that the Great Rift was expanding closer to Vigilus. Left unchecked, the world would be lost to the Warp and the entirety of the Imperium Nihilus with it.

Some among the Vigilus Senate brought up the prospect of Exterminatus, but Marneus Calgar reminded them that Guilliman told them not to abandon the planet under any circumstances. More importantly, the Chaos forces were still being weakened by the xenos and Imperial forces were still eking out victories here and there.

While seeking the aid of the Orks was out of the question, Calgar decided that an alliance with the Eldar of Saim-Hann would work to their mutual advantage. During a lull in the fighting, Calgar was able to call for a parley and meet with Farseer Keltoc. While Keltoc was still upset with the death of Autarch Rhyloor, the Farseer agreed that the Eldar could not afford for Vigilus to fall.

The exact details of the pact Calgar made with Keltoc are uncertain, but given that the Farseer and his senior chieftains were allowed into the Governor's Palace and that the Planetary Governor and the other members of the former Aquilarian Council who had a role in Rhyloor's death were never heard from again, it isn't difficult to figure out the terms. In exchange, the Eldar agreed to allow the Imperials the use of the stealth ship ''Vaul's Ghost'', which Calgar needed to carry out his plan to force the Black Legion's withdrawal.

The Eldar soon began to create a diversion for the Imperials, leading Orks into Chaos Space Marines strongpoints across Vigilus. While countless battles continued to rage, only Calgar, Keltoc, and a handful of Ultramarines commanders knew that only one- the battle for New Vitae Docks- mattered. Countless bulk freighters were sent into low orbit despite the Iron Warriors' best efforts to shoot them down. Most were decoys, but one of them was carrying a payload of six Deathstrike Missiles- including two Vortex Missiles. Meanwhile, the Imperial fleet had been hastily reassembled to engage the Black Legion's fleet, in the hopes that it would buy enough time for the ''Vaul's Ghost'' to pick up the missiles.

===The Main Event===
To ensure that the Warmaster couldn't catch onto what the Imperial fleet was planning, Marneus Calgar challenged Abaddon to a duel at Saint's Haven. The Despoiler was eager to humiliate the Chapter Master, and promptly teleported there with a retinue of Terminators and Possessed.

As their bodyguards fought, Calgar and Abaddon exchanged volleys of bolter fire before a loose flagstone left the Chapter Master off-balance long enough for the Warmaster to damage one of the Gauntlets of Ultramar. Calgar countered with a punch strong enough to knock Abaddon off his feet, but a slash from Drach'nyen cut off two of Calgar's fingers, badly damaged his armor, and destroyed his secondary heart.

As Abaddon prepared to finish off Calgar, he received an urgent warning from Worldclaimer: the ''Vaul's Ghost'' had crashed into the ''Vengeful Spirit'', detonating the Deathstrike Missiles in its hold and blowing a massive hole in the Black Legion's flagship. The critically damaged battleship would soon make an emergency Warp jump out of the Vigilus system, and Abaddon would have no choice but to teleport back to attend to the ship.

The Despoiler chose to leave his Possessed retinue behind to make sure Calgar didn't have the chance to learn his plan worked, but his Belisarian Furnace kicked in just in time to help him fight them off. By the time the Victrix Guard arrived, Calgar was on death's door (again) but was saved by his Apothecaries. However, he hasn't taken the field personally since then and is likely still recovering.

=='''The Aftermath'''==
The war didn't immediately end with Abaddon's departure, but without him to hold them together the forces of Chaos have splintered and begun fighting among themselves. The Despoiler has not allowed his setback to stop his plans to close the Gauntlet, though. In fact, he has already planned an attack on Vigilus' sister world of Sangua Terra, to be spearheaded by the [[Planet Killer]] itself.

Megaborealis was retaken by the combined forces of the AdMech and the Iron Hands, and while the Black Legion was able to destroy much of the Blackstone deposits that kept the Nachmund Gauntlet open with a cyclonic torpedo bombardment the cogboys kept enough of the stuff hidden away for the Gauntlet to stay stable. Hyperia is still contested, but Oteck and Dirkden are considered lost.

Speedboss Krooldakka was slain during the Black Legion's bombardment of Megaborealis, and while the Orks are a spent force in Vigilus' cities they still hold a considerable amount of territory in the wastelands. Two-thirds of their scrap cities are estimated to be intact, and word of Vigilus being a fun fight has attracted Orks to the world, just like on Armageddon.

With the Black Legion repelled and their honor avenged, the Eldar of Saim-Hann left without much fanfare from anyone.

The Pauper Princes still infest the entirety of Dirkden Hivesprawl, but their plans have suffered a blow that they may not be able to recover from. They now look to the stars for salvation, hoping their [[Tyranids|Star Saviors]] come to their aid. Grandsire Wurm was slain by a trio of Callidus Assassins disguised as Neophyte Hybrids, but the cult had spread far enough for multiple Patriarchs to arise, with one of them becoming the new Grandsire Wurm. In the meantime, they have managed to spread to Vigilus' moon, Neo-Vellum.

Vigilus itself is about as badly fucked over as you would think, but with the threats to Vigilus now being at relatively manageable levels the Imperium can now consider the planet to be safely in their hands. For now, anyway.

{{40k-Timeline}}

War of Beasts

2019-09-25T20:26:20Z

2600:1006:B105:8611:58CC:338D:D9D2:B1D4: /* The Fallen Angels are Assholes */

''Not to be confused with the [[War of the Beast]] that took place in M32''

[[File:Vigilus_Defiant.jpeg|320px|thumb|right|From backwater to Armageddon 2.0]]

The '''War of Beasts''' (aka Armageddon on steroids, later the '''War of Nightmares''') is the term used to label the ongoing conflict between the forces of the [[Imperium|Imperium of Mankind]] and the various [[Xenos]] and [[Chaos]] forces trying to wrest its control of the strategic planet of [[Vigilus]]. The loss of Vigilus would mean the loss of a vital staging area for the Imperium for any kind of crusade into the Dark Imperium, and as such it is important for it to stay in Imperial hands.

== '''The Opening Phases''' ==
===The Speed Freekz Cometh===

The first major threat to hit the planet in the wake of the Great Rift opening was a massive [[WAAAGH|Waaagh!]] of [[Orks]]. Bursting from the Rift seemingly at random, and led by powerful [[Speed_Freek|Speed Freeks]], the Ork fleet easily broke through the naval cordon and landed its boyz in the deserts between the great hives.

While most of the fleet crashed and burned, the Orks soon used remains of the downed fleet to create ramshackle scrap-cities, and from there '''Speedboss Krooldakka''' roared out at the head of a massive force of bikes, trukks, and battlewagons. Still reeling from the birth of the Rift, the Imperial forces gathered could do nothing to stop it.

At first, the Orks met little success, as the force fields were too strong. Growing bored, they resorted to raiding caravans or battling and racing each other in the massive deserts outside of the hives. This state of affairs didn't last however; the Great Rift continued to grow, and with its expansion Warp Storms washed over Vigilus.

The bastion fields soon flickered, then failed outright, which was what the Orks were waiting for. The green tide rushed to each Hive, and despite the best efforts of the [[Imperial Guard]], the [[Skitarii]] of the Adeptus Mechanicus, and the [[Sisters of Battle]], it was all they could do to avoid being overwhelmed.

===They Came From Underneath===

Despite the threat of the Orks, there were threats to the defense of Vigilus much closer to home. Centuries before, a [[Genestealer Cult]] derived from the '''Pauper Princes''' had managed to get a single Purestrain Genestealer onto the world. The Genestealer grew into the [[Genestealer Patriarch]] called the '''Grandsire Wurm''', and its cult refused to let its years of preparation go to waste due to the unexpected greenskin arrivals. Uprisings that were supposed to be triggered decades down the road were forced to do so prematurely, and soon every Hivesprawl was in chaos due to the simultaneous insurrections. Imperial defenders fell to synchronized ambushes across the planet, as the Cult consolidated its hold on the Hives.

The response to the Genestealer Cult-led revolt was slow, as the Imperial Government initially thought it was the work of criminals and malcontents, and instead focused on shoring up its defenses. These uprisings, plus the constant ork raids, essentially forced the industry on the planet to grind to a halt. Things were, to put it mildly, looking grim.

===Tooth and Claw===

[[File:Vigilus_tooth_and_claw.jpg|320px|thumb|right|Bugs vs. Furries.]]

It was at this point that a task force of [[Space Marines]] made of elements from the [[Iron Hands]] and the [[Brazen Claws]], decided to throw their hats into the proceedings. On the way to the Stygies Front, they made a detour to Vigilus once contacted by their Mechanicus allies. Led by [[Kardan Stronos]], the Astartes made a massed [[Steel Rain|drop pod assault]] on the outskirts of each major Hivesprawl, before converging toward Megaborealis. Expecting to find Orks, they found cultists and [[Genestealers]] instead. Battles with these cultists would keep the sons of [[Ferrus Manus]] busy for many months.

Later on, a second task force of Astartes, this time [[Space Wolves]] from the Great Company of [[Ragnar Blackmane]] arrived to do battle with the xenos occupying the Oteck Hivesprawl. There was little coordination between the Wolves and the Iron Hands, and hilariously ''none'' of these Chapters saw fit to inform the Vigilus ruling council of what the heck was going on in their cities.

===The Megaborealis Throwdown===

A Mechanicus stronghold, Megaborealis was thought unassailable by '''Ipluvius XIV''', the [[Tech_Priest_Dominus|Magus Dominus]] in command of the Skitarii forces there, enough that he let himself get distracted by his studies. However, a squad of Ork [[Ork_Kommando|Kommandos]] begged to disagree, and brought down the hive's forcefield. The massive speed freekz attack that followed, coupled with a [[Just As Planned|simultaneous attack by genestealer cultists]], caused the magos' cogitators to freeze up due to the stress, leaving the defenders without coordination. It was bad enough that the cultists were able to steal [[Warp_Weapons#Imperial_Variants|Vortex Missiles]] and detonate it in the middle of the Hivesprawl, destroying countless Imperial war assets (including the [[Warlord Titan]] '''Dominus Rex''').

In a decisive move, Archmagos '''Nesium Caldrike''' took control of the remaining defenders, and coordinating with elements of the [[Iron Hands]] Clan Kaargul put a stop to the Genestealer shenanigans, for now at least.

While all of '''this''' was happening, the [[Imperial Guard]] was making a large-scale counterattack, with the aim of reinforcing Megaborealis. The armored convoys of [[Leman_Russ_Battle_Tank|Leman Russes]] and [[Chimera#In_Warhammer_40000|Chimeras]] took a heavy toll on the greenskins, but all this just seemed to draw more and more mobs of speed freekz to the convoys.

===Chaos Crashes The Party (Literally)===

At Hivesprawl Dontoria, already under pressure from mysterious attackers (who turned out to be [[Dark Eldar]] opportunists), an unknown spacecraft decided to crash into the hive's center, despite the best efforts from the anti-air emplacements surrounding it. From its ruined depths came the mutants of the '''Gellerpox Infected''', but the worse was to come, as in their wake came the Heretic Astartes of the '''[[Death Guard]]'''.

While the [[Tempestus Scions]] there were able to repel the Infected's assault, the sons of [[Mortarion]] soon overwhelmed the defenses. In desperation the Hive's lower levels were firebombed in a two-mile radius, but this was not enough to contain Nurgle's followers, and soon the Gellerpox spread through Dontoria. Despite the warnings of Rogue Trader '''Delarique du Languille''', the Aquilarian Council was slow to react to the threat. Acting on a warning from her psyker servant that the Gellerpox would threaten Terra if left unchecked, she took matters into her own hands. The Rogue Trader was able to halt shipping offworld and intercept and destroy what was thought to be the only Gellerpox-infected vessel departing Vigilus- but it was later found that two other infected ships had escaped and were now headed directly to [[Terra]].

===Here Come Guilliman's Boys===

After receiving a vision from [[Varro_Tigurius|Tigurius]], as well as a message from [[Roboute Guilliman]] to not allow Vigilus to fall, [[Chapter Master]] '''[[Marneus Calgar]]''' rushed as many of the [[Ultramarines]] that he could spare to the planet's defense. The going was difficult, and even with Tigurius' guidance many [[Librarian#Ranks|Epistolaries]] die to get the Chapter to the world on time.

Once there, he swiftly had those in the Aquilarian Council he determined to be Genestealer Cult infiltrators executed, and had the Vigilus Senate set up in its place.

===Wolf Bites Bug===

[[File:Tooth_And_Claw_Oteck_Rumble_2.jpg|320px|thumb|right|Rumble in the Hive Sumps, take 2!]]

The [[Space Wolves]] of course, were not idle. At Oteck Hivesprawl they tried to reclaim the all-important water supply back from the cultists. Things turned nasty very quickly when the Wolves' artillery support in the Imperial Guard turned out to have been controlled by the Cultists, and a whole lot of Hive City was suddenly dropped on the Wolves' heads. Many died, but enough Battle Brothers remained to continue the hunt for the xenos. The cultists were finally cornered and annihilated, but in their wake they left the water supply mostly tainted.

'''Haldor Icepelt''', the commander of the Space Wolves there, ordered whatever explosives the cultists stockpiled found, and then used these to bury the polluted water source under tons of rubble, preventing its spread to other hives.

== '''The Conflict Escalates even MORE''' ==
===Wake the Dead===

[[File:Wake-the-Dead.jpg|320px|thumb|right|AKA, I got Angry so I'll do Chaos' work for it!]]

It was at this point that one '''[[Farseer]] Keltoc''' from [[Craftworld]] [[Saim-Hann]] had a vision suggesting that it was important for its forces to intervene in the conflict, as ''something'' there would influence the future of the [[Eldar]] race. Apparently a home-grown [[Tzeentch|Tzeentchian]] cult led by one Vannadan planned to trigger a magma explosion that would eventually wipe out the leaders of Vigilus' defense, which would lead to the loss of the planet to Chaos, so they can't have that now, can they? Amazingly, one of the times the Eldar had genuinely good intentions (for themselves like usual, but in a way that honestly benefits someone else).

Using an underground [[Webway]] gate to avoid their dark kin, the Saim-Hann task force, led by [[Autarch]] '''Rhyloor''' and [[Spiritseer]] '''Quelanaris''', swiftly isolated the Chaos cultists and slaughtered them to a man. Word of their arrival spread to the [[Imperial Guard]] stormtroopers stationed nearby however, and the Imperials rushed to the location, fully convinced that these were the same Eldar who had been gleefully raiding the Hivesprawls during the past few months (and the Imperium does not distinguish between types of Eldar because all xenos are equally deserving of annihilation, but mostly because the only noteworthy difference between Eldar types beyond aesthetics is that Dark Eldar usually take prisoners)).

Quelanaris and Rhyloor tried desperately to explain to the arriving Stormtroopers that, no, they looked nothing like the [[Dark Eldar]] dicks who ''were'' the cause of all the trouble and that they had just eliminated a major threat to the planet (keep in mind the Imperials had no idea that the humans they had just killed were Chaos Cultists or indeed even knew there was a Chaos cult in the planet). The Tempestor Prime in charge, however, did not know or care about the difference between the Craftworlders and Dark Eldar let alone believe their story, and so the Imperials opened fire. This is what happens when you spend ten thousand years lying through your teeth, ruining operations that doom billions of innocents, and generally work very hard to earn everyone’s mistrust and undying hatred. Like usual, their asstard nature bit the spelves in the ass.

Many Eldar were cut down, including Rhyloor, but Quelanaris managed to escape with his fallen comrades' spirit stones. Vowing vengeance for an incident of his own people’s making and for his own invasion of an Imperial World shockingly getting his warriors shot to pieces (because Imperials are famous for loving it when xenos pop up on their worlds without permission), he had the spirit stones installed into waiting Wraith Constructs and led a second strike Force back to Vigilus to avenge the Autarch (y’know, by trying to kill the people whose deaths would doom his Craftworld, the usual Elfdar stupidity).

Some time later, this strike force attempted a direct attack on the Imperial leadership council as revenge for their recent losses. Primaris Lieutenant '''Eothrus''' of the Ultramarines attempted to talk down the Spiritseer, having heard about Saim-Hann assisting the Space Wolves on Stygius from Haldor Ice-Pelt, but Quelanaris refused to listen to reason and ordered his forces to attack. Since killing that leadership (who by the way are ironically innocent of blame for what happened) is what he was sent to prevent in the first place because it would ultimately doom his Craftworld, it will be curious to know what Saim-Hann thinks of him trying to kill those people himself now...probably not gonna be too pleased. To be fair, he’s not going around murdering people and isn’t technically trying to harm the Imperial forces, he’s just trying to kill the people he believes are ultimately responsible for their distant subordinates’ actions...and too cowardly to face the Stormtroopers that curbstomped his forces earlier.

===The Carnival of Pain===

While the Imperial Guard wasted their time with the Craftworlders, the ''actual'' Dark Eldar continued their merry time harassing and generally making the residents of Hivesprawls Hyperia and Oteck ''wish'' for the swift release of death. Led primarily by the [[Haemonculi]] coven of '''The Altered''', [[Kabalite_Warriors|Kabalite]] troops joined with Wych cults and Haemonculi constructs in raids that were both spectacular and deadly. The Altered in particular had a specific beef with the [[Ultramarines]], as Guilliman had kicked their ass in during the [[Indomitus Crusade]], and took particular amusement in hauling entire ''squads'' of Ultramarines back to [[Commorragh]] for "entertainment". Although, taking entire squads of Astartes is honestly not believable. If they could do that then the Dark Eldar would be basically invincible. Which they’re very much not.

===Holding Back The Foul Tide===

Back in Dontoria Hive, the newly-arrived Primaris Chapter [[Necropolis Hawks]] fought to hold back the Gellerpox Infected, while the [[Crimson Fists]] and the [[Iron Hands]] worked to create a barrier with the assistance of du Languille to hold back the Chaos-spawned plague. Using the PDF's [[Hellhound#Warhammer_40.2C000|hellhound tanks]], the Fists set fire to the hive's promethium pipelines, creating a literal firewall around the infected zone.

===The Mortwald Defense===

With the destruction of the waterworks at Oteck Hivesprawl, water was getting harder to come by at Vigilus. Dontoria's own water source was also in danger of contamination, due to everyone forgetting that the [[Death Guard]] had already made landfall.

Mortwald, the source of most of the planet's food and medicine, was also under threat. Defending it were regiments of '''Ventrillian Nobles''', '''Vostroyan Firstborn''', and '''Cadian Shock Troopers''', all under the command of '''Deinos''', the [[Awesome|surprisingly-competent]] brother of the Imperial governor.

When the Greenskins came, the trench network Deinos had prepared showed its worth, and slowed down the advance of the Orks for Weeks. Within the walls of the Hivesprawl, the Guard proved themselves equally adept at putting down Genestealer Cult uprisings. Lord Deinos was adamant -- '''Mortwald will not fall''' -- and his mantra became the rallying cry of the defenders there. This stalwart defense was only improved by the arrival of the [[Imperial Fists]] 5th Company under '''Brother-Captain Dravatis Fane''', though his forces would be tested as Ork [[Stompa|Stompas]] emerged by the hundreds. Although his forces had to retreat to higher ground, Fane would counter-attack. With him were loyalists [[Imperial Knight|Knights]] from '''House Terryn''', as well as Freeblades formerly from the traitorous House Mandrakor.

In a charge that was the stuff of legends, the knights attacked the Stompa horde. Supported by the [[Reaver_Battle_Titan|Reaver Titan]] '''Heresium's Bane''', the Knights actually forced the Orks to break. Rather than running them down, the Imperials halted (notwithstanding the Freeblades who wanted to pursue them), as they insisted that the [[Noblebright|defending the people of Mortwald came first]]. This decision would soon bite them in the arse however, as a few days later the Orks attacked. While it was driven off easily enough, these attacks increased in strength week after work, until the Imperials were facing machines the size of ''reavers''.

Fane had enough. He ordered an expedition into the wastelands to find the factories churning these machines out, and put them out of commission. Permanently.

The Imperial forces found a large scrap city east of Mortwald and, under the cover of a dust storm, attacked. With [[Warhound_Scout_Titan|Warhounds]] as support, the Knights identified, then destroyed the major factories. With the mission completed, Fane ordered a withdrawal, but the Freeblades in their zeal to redeem themselves ignored this, and [[RAGE|charged straight into the ''next'' scrap city]]. Much facepalming ensued, as while the Knights killed countless orks in their reckless attack, they soon found themselves surrounded.

Fane led an airborne rescue force alongside elements of the [[White Scars]] Brotherhood led by '''Olujin Khan''' and [[Dark Angels]] Ravenwing commanded by '''Meneraeus''' to aid the beleaguered Knights. The [[Stormtalon|Stormtalons]] of the White Scars destroyed the anti-air and artillery emplacements, and without these the [[Bike_Squad|Bike Squads]] of the two Chapters cut a path through the Orks.

Without warning, the Ravenwing [[Fallen|suddenly abandoned the attack, and thundered into the dusty wilderness of the Vhulian Swirl]]. The White Scars, now bereft of support, found themselves on the verge of being swamped by Greenskins, so Olujin was forced to call a fighting withdrawal. Odd as if sounds, this behavior is weird for most Unforgiven Chapters. They balance hunting Fallen with their duties to the Imperium. Besides, hunting is mostly a Deathwing thing. Abandoning a battle important to saving a hive city crucial to defending a planet critical to the Imperium is not something they would do. Risking the Imperium for their secret is not a line they would cross. Seems to be writer error for not knowing more than the surface basics of Dark Angel lore.

===Water War===

Back at Megaborealis the Mechanicus and Iron Hands was getting their Genestealer problem somewhat under control. The Sons of Manus would lead the attacks, then the Mechanicus would handle clean-up. Using xenos-detection tech, the Genestealer nests were found and destroyed, which forced the Pauper Princes to slink back into the shadows and resort to guerilla warfare to strike back.

The same could ''not'' be said of the Stygian Spires region, which controlled the asteroid water mining operations of Megaborealis. Led by the Grandsire Wurm itself, the Cultists overwhelmed the Skitarii defenders. Before long, the top levels of the water plant were taken over by the Patriarch and its kin.

=='''Bad Portents, Bad People'''==

Despite all of this, the general consensus of the population was that things had stabilized enough that the Imperium just ''might'' eke a win out of all this. This, despite Calgar being forced to have Dirkden's civilian population evacuated.

===Raptor Rampage===

[[File:Urban_Conquest_Vigilus.jpg|320px|thumb|right|From Bad, to the Worst]]

Then things really started to go tits up. Reports of disappearances and horrible monsters in the upper spires started to spread, with everyone trying to investigate vanishing without a trace. The Great Rift seemed to darken in the sky, and readings of the Emperor's Tarot all produced the same ominous reading.

By the time the [[Ordo Malleus]] had deciphered the mumbling of comatose Imperial Psykers as a warning about a "Dark King", the monsters had been identified as a scouting force of [[Black Legion]] [[Chaos Raptor|Raptors]], [[Heldrake]]s, and [[Warp Talons]].

Soon afterward, every vox network on the planet received a message from '''[[Haarken Worldclaimer]]''', the Chaos Raptor Lord leading the Black Legion forces and Herald of the Apocalypse: Vigilus now belonged to '''[[Abaddon]]''' and the Despoiler would soon arrive to oversee its conquest personally.

As the Vigilus Senate convened to discuss the alarming turn of events, they were [[Awesome|attacked by a]] [[Heldrake]] [[Awesome|that smashed through the Senate spire's ceiling.]] The Victrix Guard were able to prevent it from harming Calgar, but now they had to deal with the impending arrival of the Warmaster himself.

Meanwhile, [[Thousand Sons]] [[Rubric Marines]] were burning their way through Oteck Hivesprawl, a new Gellerpox outbreak in Mortwald led the nobles to hoard food and water for themselves and inadvertently inspire even ''more'' Chaos and Genestealer Cult uprisings, and the defenses of the planet were being stretched thinner and thinner. And the bulk of the Black Legion's forces hadn't even shown up yet.

Haarken had boasted that Vigilus would fall within 80 days of his arrival. Sure enough, after 80 days a massive number of Warp signatures was detected in the Nachmund Gauntlet.

The War of Nightmares had begun.

===Shadowspear At Nemendghast===

During all of this madness, at the outskirts of the Vigilus System a taskforce of Vanguard Primaris are covertly inserted into the planet '''Nemendghast''' after receiving a distress call from there. To their horror, they find that the world had already been taken over the Dark Powers, and its forges used to churn out Daemon Engines for the [[Black Legion]]. As it turns out, it had been trapped within the Great Rift for a time and Abaddon had taken the opportunity to capture it as a staging area for his planned invasion force.

Although heavily outnumbered by the [[Possessed|Daemonkin]] there, the task force, led by Ultramarines Librarian '''Maltis''', try to sabotage the forges ruled over by Master of Possession '''Vorash Soulflayer'''. It succeeded, but at great cost, with only Maltis escaping to bring word to Calgar of the Black Legion fleet's imminent arrival.

===Clash in the Void===
Having learned of the approaching fleet from Maltis, Calgar called for a double cordon to intercept the Chaos armada. In spite of a torpedo barrage meant to box in the fleet, the Imperials were pushed back after the Chaos forces began summoning daemons onto the Imperial ships. Even Calgar's own flagship ''Laurels of Victory'' was not spared, and he was wounded by the [[Keeper of Secrets]] that manifested onboard. Yeah, normal daemon incursions the Imperials can handle, greater daemons on ships not so much.

Following his return, Calgar had no choice but to abandon Dirkden Hivesprawl and Kaelac's Bane in favor of shoring up the defenses of Mortwald, Megaborealis, Oteck, and Dontoria.

===Vannadan's Legacy===
While Vannadan's plan had been thwarted by the Eldar intervention, the pyroclastic cults of Storvhal soon rallied around Haarken Worldclaimer. After defeating the local Skitarii defenders, they were able to open a Warp portal to summon an army of daemons of Tzeentch; soon even the volcanoes were erupting with warpfire.

The quick thinking of '''Fabricator Vosch''' was able to stop the continent from being swallowed by Chaos by using [[Tectonic Fragdrill]]s to trigger a massive but more conventional eruption that wiped out both Chaos forces and whatever AdMech couldn't get out of the way. Even then, Storvhal remained in Chaos hands, with Worldclaimer's Raptor packs using the ash to conceal their movements.

===Stormclaw Revisited===
Around this time, another detachment of Space Wolves led by '''[[Krom Dragongaze]]''' arrived to reinforce Vigilus. Showing his well-known disregard for little things like "waiting for orders", he immediately led an assault on the Ork-held Space Hulk ''Worldsmasha''. Following the destruction of several smaller hulks by the Wolves' Battle-Barges, Krom's forces were able to teleport directly to the ''Worldsmasha'' and kill its Big Mek commander before sending the Space Hulk on a crash course with an Ork settlement.

Marneus Calgar was less than impressed with Krom's recklessness, but news of a renewed greenskin threat in Hyperia prevented them from coming to blows over the matter.

===Creepy Crawlies===
The arrival of Abaddon's fleet had demoralized the population even further. Looting and rioting were widespread, and many of the despairing populace had turned to the Genestealer Cults or Chaos if they had not simply become Zealots for the Imperial Cult.

However, Abaddon had underestimated the strength of the xenos on Vigilus. Initial attempts at capturing the spires were stymied by Orks and the Pauper Princes, forcing Haarken to change his initial plans. An attack on Dirkden by the [[Night Lords]] and [[The Scourged]] killed millions of the cultists, but ultimately failed under a massive assault by Metamorphs and Aberrants.

===Sisters of Battle: Not Jobbing This Time===
The Genestealer Cultists had also started to tunnel underneath Dirkden into Oteck in the hopes of spreading their uprising further, but the Sisters of Battle from the Order of the Argent Shroud and the Order of the Last Prioress were able to keep them contained. Exploration of the tunnels revealed that they had already begun infiltrating Hyperia, though, and the Sisters' plans to counter-attack through the tunnels had to be put on hold.

The Orders Dialogus had also kept busy by mapping the Ork Speedwaaagh! races, allowing Imperial convoys to be ready for the greenskins' raids. This frustrated the Orks enough to get them to go out of their way to hunt down convoys protected by the Sisters.

===Retaking the Hoist===
To deal with their water problem, the Imperials set out to recapture the Omnissian Hoist from the Genestealers. The cults had already been weakened by a prior skirmish with the Magma Hounds warband, allowing a combined force of Iron Hands and Skitarii to push through the alien hordes.

The Grandsire Wurm itself was forced to lead the counter-attack, eventually sealing itself into the hoist's main control center in a final effort to deny it to the AdMech. But it hadn't counted on the Onager Dunecrawlers that had crawled up the structure, and it was forced to retreat after being wounded. After that, the Dunecrawlers were able to mop up the remaining Purestrains without difficulty.

===Vigilus Ablaze===
Hyperia Hivesprawl had at this point come under heavy attack by the [[Iron Warriors]] and the [[Word Bearers]], the latter of which had taken the time to build Noctilith Crowns to summon even more daemons. After receiving news that the Black Legion had led a major assault into a critical water purification plant on top of another Gellerpox outbreak, Calgar had no choice but to take desperate measures.

On the advice of the Planetary Governor, massive fires were started in each of the major Hivesprawls to prevent their corruption from spreading further. "Calgar's Fires" did manage to eliminate considerable parts of the xenos and Chaos forces, but only at a terrible cost. Even worse, the ''[[Vengeful Spirit]]'' had arrived on Vigilus and was effortlessly destroying every Imperial vessel sent to repel it.

===The Fallen Angels are Assholes===
Abaddon's first course of action was to pay a visit to the center of the Vhulian Swirl. The great storms were in fact artificial, and intended to conceal the location of a fortress called the Citadel Vigilant that had been occupied by a group of [[Fallen Angels]] that had forged a blood pact with Abaddon during the Pandorax campaign. Their leader, the former Librarian '''Osandus''', had come into possession of a gravitic weapon dating from the Dark Age of Technology, dubbed the Voidclaw.

Osandus had originally planned to lure the Dark Angels to Vigilus using hints from Fallen that let themselves be captured as bait; they would bring the Rock with them, and the Voidclaw would then be used to destroy it and wipe out the Dark Angels in the process (yeah, right, the Rock’s shields shrugged off the bombardment that destroyed Caliban utterly). Abaddon sought to use it on the space between Vigilus and its moon Neo-Vellum, altering the planet's orbit in a way that would reshape the Nachmund Gauntlet if not close it completely, thus ensuring that the Imperium Nihilus was lost for good.

The Fallen Librarian was pleased to help with such a major blow against the Imperium, and the Voidclaw was fired. Needless to say, this royally fucked over just about '''''everybody''''' on Vigilus. Mercifully, the Dark Angels were later able to find the Citadel Vigilant, destroy the Voidclaw before it could close the Gauntlet, and deal with the Fallen in their usual manner.

=='''All Downhill From Here'''==
As you would probably expect, the Imperials were left badly reeling from the Voidclaw's activation. Calgar managed to salvage things somewhat by manipulating Chaos forces into clashes with the Speedwaaagh!, but even then the Imperials were struggling and countless hives had been badly damaged if not outright destroyed.

===Mortwald Falls===
At Mortwald, the Imperial Fists and Iron Warriors had been engaged in a long trench war, but when they and Deinos' elite forces were forced to redeploy against other threats the Hivesprawl fell to the forces of Chaos. The nobles that had been hoarding food all this time unsurprisingly fell to Slaanesh, a situation that the [[Flawless Host]] used to their advantage by overwhelming the defenders with Daemonettes as they shut down the automated defenses. By the time the Imperial Fists could respond, the rioters opposing the corrupt nobles had devolved into cultists of Khorne. None of this makes sense, of course. The whole reason Mortwald was defended was its food and medicine production, so the defenders letting the nobles hoard food so much the locals riot makes less than zero sense. At that point there wouldn’t be a difference between having and not having the city. Plus, while the Imperial Fists are no Blood Angels, they do care about the citizens and uphold the Emperor’s vision of the Imperium. A vision in which hoarding food from a starving populace gets you a chainsword enema.

===Purge-ing Dontoria===
At the peak of the Death Guard invasion of Dontoria Hivesprawl, the Gellerpox-infected freighters that had departed near the beginning of the war came back, now full of mutants eager to claim Dontoria for Nurgle.

[[The Purge]] were insulted by the Death Guard's sudden influx of corrupted life, and sought to deal with it in their traditional manner: with lots of chemical weaponry. Citizens and mutants alike were thrown into manufactorums, producing a foul miasma that suffocated everything it came into contact with. As you might expect, the Death Guard and the Gellerpox Infected did not appreciate the interference and the two Nurglite armies quickly turned on each other.

Marneus Calgar decided that breaking their stalemate would not be worth it; even if the Nurglites could be driven off, Dontoria was now a hopelessly corrupted shithole too far gone to be saved.

===Blizzard Battles===
The Dark Eldar and the Thousand Sons spent most of the later parts of the war fighting over the Webway Gate at Kaelac's Bane. The Dark Eldar seemingly triumphed after unleashing stolen terraforming devices that froze the Rubric Marines solid, but before retreating to the Webway their sorcerers left them a "parting gift": a Keeper of Secrets. This particular Keeper of Secrets, known as "The Pale Stalker", was able to blend in perfectly with the blizzards, and within three weeks it had slain nearly a third of the Dark Eldar forces. The survivors were left so petrified of the daemon that they abandoned Vigilus outright. After one last slave raid, of course.

===Like Primarch, Like Chapter Master===
The Imperial forces were increasingly confronted with the possibility that they were going to lose. Chaos kept gaining ground, and the remaining relay stations on Neo-Vellum were warning that the Great Rift was expanding closer to Vigilus. Left unchecked, the world would be lost to the Warp and the entirety of the Imperium Nihilus with it.

Some among the Vigilus Senate brought up the prospect of Exterminatus, but Marneus Calgar reminded them that Guilliman told them not to abandon the planet under any circumstances. More importantly, the Chaos forces were still being weakened by the xenos and Imperial forces were still eking out victories here and there.

While seeking the aid of the Orks was out of the question, Calgar decided that an alliance with the Eldar of Saim-Hann would work to their mutual advantage. During a lull in the fighting, Calgar was able to call for a parley and meet with Farseer Keltoc. While Keltoc was still upset with the death of Autarch Rhyloor, the Farseer agreed that the Eldar could not afford for Vigilus to fall.

The exact details of the pact Calgar made with Keltoc are uncertain, but given that the Farseer and his senior chieftains were allowed into the Governor's Palace and that the Planetary Governor and the other members of the former Aquilarian Council who had a role in Rhyloor's death were never heard from again, it isn't difficult to figure out the terms. In exchange, the Eldar agreed to allow the Imperials the use of the stealth ship ''Vaul's Ghost'', which Calgar needed to carry out his plan to force the Black Legion's withdrawal.

The Eldar soon began to create a diversion for the Imperials, leading Orks into Chaos Space Marines strongpoints across Vigilus. While countless battles continued to rage, only Calgar, Keltoc, and a handful of Ultramarines commanders knew that only one- the battle for New Vitae Docks- mattered. Countless bulk freighters were sent into low orbit despite the Iron Warriors' best efforts to shoot them down. Most were decoys, but one of them was carrying a payload of six Deathstrike Missiles- including two Vortex Missiles. Meanwhile, the Imperial fleet had been hastily reassembled to engage the Black Legion's fleet, in the hopes that it would buy enough time for the ''Vaul's Ghost'' to pick up the missiles.

===The Main Event===
To ensure that the Warmaster couldn't catch onto what the Imperial fleet was planning, Marneus Calgar challenged Abaddon to a duel at Saint's Haven. The Despoiler was eager to humiliate the Chapter Master, and promptly teleported there with a retinue of Terminators and Possessed.

As their bodyguards fought, Calgar and Abaddon exchanged volleys of bolter fire before a loose flagstone left the Chapter Master off-balance long enough for the Warmaster to damage one of the Gauntlets of Ultramar. Calgar countered with a punch strong enough to knock Abaddon off his feet, but a slash from Drach'nyen cut off two of Calgar's fingers, badly damaged his armor, and destroyed his secondary heart.

As Abaddon prepared to finish off Calgar, he received an urgent warning from Worldclaimer: the ''Vaul's Ghost'' had crashed into the ''Vengeful Spirit'', detonating the Deathstrike Missiles in its hold and blowing a massive hole in the Black Legion's flagship. The critically damaged battleship would soon make an emergency Warp jump out of the Vigilus system, and Abaddon would have no choice but to teleport back to attend to the ship.

The Despoiler chose to leave his Possessed retinue behind to make sure Calgar didn't have the chance to learn his plan worked, but his Belisarian Furnace kicked in just in time to help him fight them off. By the time the Victrix Guard arrived, Calgar was on death's door (again) but was saved by his Apothecaries. However, he hasn't taken the field personally since then and is likely still recovering.

=='''The Aftermath'''==
The war didn't immediately end with Abaddon's departure, but without him to hold them together the forces of Chaos have splintered and begun fighting among themselves. The Despoiler has not allowed his setback to stop his plans to close the Gauntlet, though. In fact, he has already planned an attack on Vigilus' sister world of Sangua Terra, to be spearheaded by the [[Planet Killer]] itself.

Megaborealis was retaken by the combined forces of the AdMech and the Iron Hands, and while the Black Legion was able to destroy much of the Blackstone deposits that kept the Nachmund Gauntlet open with a cyclonic torpedo bombardment the cogboys kept enough of the stuff hidden away for the Gauntlet to stay stable. Hyperia is still contested, but Oteck and Dirkden are considered lost.

Speedboss Krooldakka was slain during the Black Legion's bombardment of Megaborealis, and while the Orks are a spent force in Vigilus' cities they still hold a considerable amount of territory in the wastelands. Two-thirds of their scrap cities are estimated to be intact, and word of Vigilus being a fun fight has attracted Orks to the world, just like on Armageddon.

With the Black Legion repelled and their honor avenged, the Eldar of Saim-Hann left without much fanfare from anyone.

The Pauper Princes still infest the entirety of Dirkden Hivesprawl, but their plans have suffered a blow that they may not be able to recover from. They now look to the stars for salvation, hoping their [[Tyranids|Star Saviors]] come to their aid. Grandsire Wurm was slain by a trio of Callidus Assassins disguised as Neophyte Hybrids, but the cult had spread far enough for multiple Patriarchs to arise, with one of them becoming the new Grandsire Wurm. In the meantime, they have managed to spread to Vigilus' moon, Neo-Vellum.

Vigilus itself is about as badly fucked over as you would think, but with the threats to Vigilus now being at relatively manageable levels the Imperium can now consider the planet to be safely in their hands. For now, anyway.

{{40k-Timeline}}

War of Beasts

2019-09-25T20:21:46Z

2600:1006:B105:8611:58CC:338D:D9D2:B1D4: /* Mortwald Falls */

''Not to be confused with the [[War of the Beast]] that took place in M32''

[[File:Vigilus_Defiant.jpeg|320px|thumb|right|From backwater to Armageddon 2.0]]

The '''War of Beasts''' (aka Armageddon on steroids, later the '''War of Nightmares''') is the term used to label the ongoing conflict between the forces of the [[Imperium|Imperium of Mankind]] and the various [[Xenos]] and [[Chaos]] forces trying to wrest its control of the strategic planet of [[Vigilus]]. The loss of Vigilus would mean the loss of a vital staging area for the Imperium for any kind of crusade into the Dark Imperium, and as such it is important for it to stay in Imperial hands.

== '''The Opening Phases''' ==
===The Speed Freekz Cometh===

The first major threat to hit the planet in the wake of the Great Rift opening was a massive [[WAAAGH|Waaagh!]] of [[Orks]]. Bursting from the Rift seemingly at random, and led by powerful [[Speed_Freek|Speed Freeks]], the Ork fleet easily broke through the naval cordon and landed its boyz in the deserts between the great hives.

While most of the fleet crashed and burned, the Orks soon used remains of the downed fleet to create ramshackle scrap-cities, and from there '''Speedboss Krooldakka''' roared out at the head of a massive force of bikes, trukks, and battlewagons. Still reeling from the birth of the Rift, the Imperial forces gathered could do nothing to stop it.

At first, the Orks met little success, as the force fields were too strong. Growing bored, they resorted to raiding caravans or battling and racing each other in the massive deserts outside of the hives. This state of affairs didn't last however; the Great Rift continued to grow, and with its expansion Warp Storms washed over Vigilus.

The bastion fields soon flickered, then failed outright, which was what the Orks were waiting for. The green tide rushed to each Hive, and despite the best efforts of the [[Imperial Guard]], the [[Skitarii]] of the Adeptus Mechanicus, and the [[Sisters of Battle]], it was all they could do to avoid being overwhelmed.

===They Came From Underneath===

Despite the threat of the Orks, there were threats to the defense of Vigilus much closer to home. Centuries before, a [[Genestealer Cult]] derived from the '''Pauper Princes''' had managed to get a single Purestrain Genestealer onto the world. The Genestealer grew into the [[Genestealer Patriarch]] called the '''Grandsire Wurm''', and its cult refused to let its years of preparation go to waste due to the unexpected greenskin arrivals. Uprisings that were supposed to be triggered decades down the road were forced to do so prematurely, and soon every Hivesprawl was in chaos due to the simultaneous insurrections. Imperial defenders fell to synchronized ambushes across the planet, as the Cult consolidated its hold on the Hives.

The response to the Genestealer Cult-led revolt was slow, as the Imperial Government initially thought it was the work of criminals and malcontents, and instead focused on shoring up its defenses. These uprisings, plus the constant ork raids, essentially forced the industry on the planet to grind to a halt. Things were, to put it mildly, looking grim.

===Tooth and Claw===

[[File:Vigilus_tooth_and_claw.jpg|320px|thumb|right|Bugs vs. Furries.]]

It was at this point that a task force of [[Space Marines]] made of elements from the [[Iron Hands]] and the [[Brazen Claws]], decided to throw their hats into the proceedings. On the way to the Stygies Front, they made a detour to Vigilus once contacted by their Mechanicus allies. Led by [[Kardan Stronos]], the Astartes made a massed [[Steel Rain|drop pod assault]] on the outskirts of each major Hivesprawl, before converging toward Megaborealis. Expecting to find Orks, they found cultists and [[Genestealers]] instead. Battles with these cultists would keep the sons of [[Ferrus Manus]] busy for many months.

Later on, a second task force of Astartes, this time [[Space Wolves]] from the Great Company of [[Ragnar Blackmane]] arrived to do battle with the xenos occupying the Oteck Hivesprawl. There was little coordination between the Wolves and the Iron Hands, and hilariously ''none'' of these Chapters saw fit to inform the Vigilus ruling council of what the heck was going on in their cities.

===The Megaborealis Throwdown===

A Mechanicus stronghold, Megaborealis was thought unassailable by '''Ipluvius XIV''', the [[Tech_Priest_Dominus|Magus Dominus]] in command of the Skitarii forces there, enough that he let himself get distracted by his studies. However, a squad of Ork [[Ork_Kommando|Kommandos]] begged to disagree, and brought down the hive's forcefield. The massive speed freekz attack that followed, coupled with a [[Just As Planned|simultaneous attack by genestealer cultists]], caused the magos' cogitators to freeze up due to the stress, leaving the defenders without coordination. It was bad enough that the cultists were able to steal [[Warp_Weapons#Imperial_Variants|Vortex Missiles]] and detonate it in the middle of the Hivesprawl, destroying countless Imperial war assets (including the [[Warlord Titan]] '''Dominus Rex''').

In a decisive move, Archmagos '''Nesium Caldrike''' took control of the remaining defenders, and coordinating with elements of the [[Iron Hands]] Clan Kaargul put a stop to the Genestealer shenanigans, for now at least.

While all of '''this''' was happening, the [[Imperial Guard]] was making a large-scale counterattack, with the aim of reinforcing Megaborealis. The armored convoys of [[Leman_Russ_Battle_Tank|Leman Russes]] and [[Chimera#In_Warhammer_40000|Chimeras]] took a heavy toll on the greenskins, but all this just seemed to draw more and more mobs of speed freekz to the convoys.

===Chaos Crashes The Party (Literally)===

At Hivesprawl Dontoria, already under pressure from mysterious attackers (who turned out to be [[Dark Eldar]] opportunists), an unknown spacecraft decided to crash into the hive's center, despite the best efforts from the anti-air emplacements surrounding it. From its ruined depths came the mutants of the '''Gellerpox Infected''', but the worse was to come, as in their wake came the Heretic Astartes of the '''[[Death Guard]]'''.

While the [[Tempestus Scions]] there were able to repel the Infected's assault, the sons of [[Mortarion]] soon overwhelmed the defenses. In desperation the Hive's lower levels were firebombed in a two-mile radius, but this was not enough to contain Nurgle's followers, and soon the Gellerpox spread through Dontoria. Despite the warnings of Rogue Trader '''Delarique du Languille''', the Aquilarian Council was slow to react to the threat. Acting on a warning from her psyker servant that the Gellerpox would threaten Terra if left unchecked, she took matters into her own hands. The Rogue Trader was able to halt shipping offworld and intercept and destroy what was thought to be the only Gellerpox-infected vessel departing Vigilus- but it was later found that two other infected ships had escaped and were now headed directly to [[Terra]].

===Here Come Guilliman's Boys===

After receiving a vision from [[Varro_Tigurius|Tigurius]], as well as a message from [[Roboute Guilliman]] to not allow Vigilus to fall, [[Chapter Master]] '''[[Marneus Calgar]]''' rushed as many of the [[Ultramarines]] that he could spare to the planet's defense. The going was difficult, and even with Tigurius' guidance many [[Librarian#Ranks|Epistolaries]] die to get the Chapter to the world on time.

Once there, he swiftly had those in the Aquilarian Council he determined to be Genestealer Cult infiltrators executed, and had the Vigilus Senate set up in its place.

===Wolf Bites Bug===

[[File:Tooth_And_Claw_Oteck_Rumble_2.jpg|320px|thumb|right|Rumble in the Hive Sumps, take 2!]]

The [[Space Wolves]] of course, were not idle. At Oteck Hivesprawl they tried to reclaim the all-important water supply back from the cultists. Things turned nasty very quickly when the Wolves' artillery support in the Imperial Guard turned out to have been controlled by the Cultists, and a whole lot of Hive City was suddenly dropped on the Wolves' heads. Many died, but enough Battle Brothers remained to continue the hunt for the xenos. The cultists were finally cornered and annihilated, but in their wake they left the water supply mostly tainted.

'''Haldor Icepelt''', the commander of the Space Wolves there, ordered whatever explosives the cultists stockpiled found, and then used these to bury the polluted water source under tons of rubble, preventing its spread to other hives.

== '''The Conflict Escalates even MORE''' ==
===Wake the Dead===

[[File:Wake-the-Dead.jpg|320px|thumb|right|AKA, I got Angry so I'll do Chaos' work for it!]]

It was at this point that one '''[[Farseer]] Keltoc''' from [[Craftworld]] [[Saim-Hann]] had a vision suggesting that it was important for its forces to intervene in the conflict, as ''something'' there would influence the future of the [[Eldar]] race. Apparently a home-grown [[Tzeentch|Tzeentchian]] cult led by one Vannadan planned to trigger a magma explosion that would eventually wipe out the leaders of Vigilus' defense, which would lead to the loss of the planet to Chaos, so they can't have that now, can they? Amazingly, one of the times the Eldar had genuinely good intentions (for themselves like usual, but in a way that honestly benefits someone else).

Using an underground [[Webway]] gate to avoid their dark kin, the Saim-Hann task force, led by [[Autarch]] '''Rhyloor''' and [[Spiritseer]] '''Quelanaris''', swiftly isolated the Chaos cultists and slaughtered them to a man. Word of their arrival spread to the [[Imperial Guard]] stormtroopers stationed nearby however, and the Imperials rushed to the location, fully convinced that these were the same Eldar who had been gleefully raiding the Hivesprawls during the past few months (and the Imperium does not distinguish between types of Eldar because all xenos are equally deserving of annihilation, but mostly because the only noteworthy difference between Eldar types beyond aesthetics is that Dark Eldar usually take prisoners)).

Quelanaris and Rhyloor tried desperately to explain to the arriving Stormtroopers that, no, they looked nothing like the [[Dark Eldar]] dicks who ''were'' the cause of all the trouble and that they had just eliminated a major threat to the planet (keep in mind the Imperials had no idea that the humans they had just killed were Chaos Cultists or indeed even knew there was a Chaos cult in the planet). The Tempestor Prime in charge, however, did not know or care about the difference between the Craftworlders and Dark Eldar let alone believe their story, and so the Imperials opened fire. This is what happens when you spend ten thousand years lying through your teeth, ruining operations that doom billions of innocents, and generally work very hard to earn everyone’s mistrust and undying hatred. Like usual, their asstard nature bit the spelves in the ass.

Many Eldar were cut down, including Rhyloor, but Quelanaris managed to escape with his fallen comrades' spirit stones. Vowing vengeance for an incident of his own people’s making and for his own invasion of an Imperial World shockingly getting his warriors shot to pieces (because Imperials are famous for loving it when xenos pop up on their worlds without permission), he had the spirit stones installed into waiting Wraith Constructs and led a second strike Force back to Vigilus to avenge the Autarch (y’know, by trying to kill the people whose deaths would doom his Craftworld, the usual Elfdar stupidity).

Some time later, this strike force attempted a direct attack on the Imperial leadership council as revenge for their recent losses. Primaris Lieutenant '''Eothrus''' of the Ultramarines attempted to talk down the Spiritseer, having heard about Saim-Hann assisting the Space Wolves on Stygius from Haldor Ice-Pelt, but Quelanaris refused to listen to reason and ordered his forces to attack. Since killing that leadership (who by the way are ironically innocent of blame for what happened) is what he was sent to prevent in the first place because it would ultimately doom his Craftworld, it will be curious to know what Saim-Hann thinks of him trying to kill those people himself now...probably not gonna be too pleased. To be fair, he’s not going around murdering people and isn’t technically trying to harm the Imperial forces, he’s just trying to kill the people he believes are ultimately responsible for their distant subordinates’ actions...and too cowardly to face the Stormtroopers that curbstomped his forces earlier.

===The Carnival of Pain===

While the Imperial Guard wasted their time with the Craftworlders, the ''actual'' Dark Eldar continued their merry time harassing and generally making the residents of Hivesprawls Hyperia and Oteck ''wish'' for the swift release of death. Led primarily by the [[Haemonculi]] coven of '''The Altered''', [[Kabalite_Warriors|Kabalite]] troops joined with Wych cults and Haemonculi constructs in raids that were both spectacular and deadly. The Altered in particular had a specific beef with the [[Ultramarines]], as Guilliman had kicked their ass in during the [[Indomitus Crusade]], and took particular amusement in hauling entire ''squads'' of Ultramarines back to [[Commorragh]] for "entertainment". Although, taking entire squads of Astartes is honestly not believable. If they could do that then the Dark Eldar would be basically invincible. Which they’re very much not.

===Holding Back The Foul Tide===

Back in Dontoria Hive, the newly-arrived Primaris Chapter [[Necropolis Hawks]] fought to hold back the Gellerpox Infected, while the [[Crimson Fists]] and the [[Iron Hands]] worked to create a barrier with the assistance of du Languille to hold back the Chaos-spawned plague. Using the PDF's [[Hellhound#Warhammer_40.2C000|hellhound tanks]], the Fists set fire to the hive's promethium pipelines, creating a literal firewall around the infected zone.

===The Mortwald Defense===

With the destruction of the waterworks at Oteck Hivesprawl, water was getting harder to come by at Vigilus. Dontoria's own water source was also in danger of contamination, due to everyone forgetting that the [[Death Guard]] had already made landfall.

Mortwald, the source of most of the planet's food and medicine, was also under threat. Defending it were regiments of '''Ventrillian Nobles''', '''Vostroyan Firstborn''', and '''Cadian Shock Troopers''', all under the command of '''Deinos''', the [[Awesome|surprisingly-competent]] brother of the Imperial governor.

When the Greenskins came, the trench network Deinos had prepared showed its worth, and slowed down the advance of the Orks for Weeks. Within the walls of the Hivesprawl, the Guard proved themselves equally adept at putting down Genestealer Cult uprisings. Lord Deinos was adamant -- '''Mortwald will not fall''' -- and his mantra became the rallying cry of the defenders there. This stalwart defense was only improved by the arrival of the [[Imperial Fists]] 5th Company under '''Brother-Captain Dravatis Fane''', though his forces would be tested as Ork [[Stompa|Stompas]] emerged by the hundreds. Although his forces had to retreat to higher ground, Fane would counter-attack. With him were loyalists [[Imperial Knight|Knights]] from '''House Terryn''', as well as Freeblades formerly from the traitorous House Mandrakor.

In a charge that was the stuff of legends, the knights attacked the Stompa horde. Supported by the [[Reaver_Battle_Titan|Reaver Titan]] '''Heresium's Bane''', the Knights actually forced the Orks to break. Rather than running them down, the Imperials halted (notwithstanding the Freeblades who wanted to pursue them), as they insisted that the [[Noblebright|defending the people of Mortwald came first]]. This decision would soon bite them in the arse however, as a few days later the Orks attacked. While it was driven off easily enough, these attacks increased in strength week after work, until the Imperials were facing machines the size of ''reavers''.

Fane had enough. He ordered an expedition into the wastelands to find the factories churning these machines out, and put them out of commission. Permanently.

The Imperial forces found a large scrap city east of Mortwald and, under the cover of a dust storm, attacked. With [[Warhound_Scout_Titan|Warhounds]] as support, the Knights identified, then destroyed the major factories. With the mission completed, Fane ordered a withdrawal, but the Freeblades in their zeal to redeem themselves ignored this, and [[RAGE|charged straight into the ''next'' scrap city]]. Much facepalming ensued, as while the Knights killed countless orks in their reckless attack, they soon found themselves surrounded.

Fane led an airborne rescue force alongside elements of the [[White Scars]] Brotherhood led by '''Olujin Khan''' and [[Dark Angels]] Ravenwing commanded by '''Meneraeus''' to aid the beleaguered Knights. The [[Stormtalon|Stormtalons]] of the White Scars destroyed the anti-air and artillery emplacements, and without these the [[Bike_Squad|Bike Squads]] of the two Chapters cut a path through the Orks.

Without warning, the Ravenwing [[Fallen|suddenly abandoned the attack, and thundered into the dusty wilderness of the Vhulian Swirl]]. The White Scars, now bereft of support, found themselves on the verge of being swamped by Greenskins, so Olujin was forced to call a fighting withdrawal. Odd as if sounds, this behavior is weird for most Unforgiven Chapters. They balance hunting Fallen with their duties to the Imperium. Besides, hunting is mostly a Deathwing thing. Abandoning a battle important to saving a hive city crucial to defending a planet critical to the Imperium is not something they would do. Risking the Imperium for their secret is not a line they would cross. Seems to be writer error for not knowing more than the surface basics of Dark Angel lore.

===Water War===

Back at Megaborealis the Mechanicus and Iron Hands was getting their Genestealer problem somewhat under control. The Sons of Manus would lead the attacks, then the Mechanicus would handle clean-up. Using xenos-detection tech, the Genestealer nests were found and destroyed, which forced the Pauper Princes to slink back into the shadows and resort to guerilla warfare to strike back.

The same could ''not'' be said of the Stygian Spires region, which controlled the asteroid water mining operations of Megaborealis. Led by the Grandsire Wurm itself, the Cultists overwhelmed the Skitarii defenders. Before long, the top levels of the water plant were taken over by the Patriarch and its kin.

=='''Bad Portents, Bad People'''==

Despite all of this, the general consensus of the population was that things had stabilized enough that the Imperium just ''might'' eke a win out of all this. This, despite Calgar being forced to have Dirkden's civilian population evacuated.

===Raptor Rampage===

[[File:Urban_Conquest_Vigilus.jpg|320px|thumb|right|From Bad, to the Worst]]

Then things really started to go tits up. Reports of disappearances and horrible monsters in the upper spires started to spread, with everyone trying to investigate vanishing without a trace. The Great Rift seemed to darken in the sky, and readings of the Emperor's Tarot all produced the same ominous reading.

By the time the [[Ordo Malleus]] had deciphered the mumbling of comatose Imperial Psykers as a warning about a "Dark King", the monsters had been identified as a scouting force of [[Black Legion]] [[Chaos Raptor|Raptors]], [[Heldrake]]s, and [[Warp Talons]].

Soon afterward, every vox network on the planet received a message from '''[[Haarken Worldclaimer]]''', the Chaos Raptor Lord leading the Black Legion forces and Herald of the Apocalypse: Vigilus now belonged to '''[[Abaddon]]''' and the Despoiler would soon arrive to oversee its conquest personally.

As the Vigilus Senate convened to discuss the alarming turn of events, they were [[Awesome|attacked by a]] [[Heldrake]] [[Awesome|that smashed through the Senate spire's ceiling.]] The Victrix Guard were able to prevent it from harming Calgar, but now they had to deal with the impending arrival of the Warmaster himself.

Meanwhile, [[Thousand Sons]] [[Rubric Marines]] were burning their way through Oteck Hivesprawl, a new Gellerpox outbreak in Mortwald led the nobles to hoard food and water for themselves and inadvertently inspire even ''more'' Chaos and Genestealer Cult uprisings, and the defenses of the planet were being stretched thinner and thinner. And the bulk of the Black Legion's forces hadn't even shown up yet.

Haarken had boasted that Vigilus would fall within 80 days of his arrival. Sure enough, after 80 days a massive number of Warp signatures was detected in the Nachmund Gauntlet.

The War of Nightmares had begun.

===Shadowspear At Nemendghast===

During all of this madness, at the outskirts of the Vigilus System a taskforce of Vanguard Primaris are covertly inserted into the planet '''Nemendghast''' after receiving a distress call from there. To their horror, they find that the world had already been taken over the Dark Powers, and its forges used to churn out Daemon Engines for the [[Black Legion]]. As it turns out, it had been trapped within the Great Rift for a time and Abaddon had taken the opportunity to capture it as a staging area for his planned invasion force.

Although heavily outnumbered by the [[Possessed|Daemonkin]] there, the task force, led by Ultramarines Librarian '''Maltis''', try to sabotage the forges ruled over by Master of Possession '''Vorash Soulflayer'''. It succeeded, but at great cost, with only Maltis escaping to bring word to Calgar of the Black Legion fleet's imminent arrival.

===Clash in the Void===
Having learned of the approaching fleet from Maltis, Calgar called for a double cordon to intercept the Chaos armada. In spite of a torpedo barrage meant to box in the fleet, the Imperials were pushed back after the Chaos forces began summoning daemons onto the Imperial ships. Even Calgar's own flagship ''Laurels of Victory'' was not spared, and he was wounded by the [[Keeper of Secrets]] that manifested onboard. Yeah, normal daemon incursions the Imperials can handle, greater daemons on ships not so much.

Following his return, Calgar had no choice but to abandon Dirkden Hivesprawl and Kaelac's Bane in favor of shoring up the defenses of Mortwald, Megaborealis, Oteck, and Dontoria.

===Vannadan's Legacy===
While Vannadan's plan had been thwarted by the Eldar intervention, the pyroclastic cults of Storvhal soon rallied around Haarken Worldclaimer. After defeating the local Skitarii defenders, they were able to open a Warp portal to summon an army of daemons of Tzeentch; soon even the volcanoes were erupting with warpfire.

The quick thinking of '''Fabricator Vosch''' was able to stop the continent from being swallowed by Chaos by using [[Tectonic Fragdrill]]s to trigger a massive but more conventional eruption that wiped out both Chaos forces and whatever AdMech couldn't get out of the way. Even then, Storvhal remained in Chaos hands, with Worldclaimer's Raptor packs using the ash to conceal their movements.

===Stormclaw Revisited===
Around this time, another detachment of Space Wolves led by '''[[Krom Dragongaze]]''' arrived to reinforce Vigilus. Showing his well-known disregard for little things like "waiting for orders", he immediately led an assault on the Ork-held Space Hulk ''Worldsmasha''. Following the destruction of several smaller hulks by the Wolves' Battle-Barges, Krom's forces were able to teleport directly to the ''Worldsmasha'' and kill its Big Mek commander before sending the Space Hulk on a crash course with an Ork settlement.

Marneus Calgar was less than impressed with Krom's recklessness, but news of a renewed greenskin threat in Hyperia prevented them from coming to blows over the matter.

===Creepy Crawlies===
The arrival of Abaddon's fleet had demoralized the population even further. Looting and rioting were widespread, and many of the despairing populace had turned to the Genestealer Cults or Chaos if they had not simply become Zealots for the Imperial Cult.

However, Abaddon had underestimated the strength of the xenos on Vigilus. Initial attempts at capturing the spires were stymied by Orks and the Pauper Princes, forcing Haarken to change his initial plans. An attack on Dirkden by the [[Night Lords]] and [[The Scourged]] killed millions of the cultists, but ultimately failed under a massive assault by Metamorphs and Aberrants.

===Sisters of Battle: Not Jobbing This Time===
The Genestealer Cultists had also started to tunnel underneath Dirkden into Oteck in the hopes of spreading their uprising further, but the Sisters of Battle from the Order of the Argent Shroud and the Order of the Last Prioress were able to keep them contained. Exploration of the tunnels revealed that they had already begun infiltrating Hyperia, though, and the Sisters' plans to counter-attack through the tunnels had to be put on hold.

The Orders Dialogus had also kept busy by mapping the Ork Speedwaaagh! races, allowing Imperial convoys to be ready for the greenskins' raids. This frustrated the Orks enough to get them to go out of their way to hunt down convoys protected by the Sisters.

===Retaking the Hoist===
To deal with their water problem, the Imperials set out to recapture the Omnissian Hoist from the Genestealers. The cults had already been weakened by a prior skirmish with the Magma Hounds warband, allowing a combined force of Iron Hands and Skitarii to push through the alien hordes.

The Grandsire Wurm itself was forced to lead the counter-attack, eventually sealing itself into the hoist's main control center in a final effort to deny it to the AdMech. But it hadn't counted on the Onager Dunecrawlers that had crawled up the structure, and it was forced to retreat after being wounded. After that, the Dunecrawlers were able to mop up the remaining Purestrains without difficulty.

===Vigilus Ablaze===
Hyperia Hivesprawl had at this point come under heavy attack by the [[Iron Warriors]] and the [[Word Bearers]], the latter of which had taken the time to build Noctilith Crowns to summon even more daemons. After receiving news that the Black Legion had led a major assault into a critical water purification plant on top of another Gellerpox outbreak, Calgar had no choice but to take desperate measures.

On the advice of the Planetary Governor, massive fires were started in each of the major Hivesprawls to prevent their corruption from spreading further. "Calgar's Fires" did manage to eliminate considerable parts of the xenos and Chaos forces, but only at a terrible cost. Even worse, the ''[[Vengeful Spirit]]'' had arrived on Vigilus and was effortlessly destroying every Imperial vessel sent to repel it.

===The Fallen Angels are Assholes===
Abaddon's first course of action was to pay a visit to the center of the Vhulian Swirl. The great storms were in fact artificial, and intended to conceal the location of a fortress called the Citadel Vigilant that had been occupied by a group of [[Fallen Angels]] that had forged a blood pact with Abaddon during the Pandorax campaign. Their leader, the former Librarian '''Osandus''', had come into possession of a gravitic weapon dating from the Dark Age of Technology, dubbed the Voidclaw.

Osandus had originally planned to lure the Dark Angels to Vigilus using hints from Fallen that let themselves be captured as bait; they would bring the Rock with them, and the Voidclaw would then be used to destroy it and wipe out the Dark Angels in the process. Abaddon sought to use it on the space between Vigilus and its moon Neo-Vellum, altering the planet's orbit in a way that would reshape the Nachmund Gauntlet if not close it completely, thus ensuring that the Imperium Nihilus was lost for good.

The Fallen Librarian was pleased to help with such a major blow against the Imperium, and the Voidclaw was fired. Needless to say, this royally fucked over just about '''''everybody''''' on Vigilus. Mercifully, the Dark Angels were later able to find the Citadel Vigilant, destroy the Voidclaw before it could close the Gauntlet, and deal with the Fallen in their usual manner.

=='''All Downhill From Here'''==
As you would probably expect, the Imperials were left badly reeling from the Voidclaw's activation. Calgar managed to salvage things somewhat by manipulating Chaos forces into clashes with the Speedwaaagh!, but even then the Imperials were struggling and countless hives had been badly damaged if not outright destroyed.

===Mortwald Falls===
At Mortwald, the Imperial Fists and Iron Warriors had been engaged in a long trench war, but when they and Deinos' elite forces were forced to redeploy against other threats the Hivesprawl fell to the forces of Chaos. The nobles that had been hoarding food all this time unsurprisingly fell to Slaanesh, a situation that the [[Flawless Host]] used to their advantage by overwhelming the defenders with Daemonettes as they shut down the automated defenses. By the time the Imperial Fists could respond, the rioters opposing the corrupt nobles had devolved into cultists of Khorne. None of this makes sense, of course. The whole reason Mortwald was defended was its food and medicine production, so the defenders letting the nobles hoard food so much the locals riot makes less than zero sense. At that point there wouldn’t be a difference between having and not having the city. Plus, while the Imperial Fists are no Blood Angels, they do care about the citizens and uphold the Emperor’s vision of the Imperium. A vision in which hoarding food from a starving populace gets you a chainsword enema.

===Purge-ing Dontoria===
At the peak of the Death Guard invasion of Dontoria Hivesprawl, the Gellerpox-infected freighters that had departed near the beginning of the war came back, now full of mutants eager to claim Dontoria for Nurgle.

[[The Purge]] were insulted by the Death Guard's sudden influx of corrupted life, and sought to deal with it in their traditional manner: with lots of chemical weaponry. Citizens and mutants alike were thrown into manufactorums, producing a foul miasma that suffocated everything it came into contact with. As you might expect, the Death Guard and the Gellerpox Infected did not appreciate the interference and the two Nurglite armies quickly turned on each other.

Marneus Calgar decided that breaking their stalemate would not be worth it; even if the Nurglites could be driven off, Dontoria was now a hopelessly corrupted shithole too far gone to be saved.

===Blizzard Battles===
The Dark Eldar and the Thousand Sons spent most of the later parts of the war fighting over the Webway Gate at Kaelac's Bane. The Dark Eldar seemingly triumphed after unleashing stolen terraforming devices that froze the Rubric Marines solid, but before retreating to the Webway their sorcerers left them a "parting gift": a Keeper of Secrets. This particular Keeper of Secrets, known as "The Pale Stalker", was able to blend in perfectly with the blizzards, and within three weeks it had slain nearly a third of the Dark Eldar forces. The survivors were left so petrified of the daemon that they abandoned Vigilus outright. After one last slave raid, of course.

===Like Primarch, Like Chapter Master===
The Imperial forces were increasingly confronted with the possibility that they were going to lose. Chaos kept gaining ground, and the remaining relay stations on Neo-Vellum were warning that the Great Rift was expanding closer to Vigilus. Left unchecked, the world would be lost to the Warp and the entirety of the Imperium Nihilus with it.

Some among the Vigilus Senate brought up the prospect of Exterminatus, but Marneus Calgar reminded them that Guilliman told them not to abandon the planet under any circumstances. More importantly, the Chaos forces were still being weakened by the xenos and Imperial forces were still eking out victories here and there.

While seeking the aid of the Orks was out of the question, Calgar decided that an alliance with the Eldar of Saim-Hann would work to their mutual advantage. During a lull in the fighting, Calgar was able to call for a parley and meet with Farseer Keltoc. While Keltoc was still upset with the death of Autarch Rhyloor, the Farseer agreed that the Eldar could not afford for Vigilus to fall.

The exact details of the pact Calgar made with Keltoc are uncertain, but given that the Farseer and his senior chieftains were allowed into the Governor's Palace and that the Planetary Governor and the other members of the former Aquilarian Council who had a role in Rhyloor's death were never heard from again, it isn't difficult to figure out the terms. In exchange, the Eldar agreed to allow the Imperials the use of the stealth ship ''Vaul's Ghost'', which Calgar needed to carry out his plan to force the Black Legion's withdrawal.

The Eldar soon began to create a diversion for the Imperials, leading Orks into Chaos Space Marines strongpoints across Vigilus. While countless battles continued to rage, only Calgar, Keltoc, and a handful of Ultramarines commanders knew that only one- the battle for New Vitae Docks- mattered. Countless bulk freighters were sent into low orbit despite the Iron Warriors' best efforts to shoot them down. Most were decoys, but one of them was carrying a payload of six Deathstrike Missiles- including two Vortex Missiles. Meanwhile, the Imperial fleet had been hastily reassembled to engage the Black Legion's fleet, in the hopes that it would buy enough time for the ''Vaul's Ghost'' to pick up the missiles.

===The Main Event===
To ensure that the Warmaster couldn't catch onto what the Imperial fleet was planning, Marneus Calgar challenged Abaddon to a duel at Saint's Haven. The Despoiler was eager to humiliate the Chapter Master, and promptly teleported there with a retinue of Terminators and Possessed.

As their bodyguards fought, Calgar and Abaddon exchanged volleys of bolter fire before a loose flagstone left the Chapter Master off-balance long enough for the Warmaster to damage one of the Gauntlets of Ultramar. Calgar countered with a punch strong enough to knock Abaddon off his feet, but a slash from Drach'nyen cut off two of Calgar's fingers, badly damaged his armor, and destroyed his secondary heart.

As Abaddon prepared to finish off Calgar, he received an urgent warning from Worldclaimer: the ''Vaul's Ghost'' had crashed into the ''Vengeful Spirit'', detonating the Deathstrike Missiles in its hold and blowing a massive hole in the Black Legion's flagship. The critically damaged battleship would soon make an emergency Warp jump out of the Vigilus system, and Abaddon would have no choice but to teleport back to attend to the ship.

The Despoiler chose to leave his Possessed retinue behind to make sure Calgar didn't have the chance to learn his plan worked, but his Belisarian Furnace kicked in just in time to help him fight them off. By the time the Victrix Guard arrived, Calgar was on death's door (again) but was saved by his Apothecaries. However, he hasn't taken the field personally since then and is likely still recovering.

=='''The Aftermath'''==
The war didn't immediately end with Abaddon's departure, but without him to hold them together the forces of Chaos have splintered and begun fighting among themselves. The Despoiler has not allowed his setback to stop his plans to close the Gauntlet, though. In fact, he has already planned an attack on Vigilus' sister world of Sangua Terra, to be spearheaded by the [[Planet Killer]] itself.

Megaborealis was retaken by the combined forces of the AdMech and the Iron Hands, and while the Black Legion was able to destroy much of the Blackstone deposits that kept the Nachmund Gauntlet open with a cyclonic torpedo bombardment the cogboys kept enough of the stuff hidden away for the Gauntlet to stay stable. Hyperia is still contested, but Oteck and Dirkden are considered lost.

Speedboss Krooldakka was slain during the Black Legion's bombardment of Megaborealis, and while the Orks are a spent force in Vigilus' cities they still hold a considerable amount of territory in the wastelands. Two-thirds of their scrap cities are estimated to be intact, and word of Vigilus being a fun fight has attracted Orks to the world, just like on Armageddon.

With the Black Legion repelled and their honor avenged, the Eldar of Saim-Hann left without much fanfare from anyone.

The Pauper Princes still infest the entirety of Dirkden Hivesprawl, but their plans have suffered a blow that they may not be able to recover from. They now look to the stars for salvation, hoping their [[Tyranids|Star Saviors]] come to their aid. Grandsire Wurm was slain by a trio of Callidus Assassins disguised as Neophyte Hybrids, but the cult had spread far enough for multiple Patriarchs to arise, with one of them becoming the new Grandsire Wurm. In the meantime, they have managed to spread to Vigilus' moon, Neo-Vellum.

Vigilus itself is about as badly fucked over as you would think, but with the threats to Vigilus now being at relatively manageable levels the Imperium can now consider the planet to be safely in their hands. For now, anyway.

{{40k-Timeline}}

War of Beasts

2019-09-25T20:15:16Z

2600:1006:B105:8611:58CC:338D:D9D2:B1D4: /* Clash in the Void */

''Not to be confused with the [[War of the Beast]] that took place in M32''

[[File:Vigilus_Defiant.jpeg|320px|thumb|right|From backwater to Armageddon 2.0]]

The '''War of Beasts''' (aka Armageddon on steroids, later the '''War of Nightmares''') is the term used to label the ongoing conflict between the forces of the [[Imperium|Imperium of Mankind]] and the various [[Xenos]] and [[Chaos]] forces trying to wrest its control of the strategic planet of [[Vigilus]]. The loss of Vigilus would mean the loss of a vital staging area for the Imperium for any kind of crusade into the Dark Imperium, and as such it is important for it to stay in Imperial hands.

== '''The Opening Phases''' ==
===The Speed Freekz Cometh===

The first major threat to hit the planet in the wake of the Great Rift opening was a massive [[WAAAGH|Waaagh!]] of [[Orks]]. Bursting from the Rift seemingly at random, and led by powerful [[Speed_Freek|Speed Freeks]], the Ork fleet easily broke through the naval cordon and landed its boyz in the deserts between the great hives.

While most of the fleet crashed and burned, the Orks soon used remains of the downed fleet to create ramshackle scrap-cities, and from there '''Speedboss Krooldakka''' roared out at the head of a massive force of bikes, trukks, and battlewagons. Still reeling from the birth of the Rift, the Imperial forces gathered could do nothing to stop it.

At first, the Orks met little success, as the force fields were too strong. Growing bored, they resorted to raiding caravans or battling and racing each other in the massive deserts outside of the hives. This state of affairs didn't last however; the Great Rift continued to grow, and with its expansion Warp Storms washed over Vigilus.

The bastion fields soon flickered, then failed outright, which was what the Orks were waiting for. The green tide rushed to each Hive, and despite the best efforts of the [[Imperial Guard]], the [[Skitarii]] of the Adeptus Mechanicus, and the [[Sisters of Battle]], it was all they could do to avoid being overwhelmed.

===They Came From Underneath===

Despite the threat of the Orks, there were threats to the defense of Vigilus much closer to home. Centuries before, a [[Genestealer Cult]] derived from the '''Pauper Princes''' had managed to get a single Purestrain Genestealer onto the world. The Genestealer grew into the [[Genestealer Patriarch]] called the '''Grandsire Wurm''', and its cult refused to let its years of preparation go to waste due to the unexpected greenskin arrivals. Uprisings that were supposed to be triggered decades down the road were forced to do so prematurely, and soon every Hivesprawl was in chaos due to the simultaneous insurrections. Imperial defenders fell to synchronized ambushes across the planet, as the Cult consolidated its hold on the Hives.

The response to the Genestealer Cult-led revolt was slow, as the Imperial Government initially thought it was the work of criminals and malcontents, and instead focused on shoring up its defenses. These uprisings, plus the constant ork raids, essentially forced the industry on the planet to grind to a halt. Things were, to put it mildly, looking grim.

===Tooth and Claw===

[[File:Vigilus_tooth_and_claw.jpg|320px|thumb|right|Bugs vs. Furries.]]

It was at this point that a task force of [[Space Marines]] made of elements from the [[Iron Hands]] and the [[Brazen Claws]], decided to throw their hats into the proceedings. On the way to the Stygies Front, they made a detour to Vigilus once contacted by their Mechanicus allies. Led by [[Kardan Stronos]], the Astartes made a massed [[Steel Rain|drop pod assault]] on the outskirts of each major Hivesprawl, before converging toward Megaborealis. Expecting to find Orks, they found cultists and [[Genestealers]] instead. Battles with these cultists would keep the sons of [[Ferrus Manus]] busy for many months.

Later on, a second task force of Astartes, this time [[Space Wolves]] from the Great Company of [[Ragnar Blackmane]] arrived to do battle with the xenos occupying the Oteck Hivesprawl. There was little coordination between the Wolves and the Iron Hands, and hilariously ''none'' of these Chapters saw fit to inform the Vigilus ruling council of what the heck was going on in their cities.

===The Megaborealis Throwdown===

A Mechanicus stronghold, Megaborealis was thought unassailable by '''Ipluvius XIV''', the [[Tech_Priest_Dominus|Magus Dominus]] in command of the Skitarii forces there, enough that he let himself get distracted by his studies. However, a squad of Ork [[Ork_Kommando|Kommandos]] begged to disagree, and brought down the hive's forcefield. The massive speed freekz attack that followed, coupled with a [[Just As Planned|simultaneous attack by genestealer cultists]], caused the magos' cogitators to freeze up due to the stress, leaving the defenders without coordination. It was bad enough that the cultists were able to steal [[Warp_Weapons#Imperial_Variants|Vortex Missiles]] and detonate it in the middle of the Hivesprawl, destroying countless Imperial war assets (including the [[Warlord Titan]] '''Dominus Rex''').

In a decisive move, Archmagos '''Nesium Caldrike''' took control of the remaining defenders, and coordinating with elements of the [[Iron Hands]] Clan Kaargul put a stop to the Genestealer shenanigans, for now at least.

While all of '''this''' was happening, the [[Imperial Guard]] was making a large-scale counterattack, with the aim of reinforcing Megaborealis. The armored convoys of [[Leman_Russ_Battle_Tank|Leman Russes]] and [[Chimera#In_Warhammer_40000|Chimeras]] took a heavy toll on the greenskins, but all this just seemed to draw more and more mobs of speed freekz to the convoys.

===Chaos Crashes The Party (Literally)===

At Hivesprawl Dontoria, already under pressure from mysterious attackers (who turned out to be [[Dark Eldar]] opportunists), an unknown spacecraft decided to crash into the hive's center, despite the best efforts from the anti-air emplacements surrounding it. From its ruined depths came the mutants of the '''Gellerpox Infected''', but the worse was to come, as in their wake came the Heretic Astartes of the '''[[Death Guard]]'''.

While the [[Tempestus Scions]] there were able to repel the Infected's assault, the sons of [[Mortarion]] soon overwhelmed the defenses. In desperation the Hive's lower levels were firebombed in a two-mile radius, but this was not enough to contain Nurgle's followers, and soon the Gellerpox spread through Dontoria. Despite the warnings of Rogue Trader '''Delarique du Languille''', the Aquilarian Council was slow to react to the threat. Acting on a warning from her psyker servant that the Gellerpox would threaten Terra if left unchecked, she took matters into her own hands. The Rogue Trader was able to halt shipping offworld and intercept and destroy what was thought to be the only Gellerpox-infected vessel departing Vigilus- but it was later found that two other infected ships had escaped and were now headed directly to [[Terra]].

===Here Come Guilliman's Boys===

After receiving a vision from [[Varro_Tigurius|Tigurius]], as well as a message from [[Roboute Guilliman]] to not allow Vigilus to fall, [[Chapter Master]] '''[[Marneus Calgar]]''' rushed as many of the [[Ultramarines]] that he could spare to the planet's defense. The going was difficult, and even with Tigurius' guidance many [[Librarian#Ranks|Epistolaries]] die to get the Chapter to the world on time.

Once there, he swiftly had those in the Aquilarian Council he determined to be Genestealer Cult infiltrators executed, and had the Vigilus Senate set up in its place.

===Wolf Bites Bug===

[[File:Tooth_And_Claw_Oteck_Rumble_2.jpg|320px|thumb|right|Rumble in the Hive Sumps, take 2!]]

The [[Space Wolves]] of course, were not idle. At Oteck Hivesprawl they tried to reclaim the all-important water supply back from the cultists. Things turned nasty very quickly when the Wolves' artillery support in the Imperial Guard turned out to have been controlled by the Cultists, and a whole lot of Hive City was suddenly dropped on the Wolves' heads. Many died, but enough Battle Brothers remained to continue the hunt for the xenos. The cultists were finally cornered and annihilated, but in their wake they left the water supply mostly tainted.

'''Haldor Icepelt''', the commander of the Space Wolves there, ordered whatever explosives the cultists stockpiled found, and then used these to bury the polluted water source under tons of rubble, preventing its spread to other hives.

== '''The Conflict Escalates even MORE''' ==
===Wake the Dead===

[[File:Wake-the-Dead.jpg|320px|thumb|right|AKA, I got Angry so I'll do Chaos' work for it!]]

It was at this point that one '''[[Farseer]] Keltoc''' from [[Craftworld]] [[Saim-Hann]] had a vision suggesting that it was important for its forces to intervene in the conflict, as ''something'' there would influence the future of the [[Eldar]] race. Apparently a home-grown [[Tzeentch|Tzeentchian]] cult led by one Vannadan planned to trigger a magma explosion that would eventually wipe out the leaders of Vigilus' defense, which would lead to the loss of the planet to Chaos, so they can't have that now, can they? Amazingly, one of the times the Eldar had genuinely good intentions (for themselves like usual, but in a way that honestly benefits someone else).

Using an underground [[Webway]] gate to avoid their dark kin, the Saim-Hann task force, led by [[Autarch]] '''Rhyloor''' and [[Spiritseer]] '''Quelanaris''', swiftly isolated the Chaos cultists and slaughtered them to a man. Word of their arrival spread to the [[Imperial Guard]] stormtroopers stationed nearby however, and the Imperials rushed to the location, fully convinced that these were the same Eldar who had been gleefully raiding the Hivesprawls during the past few months (and the Imperium does not distinguish between types of Eldar because all xenos are equally deserving of annihilation, but mostly because the only noteworthy difference between Eldar types beyond aesthetics is that Dark Eldar usually take prisoners)).

Quelanaris and Rhyloor tried desperately to explain to the arriving Stormtroopers that, no, they looked nothing like the [[Dark Eldar]] dicks who ''were'' the cause of all the trouble and that they had just eliminated a major threat to the planet (keep in mind the Imperials had no idea that the humans they had just killed were Chaos Cultists or indeed even knew there was a Chaos cult in the planet). The Tempestor Prime in charge, however, did not know or care about the difference between the Craftworlders and Dark Eldar let alone believe their story, and so the Imperials opened fire. This is what happens when you spend ten thousand years lying through your teeth, ruining operations that doom billions of innocents, and generally work very hard to earn everyone’s mistrust and undying hatred. Like usual, their asstard nature bit the spelves in the ass.

Many Eldar were cut down, including Rhyloor, but Quelanaris managed to escape with his fallen comrades' spirit stones. Vowing vengeance for an incident of his own people’s making and for his own invasion of an Imperial World shockingly getting his warriors shot to pieces (because Imperials are famous for loving it when xenos pop up on their worlds without permission), he had the spirit stones installed into waiting Wraith Constructs and led a second strike Force back to Vigilus to avenge the Autarch (y’know, by trying to kill the people whose deaths would doom his Craftworld, the usual Elfdar stupidity).

Some time later, this strike force attempted a direct attack on the Imperial leadership council as revenge for their recent losses. Primaris Lieutenant '''Eothrus''' of the Ultramarines attempted to talk down the Spiritseer, having heard about Saim-Hann assisting the Space Wolves on Stygius from Haldor Ice-Pelt, but Quelanaris refused to listen to reason and ordered his forces to attack. Since killing that leadership (who by the way are ironically innocent of blame for what happened) is what he was sent to prevent in the first place because it would ultimately doom his Craftworld, it will be curious to know what Saim-Hann thinks of him trying to kill those people himself now...probably not gonna be too pleased. To be fair, he’s not going around murdering people and isn’t technically trying to harm the Imperial forces, he’s just trying to kill the people he believes are ultimately responsible for their distant subordinates’ actions...and too cowardly to face the Stormtroopers that curbstomped his forces earlier.

===The Carnival of Pain===

While the Imperial Guard wasted their time with the Craftworlders, the ''actual'' Dark Eldar continued their merry time harassing and generally making the residents of Hivesprawls Hyperia and Oteck ''wish'' for the swift release of death. Led primarily by the [[Haemonculi]] coven of '''The Altered''', [[Kabalite_Warriors|Kabalite]] troops joined with Wych cults and Haemonculi constructs in raids that were both spectacular and deadly. The Altered in particular had a specific beef with the [[Ultramarines]], as Guilliman had kicked their ass in during the [[Indomitus Crusade]], and took particular amusement in hauling entire ''squads'' of Ultramarines back to [[Commorragh]] for "entertainment". Although, taking entire squads of Astartes is honestly not believable. If they could do that then the Dark Eldar would be basically invincible. Which they’re very much not.

===Holding Back The Foul Tide===

Back in Dontoria Hive, the newly-arrived Primaris Chapter [[Necropolis Hawks]] fought to hold back the Gellerpox Infected, while the [[Crimson Fists]] and the [[Iron Hands]] worked to create a barrier with the assistance of du Languille to hold back the Chaos-spawned plague. Using the PDF's [[Hellhound#Warhammer_40.2C000|hellhound tanks]], the Fists set fire to the hive's promethium pipelines, creating a literal firewall around the infected zone.

===The Mortwald Defense===

With the destruction of the waterworks at Oteck Hivesprawl, water was getting harder to come by at Vigilus. Dontoria's own water source was also in danger of contamination, due to everyone forgetting that the [[Death Guard]] had already made landfall.

Mortwald, the source of most of the planet's food and medicine, was also under threat. Defending it were regiments of '''Ventrillian Nobles''', '''Vostroyan Firstborn''', and '''Cadian Shock Troopers''', all under the command of '''Deinos''', the [[Awesome|surprisingly-competent]] brother of the Imperial governor.

When the Greenskins came, the trench network Deinos had prepared showed its worth, and slowed down the advance of the Orks for Weeks. Within the walls of the Hivesprawl, the Guard proved themselves equally adept at putting down Genestealer Cult uprisings. Lord Deinos was adamant -- '''Mortwald will not fall''' -- and his mantra became the rallying cry of the defenders there. This stalwart defense was only improved by the arrival of the [[Imperial Fists]] 5th Company under '''Brother-Captain Dravatis Fane''', though his forces would be tested as Ork [[Stompa|Stompas]] emerged by the hundreds. Although his forces had to retreat to higher ground, Fane would counter-attack. With him were loyalists [[Imperial Knight|Knights]] from '''House Terryn''', as well as Freeblades formerly from the traitorous House Mandrakor.

In a charge that was the stuff of legends, the knights attacked the Stompa horde. Supported by the [[Reaver_Battle_Titan|Reaver Titan]] '''Heresium's Bane''', the Knights actually forced the Orks to break. Rather than running them down, the Imperials halted (notwithstanding the Freeblades who wanted to pursue them), as they insisted that the [[Noblebright|defending the people of Mortwald came first]]. This decision would soon bite them in the arse however, as a few days later the Orks attacked. While it was driven off easily enough, these attacks increased in strength week after work, until the Imperials were facing machines the size of ''reavers''.

Fane had enough. He ordered an expedition into the wastelands to find the factories churning these machines out, and put them out of commission. Permanently.

The Imperial forces found a large scrap city east of Mortwald and, under the cover of a dust storm, attacked. With [[Warhound_Scout_Titan|Warhounds]] as support, the Knights identified, then destroyed the major factories. With the mission completed, Fane ordered a withdrawal, but the Freeblades in their zeal to redeem themselves ignored this, and [[RAGE|charged straight into the ''next'' scrap city]]. Much facepalming ensued, as while the Knights killed countless orks in their reckless attack, they soon found themselves surrounded.

Fane led an airborne rescue force alongside elements of the [[White Scars]] Brotherhood led by '''Olujin Khan''' and [[Dark Angels]] Ravenwing commanded by '''Meneraeus''' to aid the beleaguered Knights. The [[Stormtalon|Stormtalons]] of the White Scars destroyed the anti-air and artillery emplacements, and without these the [[Bike_Squad|Bike Squads]] of the two Chapters cut a path through the Orks.

Without warning, the Ravenwing [[Fallen|suddenly abandoned the attack, and thundered into the dusty wilderness of the Vhulian Swirl]]. The White Scars, now bereft of support, found themselves on the verge of being swamped by Greenskins, so Olujin was forced to call a fighting withdrawal. Odd as if sounds, this behavior is weird for most Unforgiven Chapters. They balance hunting Fallen with their duties to the Imperium. Besides, hunting is mostly a Deathwing thing. Abandoning a battle important to saving a hive city crucial to defending a planet critical to the Imperium is not something they would do. Risking the Imperium for their secret is not a line they would cross. Seems to be writer error for not knowing more than the surface basics of Dark Angel lore.

===Water War===

Back at Megaborealis the Mechanicus and Iron Hands was getting their Genestealer problem somewhat under control. The Sons of Manus would lead the attacks, then the Mechanicus would handle clean-up. Using xenos-detection tech, the Genestealer nests were found and destroyed, which forced the Pauper Princes to slink back into the shadows and resort to guerilla warfare to strike back.

The same could ''not'' be said of the Stygian Spires region, which controlled the asteroid water mining operations of Megaborealis. Led by the Grandsire Wurm itself, the Cultists overwhelmed the Skitarii defenders. Before long, the top levels of the water plant were taken over by the Patriarch and its kin.

=='''Bad Portents, Bad People'''==

Despite all of this, the general consensus of the population was that things had stabilized enough that the Imperium just ''might'' eke a win out of all this. This, despite Calgar being forced to have Dirkden's civilian population evacuated.

===Raptor Rampage===

[[File:Urban_Conquest_Vigilus.jpg|320px|thumb|right|From Bad, to the Worst]]

Then things really started to go tits up. Reports of disappearances and horrible monsters in the upper spires started to spread, with everyone trying to investigate vanishing without a trace. The Great Rift seemed to darken in the sky, and readings of the Emperor's Tarot all produced the same ominous reading.

By the time the [[Ordo Malleus]] had deciphered the mumbling of comatose Imperial Psykers as a warning about a "Dark King", the monsters had been identified as a scouting force of [[Black Legion]] [[Chaos Raptor|Raptors]], [[Heldrake]]s, and [[Warp Talons]].

Soon afterward, every vox network on the planet received a message from '''[[Haarken Worldclaimer]]''', the Chaos Raptor Lord leading the Black Legion forces and Herald of the Apocalypse: Vigilus now belonged to '''[[Abaddon]]''' and the Despoiler would soon arrive to oversee its conquest personally.

As the Vigilus Senate convened to discuss the alarming turn of events, they were [[Awesome|attacked by a]] [[Heldrake]] [[Awesome|that smashed through the Senate spire's ceiling.]] The Victrix Guard were able to prevent it from harming Calgar, but now they had to deal with the impending arrival of the Warmaster himself.

Meanwhile, [[Thousand Sons]] [[Rubric Marines]] were burning their way through Oteck Hivesprawl, a new Gellerpox outbreak in Mortwald led the nobles to hoard food and water for themselves and inadvertently inspire even ''more'' Chaos and Genestealer Cult uprisings, and the defenses of the planet were being stretched thinner and thinner. And the bulk of the Black Legion's forces hadn't even shown up yet.

Haarken had boasted that Vigilus would fall within 80 days of his arrival. Sure enough, after 80 days a massive number of Warp signatures was detected in the Nachmund Gauntlet.

The War of Nightmares had begun.

===Shadowspear At Nemendghast===

During all of this madness, at the outskirts of the Vigilus System a taskforce of Vanguard Primaris are covertly inserted into the planet '''Nemendghast''' after receiving a distress call from there. To their horror, they find that the world had already been taken over the Dark Powers, and its forges used to churn out Daemon Engines for the [[Black Legion]]. As it turns out, it had been trapped within the Great Rift for a time and Abaddon had taken the opportunity to capture it as a staging area for his planned invasion force.

Although heavily outnumbered by the [[Possessed|Daemonkin]] there, the task force, led by Ultramarines Librarian '''Maltis''', try to sabotage the forges ruled over by Master of Possession '''Vorash Soulflayer'''. It succeeded, but at great cost, with only Maltis escaping to bring word to Calgar of the Black Legion fleet's imminent arrival.

===Clash in the Void===
Having learned of the approaching fleet from Maltis, Calgar called for a double cordon to intercept the Chaos armada. In spite of a torpedo barrage meant to box in the fleet, the Imperials were pushed back after the Chaos forces began summoning daemons onto the Imperial ships. Even Calgar's own flagship ''Laurels of Victory'' was not spared, and he was wounded by the [[Keeper of Secrets]] that manifested onboard. Yeah, normal daemon incursions the Imperials can handle, greater daemons on ships not so much.

Following his return, Calgar had no choice but to abandon Dirkden Hivesprawl and Kaelac's Bane in favor of shoring up the defenses of Mortwald, Megaborealis, Oteck, and Dontoria.

===Vannadan's Legacy===
While Vannadan's plan had been thwarted by the Eldar intervention, the pyroclastic cults of Storvhal soon rallied around Haarken Worldclaimer. After defeating the local Skitarii defenders, they were able to open a Warp portal to summon an army of daemons of Tzeentch; soon even the volcanoes were erupting with warpfire.

The quick thinking of '''Fabricator Vosch''' was able to stop the continent from being swallowed by Chaos by using [[Tectonic Fragdrill]]s to trigger a massive but more conventional eruption that wiped out both Chaos forces and whatever AdMech couldn't get out of the way. Even then, Storvhal remained in Chaos hands, with Worldclaimer's Raptor packs using the ash to conceal their movements.

===Stormclaw Revisited===
Around this time, another detachment of Space Wolves led by '''[[Krom Dragongaze]]''' arrived to reinforce Vigilus. Showing his well-known disregard for little things like "waiting for orders", he immediately led an assault on the Ork-held Space Hulk ''Worldsmasha''. Following the destruction of several smaller hulks by the Wolves' Battle-Barges, Krom's forces were able to teleport directly to the ''Worldsmasha'' and kill its Big Mek commander before sending the Space Hulk on a crash course with an Ork settlement.

Marneus Calgar was less than impressed with Krom's recklessness, but news of a renewed greenskin threat in Hyperia prevented them from coming to blows over the matter.

===Creepy Crawlies===
The arrival of Abaddon's fleet had demoralized the population even further. Looting and rioting were widespread, and many of the despairing populace had turned to the Genestealer Cults or Chaos if they had not simply become Zealots for the Imperial Cult.

However, Abaddon had underestimated the strength of the xenos on Vigilus. Initial attempts at capturing the spires were stymied by Orks and the Pauper Princes, forcing Haarken to change his initial plans. An attack on Dirkden by the [[Night Lords]] and [[The Scourged]] killed millions of the cultists, but ultimately failed under a massive assault by Metamorphs and Aberrants.

===Sisters of Battle: Not Jobbing This Time===
The Genestealer Cultists had also started to tunnel underneath Dirkden into Oteck in the hopes of spreading their uprising further, but the Sisters of Battle from the Order of the Argent Shroud and the Order of the Last Prioress were able to keep them contained. Exploration of the tunnels revealed that they had already begun infiltrating Hyperia, though, and the Sisters' plans to counter-attack through the tunnels had to be put on hold.

The Orders Dialogus had also kept busy by mapping the Ork Speedwaaagh! races, allowing Imperial convoys to be ready for the greenskins' raids. This frustrated the Orks enough to get them to go out of their way to hunt down convoys protected by the Sisters.

===Retaking the Hoist===
To deal with their water problem, the Imperials set out to recapture the Omnissian Hoist from the Genestealers. The cults had already been weakened by a prior skirmish with the Magma Hounds warband, allowing a combined force of Iron Hands and Skitarii to push through the alien hordes.

The Grandsire Wurm itself was forced to lead the counter-attack, eventually sealing itself into the hoist's main control center in a final effort to deny it to the AdMech. But it hadn't counted on the Onager Dunecrawlers that had crawled up the structure, and it was forced to retreat after being wounded. After that, the Dunecrawlers were able to mop up the remaining Purestrains without difficulty.

===Vigilus Ablaze===
Hyperia Hivesprawl had at this point come under heavy attack by the [[Iron Warriors]] and the [[Word Bearers]], the latter of which had taken the time to build Noctilith Crowns to summon even more daemons. After receiving news that the Black Legion had led a major assault into a critical water purification plant on top of another Gellerpox outbreak, Calgar had no choice but to take desperate measures.

On the advice of the Planetary Governor, massive fires were started in each of the major Hivesprawls to prevent their corruption from spreading further. "Calgar's Fires" did manage to eliminate considerable parts of the xenos and Chaos forces, but only at a terrible cost. Even worse, the ''[[Vengeful Spirit]]'' had arrived on Vigilus and was effortlessly destroying every Imperial vessel sent to repel it.

===The Fallen Angels are Assholes===
Abaddon's first course of action was to pay a visit to the center of the Vhulian Swirl. The great storms were in fact artificial, and intended to conceal the location of a fortress called the Citadel Vigilant that had been occupied by a group of [[Fallen Angels]] that had forged a blood pact with Abaddon during the Pandorax campaign. Their leader, the former Librarian '''Osandus''', had come into possession of a gravitic weapon dating from the Dark Age of Technology, dubbed the Voidclaw.

Osandus had originally planned to lure the Dark Angels to Vigilus using hints from Fallen that let themselves be captured as bait; they would bring the Rock with them, and the Voidclaw would then be used to destroy it and wipe out the Dark Angels in the process. Abaddon sought to use it on the space between Vigilus and its moon Neo-Vellum, altering the planet's orbit in a way that would reshape the Nachmund Gauntlet if not close it completely, thus ensuring that the Imperium Nihilus was lost for good.

The Fallen Librarian was pleased to help with such a major blow against the Imperium, and the Voidclaw was fired. Needless to say, this royally fucked over just about '''''everybody''''' on Vigilus. Mercifully, the Dark Angels were later able to find the Citadel Vigilant, destroy the Voidclaw before it could close the Gauntlet, and deal with the Fallen in their usual manner.

=='''All Downhill From Here'''==
As you would probably expect, the Imperials were left badly reeling from the Voidclaw's activation. Calgar managed to salvage things somewhat by manipulating Chaos forces into clashes with the Speedwaaagh!, but even then the Imperials were struggling and countless hives had been badly damaged if not outright destroyed.

===Mortwald Falls===
At Mortwald, the Imperial Fists and Iron Warriors had been engaged in a long trench war, but when they and Deinos' elite forces were forced to redeploy against other threats the Hivesprawl fell to the forces of Chaos. The nobles that had been hoarding food all this time unsurprisingly fell to Slaanesh, a situation that the [[Flawless Host]] used to their advantage by overwhelming the defenders with Daemonettes as they shut down the automated defenses. By the time the Imperial Fists could respond, the rioters opposing the corrupt nobles had devolved into cultists of Khorne.

===Purge-ing Dontoria===
At the peak of the Death Guard invasion of Dontoria Hivesprawl, the Gellerpox-infected freighters that had departed near the beginning of the war came back, now full of mutants eager to claim Dontoria for Nurgle.

[[The Purge]] were insulted by the Death Guard's sudden influx of corrupted life, and sought to deal with it in their traditional manner: with lots of chemical weaponry. Citizens and mutants alike were thrown into manufactorums, producing a foul miasma that suffocated everything it came into contact with. As you might expect, the Death Guard and the Gellerpox Infected did not appreciate the interference and the two Nurglite armies quickly turned on each other.

Marneus Calgar decided that breaking their stalemate would not be worth it; even if the Nurglites could be driven off, Dontoria was now a hopelessly corrupted shithole too far gone to be saved.

===Blizzard Battles===
The Dark Eldar and the Thousand Sons spent most of the later parts of the war fighting over the Webway Gate at Kaelac's Bane. The Dark Eldar seemingly triumphed after unleashing stolen terraforming devices that froze the Rubric Marines solid, but before retreating to the Webway their sorcerers left them a "parting gift": a Keeper of Secrets. This particular Keeper of Secrets, known as "The Pale Stalker", was able to blend in perfectly with the blizzards, and within three weeks it had slain nearly a third of the Dark Eldar forces. The survivors were left so petrified of the daemon that they abandoned Vigilus outright. After one last slave raid, of course.

===Like Primarch, Like Chapter Master===
The Imperial forces were increasingly confronted with the possibility that they were going to lose. Chaos kept gaining ground, and the remaining relay stations on Neo-Vellum were warning that the Great Rift was expanding closer to Vigilus. Left unchecked, the world would be lost to the Warp and the entirety of the Imperium Nihilus with it.

Some among the Vigilus Senate brought up the prospect of Exterminatus, but Marneus Calgar reminded them that Guilliman told them not to abandon the planet under any circumstances. More importantly, the Chaos forces were still being weakened by the xenos and Imperial forces were still eking out victories here and there.

While seeking the aid of the Orks was out of the question, Calgar decided that an alliance with the Eldar of Saim-Hann would work to their mutual advantage. During a lull in the fighting, Calgar was able to call for a parley and meet with Farseer Keltoc. While Keltoc was still upset with the death of Autarch Rhyloor, the Farseer agreed that the Eldar could not afford for Vigilus to fall.

The exact details of the pact Calgar made with Keltoc are uncertain, but given that the Farseer and his senior chieftains were allowed into the Governor's Palace and that the Planetary Governor and the other members of the former Aquilarian Council who had a role in Rhyloor's death were never heard from again, it isn't difficult to figure out the terms. In exchange, the Eldar agreed to allow the Imperials the use of the stealth ship ''Vaul's Ghost'', which Calgar needed to carry out his plan to force the Black Legion's withdrawal.

The Eldar soon began to create a diversion for the Imperials, leading Orks into Chaos Space Marines strongpoints across Vigilus. While countless battles continued to rage, only Calgar, Keltoc, and a handful of Ultramarines commanders knew that only one- the battle for New Vitae Docks- mattered. Countless bulk freighters were sent into low orbit despite the Iron Warriors' best efforts to shoot them down. Most were decoys, but one of them was carrying a payload of six Deathstrike Missiles- including two Vortex Missiles. Meanwhile, the Imperial fleet had been hastily reassembled to engage the Black Legion's fleet, in the hopes that it would buy enough time for the ''Vaul's Ghost'' to pick up the missiles.

===The Main Event===
To ensure that the Warmaster couldn't catch onto what the Imperial fleet was planning, Marneus Calgar challenged Abaddon to a duel at Saint's Haven. The Despoiler was eager to humiliate the Chapter Master, and promptly teleported there with a retinue of Terminators and Possessed.

As their bodyguards fought, Calgar and Abaddon exchanged volleys of bolter fire before a loose flagstone left the Chapter Master off-balance long enough for the Warmaster to damage one of the Gauntlets of Ultramar. Calgar countered with a punch strong enough to knock Abaddon off his feet, but a slash from Drach'nyen cut off two of Calgar's fingers, badly damaged his armor, and destroyed his secondary heart.

As Abaddon prepared to finish off Calgar, he received an urgent warning from Worldclaimer: the ''Vaul's Ghost'' had crashed into the ''Vengeful Spirit'', detonating the Deathstrike Missiles in its hold and blowing a massive hole in the Black Legion's flagship. The critically damaged battleship would soon make an emergency Warp jump out of the Vigilus system, and Abaddon would have no choice but to teleport back to attend to the ship.

The Despoiler chose to leave his Possessed retinue behind to make sure Calgar didn't have the chance to learn his plan worked, but his Belisarian Furnace kicked in just in time to help him fight them off. By the time the Victrix Guard arrived, Calgar was on death's door (again) but was saved by his Apothecaries. However, he hasn't taken the field personally since then and is likely still recovering.

=='''The Aftermath'''==
The war didn't immediately end with Abaddon's departure, but without him to hold them together the forces of Chaos have splintered and begun fighting among themselves. The Despoiler has not allowed his setback to stop his plans to close the Gauntlet, though. In fact, he has already planned an attack on Vigilus' sister world of Sangua Terra, to be spearheaded by the [[Planet Killer]] itself.

Megaborealis was retaken by the combined forces of the AdMech and the Iron Hands, and while the Black Legion was able to destroy much of the Blackstone deposits that kept the Nachmund Gauntlet open with a cyclonic torpedo bombardment the cogboys kept enough of the stuff hidden away for the Gauntlet to stay stable. Hyperia is still contested, but Oteck and Dirkden are considered lost.

Speedboss Krooldakka was slain during the Black Legion's bombardment of Megaborealis, and while the Orks are a spent force in Vigilus' cities they still hold a considerable amount of territory in the wastelands. Two-thirds of their scrap cities are estimated to be intact, and word of Vigilus being a fun fight has attracted Orks to the world, just like on Armageddon.

With the Black Legion repelled and their honor avenged, the Eldar of Saim-Hann left without much fanfare from anyone.

The Pauper Princes still infest the entirety of Dirkden Hivesprawl, but their plans have suffered a blow that they may not be able to recover from. They now look to the stars for salvation, hoping their [[Tyranids|Star Saviors]] come to their aid. Grandsire Wurm was slain by a trio of Callidus Assassins disguised as Neophyte Hybrids, but the cult had spread far enough for multiple Patriarchs to arise, with one of them becoming the new Grandsire Wurm. In the meantime, they have managed to spread to Vigilus' moon, Neo-Vellum.

Vigilus itself is about as badly fucked over as you would think, but with the threats to Vigilus now being at relatively manageable levels the Imperium can now consider the planet to be safely in their hands. For now, anyway.

{{40k-Timeline}}

War of Beasts

2019-09-25T20:10:53Z

2600:1006:B105:8611:58CC:338D:D9D2:B1D4: /* The Mortwald Defense */

''Not to be confused with the [[War of the Beast]] that took place in M32''

[[File:Vigilus_Defiant.jpeg|320px|thumb|right|From backwater to Armageddon 2.0]]

The '''War of Beasts''' (aka Armageddon on steroids, later the '''War of Nightmares''') is the term used to label the ongoing conflict between the forces of the [[Imperium|Imperium of Mankind]] and the various [[Xenos]] and [[Chaos]] forces trying to wrest its control of the strategic planet of [[Vigilus]]. The loss of Vigilus would mean the loss of a vital staging area for the Imperium for any kind of crusade into the Dark Imperium, and as such it is important for it to stay in Imperial hands.

== '''The Opening Phases''' ==
===The Speed Freekz Cometh===

The first major threat to hit the planet in the wake of the Great Rift opening was a massive [[WAAAGH|Waaagh!]] of [[Orks]]. Bursting from the Rift seemingly at random, and led by powerful [[Speed_Freek|Speed Freeks]], the Ork fleet easily broke through the naval cordon and landed its boyz in the deserts between the great hives.

While most of the fleet crashed and burned, the Orks soon used remains of the downed fleet to create ramshackle scrap-cities, and from there '''Speedboss Krooldakka''' roared out at the head of a massive force of bikes, trukks, and battlewagons. Still reeling from the birth of the Rift, the Imperial forces gathered could do nothing to stop it.

At first, the Orks met little success, as the force fields were too strong. Growing bored, they resorted to raiding caravans or battling and racing each other in the massive deserts outside of the hives. This state of affairs didn't last however; the Great Rift continued to grow, and with its expansion Warp Storms washed over Vigilus.

The bastion fields soon flickered, then failed outright, which was what the Orks were waiting for. The green tide rushed to each Hive, and despite the best efforts of the [[Imperial Guard]], the [[Skitarii]] of the Adeptus Mechanicus, and the [[Sisters of Battle]], it was all they could do to avoid being overwhelmed.

===They Came From Underneath===

Despite the threat of the Orks, there were threats to the defense of Vigilus much closer to home. Centuries before, a [[Genestealer Cult]] derived from the '''Pauper Princes''' had managed to get a single Purestrain Genestealer onto the world. The Genestealer grew into the [[Genestealer Patriarch]] called the '''Grandsire Wurm''', and its cult refused to let its years of preparation go to waste due to the unexpected greenskin arrivals. Uprisings that were supposed to be triggered decades down the road were forced to do so prematurely, and soon every Hivesprawl was in chaos due to the simultaneous insurrections. Imperial defenders fell to synchronized ambushes across the planet, as the Cult consolidated its hold on the Hives.

The response to the Genestealer Cult-led revolt was slow, as the Imperial Government initially thought it was the work of criminals and malcontents, and instead focused on shoring up its defenses. These uprisings, plus the constant ork raids, essentially forced the industry on the planet to grind to a halt. Things were, to put it mildly, looking grim.

===Tooth and Claw===

[[File:Vigilus_tooth_and_claw.jpg|320px|thumb|right|Bugs vs. Furries.]]

It was at this point that a task force of [[Space Marines]] made of elements from the [[Iron Hands]] and the [[Brazen Claws]], decided to throw their hats into the proceedings. On the way to the Stygies Front, they made a detour to Vigilus once contacted by their Mechanicus allies. Led by [[Kardan Stronos]], the Astartes made a massed [[Steel Rain|drop pod assault]] on the outskirts of each major Hivesprawl, before converging toward Megaborealis. Expecting to find Orks, they found cultists and [[Genestealers]] instead. Battles with these cultists would keep the sons of [[Ferrus Manus]] busy for many months.

Later on, a second task force of Astartes, this time [[Space Wolves]] from the Great Company of [[Ragnar Blackmane]] arrived to do battle with the xenos occupying the Oteck Hivesprawl. There was little coordination between the Wolves and the Iron Hands, and hilariously ''none'' of these Chapters saw fit to inform the Vigilus ruling council of what the heck was going on in their cities.

===The Megaborealis Throwdown===

A Mechanicus stronghold, Megaborealis was thought unassailable by '''Ipluvius XIV''', the [[Tech_Priest_Dominus|Magus Dominus]] in command of the Skitarii forces there, enough that he let himself get distracted by his studies. However, a squad of Ork [[Ork_Kommando|Kommandos]] begged to disagree, and brought down the hive's forcefield. The massive speed freekz attack that followed, coupled with a [[Just As Planned|simultaneous attack by genestealer cultists]], caused the magos' cogitators to freeze up due to the stress, leaving the defenders without coordination. It was bad enough that the cultists were able to steal [[Warp_Weapons#Imperial_Variants|Vortex Missiles]] and detonate it in the middle of the Hivesprawl, destroying countless Imperial war assets (including the [[Warlord Titan]] '''Dominus Rex''').

In a decisive move, Archmagos '''Nesium Caldrike''' took control of the remaining defenders, and coordinating with elements of the [[Iron Hands]] Clan Kaargul put a stop to the Genestealer shenanigans, for now at least.

While all of '''this''' was happening, the [[Imperial Guard]] was making a large-scale counterattack, with the aim of reinforcing Megaborealis. The armored convoys of [[Leman_Russ_Battle_Tank|Leman Russes]] and [[Chimera#In_Warhammer_40000|Chimeras]] took a heavy toll on the greenskins, but all this just seemed to draw more and more mobs of speed freekz to the convoys.

===Chaos Crashes The Party (Literally)===

At Hivesprawl Dontoria, already under pressure from mysterious attackers (who turned out to be [[Dark Eldar]] opportunists), an unknown spacecraft decided to crash into the hive's center, despite the best efforts from the anti-air emplacements surrounding it. From its ruined depths came the mutants of the '''Gellerpox Infected''', but the worse was to come, as in their wake came the Heretic Astartes of the '''[[Death Guard]]'''.

While the [[Tempestus Scions]] there were able to repel the Infected's assault, the sons of [[Mortarion]] soon overwhelmed the defenses. In desperation the Hive's lower levels were firebombed in a two-mile radius, but this was not enough to contain Nurgle's followers, and soon the Gellerpox spread through Dontoria. Despite the warnings of Rogue Trader '''Delarique du Languille''', the Aquilarian Council was slow to react to the threat. Acting on a warning from her psyker servant that the Gellerpox would threaten Terra if left unchecked, she took matters into her own hands. The Rogue Trader was able to halt shipping offworld and intercept and destroy what was thought to be the only Gellerpox-infected vessel departing Vigilus- but it was later found that two other infected ships had escaped and were now headed directly to [[Terra]].

===Here Come Guilliman's Boys===

After receiving a vision from [[Varro_Tigurius|Tigurius]], as well as a message from [[Roboute Guilliman]] to not allow Vigilus to fall, [[Chapter Master]] '''[[Marneus Calgar]]''' rushed as many of the [[Ultramarines]] that he could spare to the planet's defense. The going was difficult, and even with Tigurius' guidance many [[Librarian#Ranks|Epistolaries]] die to get the Chapter to the world on time.

Once there, he swiftly had those in the Aquilarian Council he determined to be Genestealer Cult infiltrators executed, and had the Vigilus Senate set up in its place.

===Wolf Bites Bug===

[[File:Tooth_And_Claw_Oteck_Rumble_2.jpg|320px|thumb|right|Rumble in the Hive Sumps, take 2!]]

The [[Space Wolves]] of course, were not idle. At Oteck Hivesprawl they tried to reclaim the all-important water supply back from the cultists. Things turned nasty very quickly when the Wolves' artillery support in the Imperial Guard turned out to have been controlled by the Cultists, and a whole lot of Hive City was suddenly dropped on the Wolves' heads. Many died, but enough Battle Brothers remained to continue the hunt for the xenos. The cultists were finally cornered and annihilated, but in their wake they left the water supply mostly tainted.

'''Haldor Icepelt''', the commander of the Space Wolves there, ordered whatever explosives the cultists stockpiled found, and then used these to bury the polluted water source under tons of rubble, preventing its spread to other hives.

== '''The Conflict Escalates even MORE''' ==
===Wake the Dead===

[[File:Wake-the-Dead.jpg|320px|thumb|right|AKA, I got Angry so I'll do Chaos' work for it!]]

It was at this point that one '''[[Farseer]] Keltoc''' from [[Craftworld]] [[Saim-Hann]] had a vision suggesting that it was important for its forces to intervene in the conflict, as ''something'' there would influence the future of the [[Eldar]] race. Apparently a home-grown [[Tzeentch|Tzeentchian]] cult led by one Vannadan planned to trigger a magma explosion that would eventually wipe out the leaders of Vigilus' defense, which would lead to the loss of the planet to Chaos, so they can't have that now, can they? Amazingly, one of the times the Eldar had genuinely good intentions (for themselves like usual, but in a way that honestly benefits someone else).

Using an underground [[Webway]] gate to avoid their dark kin, the Saim-Hann task force, led by [[Autarch]] '''Rhyloor''' and [[Spiritseer]] '''Quelanaris''', swiftly isolated the Chaos cultists and slaughtered them to a man. Word of their arrival spread to the [[Imperial Guard]] stormtroopers stationed nearby however, and the Imperials rushed to the location, fully convinced that these were the same Eldar who had been gleefully raiding the Hivesprawls during the past few months (and the Imperium does not distinguish between types of Eldar because all xenos are equally deserving of annihilation, but mostly because the only noteworthy difference between Eldar types beyond aesthetics is that Dark Eldar usually take prisoners)).

Quelanaris and Rhyloor tried desperately to explain to the arriving Stormtroopers that, no, they looked nothing like the [[Dark Eldar]] dicks who ''were'' the cause of all the trouble and that they had just eliminated a major threat to the planet (keep in mind the Imperials had no idea that the humans they had just killed were Chaos Cultists or indeed even knew there was a Chaos cult in the planet). The Tempestor Prime in charge, however, did not know or care about the difference between the Craftworlders and Dark Eldar let alone believe their story, and so the Imperials opened fire. This is what happens when you spend ten thousand years lying through your teeth, ruining operations that doom billions of innocents, and generally work very hard to earn everyone’s mistrust and undying hatred. Like usual, their asstard nature bit the spelves in the ass.

Many Eldar were cut down, including Rhyloor, but Quelanaris managed to escape with his fallen comrades' spirit stones. Vowing vengeance for an incident of his own people’s making and for his own invasion of an Imperial World shockingly getting his warriors shot to pieces (because Imperials are famous for loving it when xenos pop up on their worlds without permission), he had the spirit stones installed into waiting Wraith Constructs and led a second strike Force back to Vigilus to avenge the Autarch (y’know, by trying to kill the people whose deaths would doom his Craftworld, the usual Elfdar stupidity).

Some time later, this strike force attempted a direct attack on the Imperial leadership council as revenge for their recent losses. Primaris Lieutenant '''Eothrus''' of the Ultramarines attempted to talk down the Spiritseer, having heard about Saim-Hann assisting the Space Wolves on Stygius from Haldor Ice-Pelt, but Quelanaris refused to listen to reason and ordered his forces to attack. Since killing that leadership (who by the way are ironically innocent of blame for what happened) is what he was sent to prevent in the first place because it would ultimately doom his Craftworld, it will be curious to know what Saim-Hann thinks of him trying to kill those people himself now...probably not gonna be too pleased. To be fair, he’s not going around murdering people and isn’t technically trying to harm the Imperial forces, he’s just trying to kill the people he believes are ultimately responsible for their distant subordinates’ actions...and too cowardly to face the Stormtroopers that curbstomped his forces earlier.

===The Carnival of Pain===

While the Imperial Guard wasted their time with the Craftworlders, the ''actual'' Dark Eldar continued their merry time harassing and generally making the residents of Hivesprawls Hyperia and Oteck ''wish'' for the swift release of death. Led primarily by the [[Haemonculi]] coven of '''The Altered''', [[Kabalite_Warriors|Kabalite]] troops joined with Wych cults and Haemonculi constructs in raids that were both spectacular and deadly. The Altered in particular had a specific beef with the [[Ultramarines]], as Guilliman had kicked their ass in during the [[Indomitus Crusade]], and took particular amusement in hauling entire ''squads'' of Ultramarines back to [[Commorragh]] for "entertainment". Although, taking entire squads of Astartes is honestly not believable. If they could do that then the Dark Eldar would be basically invincible. Which they’re very much not.

===Holding Back The Foul Tide===

Back in Dontoria Hive, the newly-arrived Primaris Chapter [[Necropolis Hawks]] fought to hold back the Gellerpox Infected, while the [[Crimson Fists]] and the [[Iron Hands]] worked to create a barrier with the assistance of du Languille to hold back the Chaos-spawned plague. Using the PDF's [[Hellhound#Warhammer_40.2C000|hellhound tanks]], the Fists set fire to the hive's promethium pipelines, creating a literal firewall around the infected zone.

===The Mortwald Defense===

With the destruction of the waterworks at Oteck Hivesprawl, water was getting harder to come by at Vigilus. Dontoria's own water source was also in danger of contamination, due to everyone forgetting that the [[Death Guard]] had already made landfall.

Mortwald, the source of most of the planet's food and medicine, was also under threat. Defending it were regiments of '''Ventrillian Nobles''', '''Vostroyan Firstborn''', and '''Cadian Shock Troopers''', all under the command of '''Deinos''', the [[Awesome|surprisingly-competent]] brother of the Imperial governor.

When the Greenskins came, the trench network Deinos had prepared showed its worth, and slowed down the advance of the Orks for Weeks. Within the walls of the Hivesprawl, the Guard proved themselves equally adept at putting down Genestealer Cult uprisings. Lord Deinos was adamant -- '''Mortwald will not fall''' -- and his mantra became the rallying cry of the defenders there. This stalwart defense was only improved by the arrival of the [[Imperial Fists]] 5th Company under '''Brother-Captain Dravatis Fane''', though his forces would be tested as Ork [[Stompa|Stompas]] emerged by the hundreds. Although his forces had to retreat to higher ground, Fane would counter-attack. With him were loyalists [[Imperial Knight|Knights]] from '''House Terryn''', as well as Freeblades formerly from the traitorous House Mandrakor.

In a charge that was the stuff of legends, the knights attacked the Stompa horde. Supported by the [[Reaver_Battle_Titan|Reaver Titan]] '''Heresium's Bane''', the Knights actually forced the Orks to break. Rather than running them down, the Imperials halted (notwithstanding the Freeblades who wanted to pursue them), as they insisted that the [[Noblebright|defending the people of Mortwald came first]]. This decision would soon bite them in the arse however, as a few days later the Orks attacked. While it was driven off easily enough, these attacks increased in strength week after work, until the Imperials were facing machines the size of ''reavers''.

Fane had enough. He ordered an expedition into the wastelands to find the factories churning these machines out, and put them out of commission. Permanently.

The Imperial forces found a large scrap city east of Mortwald and, under the cover of a dust storm, attacked. With [[Warhound_Scout_Titan|Warhounds]] as support, the Knights identified, then destroyed the major factories. With the mission completed, Fane ordered a withdrawal, but the Freeblades in their zeal to redeem themselves ignored this, and [[RAGE|charged straight into the ''next'' scrap city]]. Much facepalming ensued, as while the Knights killed countless orks in their reckless attack, they soon found themselves surrounded.

Fane led an airborne rescue force alongside elements of the [[White Scars]] Brotherhood led by '''Olujin Khan''' and [[Dark Angels]] Ravenwing commanded by '''Meneraeus''' to aid the beleaguered Knights. The [[Stormtalon|Stormtalons]] of the White Scars destroyed the anti-air and artillery emplacements, and without these the [[Bike_Squad|Bike Squads]] of the two Chapters cut a path through the Orks.

Without warning, the Ravenwing [[Fallen|suddenly abandoned the attack, and thundered into the dusty wilderness of the Vhulian Swirl]]. The White Scars, now bereft of support, found themselves on the verge of being swamped by Greenskins, so Olujin was forced to call a fighting withdrawal. Odd as if sounds, this behavior is weird for most Unforgiven Chapters. They balance hunting Fallen with their duties to the Imperium. Besides, hunting is mostly a Deathwing thing. Abandoning a battle important to saving a hive city crucial to defending a planet critical to the Imperium is not something they would do. Risking the Imperium for their secret is not a line they would cross. Seems to be writer error for not knowing more than the surface basics of Dark Angel lore.

===Water War===

Back at Megaborealis the Mechanicus and Iron Hands was getting their Genestealer problem somewhat under control. The Sons of Manus would lead the attacks, then the Mechanicus would handle clean-up. Using xenos-detection tech, the Genestealer nests were found and destroyed, which forced the Pauper Princes to slink back into the shadows and resort to guerilla warfare to strike back.

The same could ''not'' be said of the Stygian Spires region, which controlled the asteroid water mining operations of Megaborealis. Led by the Grandsire Wurm itself, the Cultists overwhelmed the Skitarii defenders. Before long, the top levels of the water plant were taken over by the Patriarch and its kin.

=='''Bad Portents, Bad People'''==

Despite all of this, the general consensus of the population was that things had stabilized enough that the Imperium just ''might'' eke a win out of all this. This, despite Calgar being forced to have Dirkden's civilian population evacuated.

===Raptor Rampage===

[[File:Urban_Conquest_Vigilus.jpg|320px|thumb|right|From Bad, to the Worst]]

Then things really started to go tits up. Reports of disappearances and horrible monsters in the upper spires started to spread, with everyone trying to investigate vanishing without a trace. The Great Rift seemed to darken in the sky, and readings of the Emperor's Tarot all produced the same ominous reading.

By the time the [[Ordo Malleus]] had deciphered the mumbling of comatose Imperial Psykers as a warning about a "Dark King", the monsters had been identified as a scouting force of [[Black Legion]] [[Chaos Raptor|Raptors]], [[Heldrake]]s, and [[Warp Talons]].

Soon afterward, every vox network on the planet received a message from '''[[Haarken Worldclaimer]]''', the Chaos Raptor Lord leading the Black Legion forces and Herald of the Apocalypse: Vigilus now belonged to '''[[Abaddon]]''' and the Despoiler would soon arrive to oversee its conquest personally.

As the Vigilus Senate convened to discuss the alarming turn of events, they were [[Awesome|attacked by a]] [[Heldrake]] [[Awesome|that smashed through the Senate spire's ceiling.]] The Victrix Guard were able to prevent it from harming Calgar, but now they had to deal with the impending arrival of the Warmaster himself.

Meanwhile, [[Thousand Sons]] [[Rubric Marines]] were burning their way through Oteck Hivesprawl, a new Gellerpox outbreak in Mortwald led the nobles to hoard food and water for themselves and inadvertently inspire even ''more'' Chaos and Genestealer Cult uprisings, and the defenses of the planet were being stretched thinner and thinner. And the bulk of the Black Legion's forces hadn't even shown up yet.

Haarken had boasted that Vigilus would fall within 80 days of his arrival. Sure enough, after 80 days a massive number of Warp signatures was detected in the Nachmund Gauntlet.

The War of Nightmares had begun.

===Shadowspear At Nemendghast===

During all of this madness, at the outskirts of the Vigilus System a taskforce of Vanguard Primaris are covertly inserted into the planet '''Nemendghast''' after receiving a distress call from there. To their horror, they find that the world had already been taken over the Dark Powers, and its forges used to churn out Daemon Engines for the [[Black Legion]]. As it turns out, it had been trapped within the Great Rift for a time and Abaddon had taken the opportunity to capture it as a staging area for his planned invasion force.

Although heavily outnumbered by the [[Possessed|Daemonkin]] there, the task force, led by Ultramarines Librarian '''Maltis''', try to sabotage the forges ruled over by Master of Possession '''Vorash Soulflayer'''. It succeeded, but at great cost, with only Maltis escaping to bring word to Calgar of the Black Legion fleet's imminent arrival.

===Clash in the Void===
Having learned of the approaching fleet from Maltis, Calgar called for a double cordon to intercept the Chaos armada. In spite of a torpedo barrage meant to box in the fleet, the Imperials were pushed back after the Chaos forces began summoning daemons onto the Imperial ships. Even Calgar's own flagship ''Laurels of Victory'' was not spared, and he was wounded by the [[Keeper of Secrets]] that manifested onboard.

Following his return, Calgar had no choice but to abandon Dirkden Hivesprawl and Kaelac's Bane in favor of shoring up the defenses of Mortwald, Megaborealis, Oteck, and Dontoria.

===Vannadan's Legacy===
While Vannadan's plan had been thwarted by the Eldar intervention, the pyroclastic cults of Storvhal soon rallied around Haarken Worldclaimer. After defeating the local Skitarii defenders, they were able to open a Warp portal to summon an army of daemons of Tzeentch; soon even the volcanoes were erupting with warpfire.

The quick thinking of '''Fabricator Vosch''' was able to stop the continent from being swallowed by Chaos by using [[Tectonic Fragdrill]]s to trigger a massive but more conventional eruption that wiped out both Chaos forces and whatever AdMech couldn't get out of the way. Even then, Storvhal remained in Chaos hands, with Worldclaimer's Raptor packs using the ash to conceal their movements.

===Stormclaw Revisited===
Around this time, another detachment of Space Wolves led by '''[[Krom Dragongaze]]''' arrived to reinforce Vigilus. Showing his well-known disregard for little things like "waiting for orders", he immediately led an assault on the Ork-held Space Hulk ''Worldsmasha''. Following the destruction of several smaller hulks by the Wolves' Battle-Barges, Krom's forces were able to teleport directly to the ''Worldsmasha'' and kill its Big Mek commander before sending the Space Hulk on a crash course with an Ork settlement.

Marneus Calgar was less than impressed with Krom's recklessness, but news of a renewed greenskin threat in Hyperia prevented them from coming to blows over the matter.

===Creepy Crawlies===
The arrival of Abaddon's fleet had demoralized the population even further. Looting and rioting were widespread, and many of the despairing populace had turned to the Genestealer Cults or Chaos if they had not simply become Zealots for the Imperial Cult.

However, Abaddon had underestimated the strength of the xenos on Vigilus. Initial attempts at capturing the spires were stymied by Orks and the Pauper Princes, forcing Haarken to change his initial plans. An attack on Dirkden by the [[Night Lords]] and [[The Scourged]] killed millions of the cultists, but ultimately failed under a massive assault by Metamorphs and Aberrants.

===Sisters of Battle: Not Jobbing This Time===
The Genestealer Cultists had also started to tunnel underneath Dirkden into Oteck in the hopes of spreading their uprising further, but the Sisters of Battle from the Order of the Argent Shroud and the Order of the Last Prioress were able to keep them contained. Exploration of the tunnels revealed that they had already begun infiltrating Hyperia, though, and the Sisters' plans to counter-attack through the tunnels had to be put on hold.

The Orders Dialogus had also kept busy by mapping the Ork Speedwaaagh! races, allowing Imperial convoys to be ready for the greenskins' raids. This frustrated the Orks enough to get them to go out of their way to hunt down convoys protected by the Sisters.

===Retaking the Hoist===
To deal with their water problem, the Imperials set out to recapture the Omnissian Hoist from the Genestealers. The cults had already been weakened by a prior skirmish with the Magma Hounds warband, allowing a combined force of Iron Hands and Skitarii to push through the alien hordes.

The Grandsire Wurm itself was forced to lead the counter-attack, eventually sealing itself into the hoist's main control center in a final effort to deny it to the AdMech. But it hadn't counted on the Onager Dunecrawlers that had crawled up the structure, and it was forced to retreat after being wounded. After that, the Dunecrawlers were able to mop up the remaining Purestrains without difficulty.

===Vigilus Ablaze===
Hyperia Hivesprawl had at this point come under heavy attack by the [[Iron Warriors]] and the [[Word Bearers]], the latter of which had taken the time to build Noctilith Crowns to summon even more daemons. After receiving news that the Black Legion had led a major assault into a critical water purification plant on top of another Gellerpox outbreak, Calgar had no choice but to take desperate measures.

On the advice of the Planetary Governor, massive fires were started in each of the major Hivesprawls to prevent their corruption from spreading further. "Calgar's Fires" did manage to eliminate considerable parts of the xenos and Chaos forces, but only at a terrible cost. Even worse, the ''[[Vengeful Spirit]]'' had arrived on Vigilus and was effortlessly destroying every Imperial vessel sent to repel it.

===The Fallen Angels are Assholes===
Abaddon's first course of action was to pay a visit to the center of the Vhulian Swirl. The great storms were in fact artificial, and intended to conceal the location of a fortress called the Citadel Vigilant that had been occupied by a group of [[Fallen Angels]] that had forged a blood pact with Abaddon during the Pandorax campaign. Their leader, the former Librarian '''Osandus''', had come into possession of a gravitic weapon dating from the Dark Age of Technology, dubbed the Voidclaw.

Osandus had originally planned to lure the Dark Angels to Vigilus using hints from Fallen that let themselves be captured as bait; they would bring the Rock with them, and the Voidclaw would then be used to destroy it and wipe out the Dark Angels in the process. Abaddon sought to use it on the space between Vigilus and its moon Neo-Vellum, altering the planet's orbit in a way that would reshape the Nachmund Gauntlet if not close it completely, thus ensuring that the Imperium Nihilus was lost for good.

The Fallen Librarian was pleased to help with such a major blow against the Imperium, and the Voidclaw was fired. Needless to say, this royally fucked over just about '''''everybody''''' on Vigilus. Mercifully, the Dark Angels were later able to find the Citadel Vigilant, destroy the Voidclaw before it could close the Gauntlet, and deal with the Fallen in their usual manner.

=='''All Downhill From Here'''==
As you would probably expect, the Imperials were left badly reeling from the Voidclaw's activation. Calgar managed to salvage things somewhat by manipulating Chaos forces into clashes with the Speedwaaagh!, but even then the Imperials were struggling and countless hives had been badly damaged if not outright destroyed.

===Mortwald Falls===
At Mortwald, the Imperial Fists and Iron Warriors had been engaged in a long trench war, but when they and Deinos' elite forces were forced to redeploy against other threats the Hivesprawl fell to the forces of Chaos. The nobles that had been hoarding food all this time unsurprisingly fell to Slaanesh, a situation that the [[Flawless Host]] used to their advantage by overwhelming the defenders with Daemonettes as they shut down the automated defenses. By the time the Imperial Fists could respond, the rioters opposing the corrupt nobles had devolved into cultists of Khorne.

===Purge-ing Dontoria===
At the peak of the Death Guard invasion of Dontoria Hivesprawl, the Gellerpox-infected freighters that had departed near the beginning of the war came back, now full of mutants eager to claim Dontoria for Nurgle.

[[The Purge]] were insulted by the Death Guard's sudden influx of corrupted life, and sought to deal with it in their traditional manner: with lots of chemical weaponry. Citizens and mutants alike were thrown into manufactorums, producing a foul miasma that suffocated everything it came into contact with. As you might expect, the Death Guard and the Gellerpox Infected did not appreciate the interference and the two Nurglite armies quickly turned on each other.

Marneus Calgar decided that breaking their stalemate would not be worth it; even if the Nurglites could be driven off, Dontoria was now a hopelessly corrupted shithole too far gone to be saved.

===Blizzard Battles===
The Dark Eldar and the Thousand Sons spent most of the later parts of the war fighting over the Webway Gate at Kaelac's Bane. The Dark Eldar seemingly triumphed after unleashing stolen terraforming devices that froze the Rubric Marines solid, but before retreating to the Webway their sorcerers left them a "parting gift": a Keeper of Secrets. This particular Keeper of Secrets, known as "The Pale Stalker", was able to blend in perfectly with the blizzards, and within three weeks it had slain nearly a third of the Dark Eldar forces. The survivors were left so petrified of the daemon that they abandoned Vigilus outright. After one last slave raid, of course.

===Like Primarch, Like Chapter Master===
The Imperial forces were increasingly confronted with the possibility that they were going to lose. Chaos kept gaining ground, and the remaining relay stations on Neo-Vellum were warning that the Great Rift was expanding closer to Vigilus. Left unchecked, the world would be lost to the Warp and the entirety of the Imperium Nihilus with it.

Some among the Vigilus Senate brought up the prospect of Exterminatus, but Marneus Calgar reminded them that Guilliman told them not to abandon the planet under any circumstances. More importantly, the Chaos forces were still being weakened by the xenos and Imperial forces were still eking out victories here and there.

While seeking the aid of the Orks was out of the question, Calgar decided that an alliance with the Eldar of Saim-Hann would work to their mutual advantage. During a lull in the fighting, Calgar was able to call for a parley and meet with Farseer Keltoc. While Keltoc was still upset with the death of Autarch Rhyloor, the Farseer agreed that the Eldar could not afford for Vigilus to fall.

The exact details of the pact Calgar made with Keltoc are uncertain, but given that the Farseer and his senior chieftains were allowed into the Governor's Palace and that the Planetary Governor and the other members of the former Aquilarian Council who had a role in Rhyloor's death were never heard from again, it isn't difficult to figure out the terms. In exchange, the Eldar agreed to allow the Imperials the use of the stealth ship ''Vaul's Ghost'', which Calgar needed to carry out his plan to force the Black Legion's withdrawal.

The Eldar soon began to create a diversion for the Imperials, leading Orks into Chaos Space Marines strongpoints across Vigilus. While countless battles continued to rage, only Calgar, Keltoc, and a handful of Ultramarines commanders knew that only one- the battle for New Vitae Docks- mattered. Countless bulk freighters were sent into low orbit despite the Iron Warriors' best efforts to shoot them down. Most were decoys, but one of them was carrying a payload of six Deathstrike Missiles- including two Vortex Missiles. Meanwhile, the Imperial fleet had been hastily reassembled to engage the Black Legion's fleet, in the hopes that it would buy enough time for the ''Vaul's Ghost'' to pick up the missiles.

===The Main Event===
To ensure that the Warmaster couldn't catch onto what the Imperial fleet was planning, Marneus Calgar challenged Abaddon to a duel at Saint's Haven. The Despoiler was eager to humiliate the Chapter Master, and promptly teleported there with a retinue of Terminators and Possessed.

As their bodyguards fought, Calgar and Abaddon exchanged volleys of bolter fire before a loose flagstone left the Chapter Master off-balance long enough for the Warmaster to damage one of the Gauntlets of Ultramar. Calgar countered with a punch strong enough to knock Abaddon off his feet, but a slash from Drach'nyen cut off two of Calgar's fingers, badly damaged his armor, and destroyed his secondary heart.

As Abaddon prepared to finish off Calgar, he received an urgent warning from Worldclaimer: the ''Vaul's Ghost'' had crashed into the ''Vengeful Spirit'', detonating the Deathstrike Missiles in its hold and blowing a massive hole in the Black Legion's flagship. The critically damaged battleship would soon make an emergency Warp jump out of the Vigilus system, and Abaddon would have no choice but to teleport back to attend to the ship.

The Despoiler chose to leave his Possessed retinue behind to make sure Calgar didn't have the chance to learn his plan worked, but his Belisarian Furnace kicked in just in time to help him fight them off. By the time the Victrix Guard arrived, Calgar was on death's door (again) but was saved by his Apothecaries. However, he hasn't taken the field personally since then and is likely still recovering.

=='''The Aftermath'''==
The war didn't immediately end with Abaddon's departure, but without him to hold them together the forces of Chaos have splintered and begun fighting among themselves. The Despoiler has not allowed his setback to stop his plans to close the Gauntlet, though. In fact, he has already planned an attack on Vigilus' sister world of Sangua Terra, to be spearheaded by the [[Planet Killer]] itself.

Megaborealis was retaken by the combined forces of the AdMech and the Iron Hands, and while the Black Legion was able to destroy much of the Blackstone deposits that kept the Nachmund Gauntlet open with a cyclonic torpedo bombardment the cogboys kept enough of the stuff hidden away for the Gauntlet to stay stable. Hyperia is still contested, but Oteck and Dirkden are considered lost.

Speedboss Krooldakka was slain during the Black Legion's bombardment of Megaborealis, and while the Orks are a spent force in Vigilus' cities they still hold a considerable amount of territory in the wastelands. Two-thirds of their scrap cities are estimated to be intact, and word of Vigilus being a fun fight has attracted Orks to the world, just like on Armageddon.

With the Black Legion repelled and their honor avenged, the Eldar of Saim-Hann left without much fanfare from anyone.

The Pauper Princes still infest the entirety of Dirkden Hivesprawl, but their plans have suffered a blow that they may not be able to recover from. They now look to the stars for salvation, hoping their [[Tyranids|Star Saviors]] come to their aid. Grandsire Wurm was slain by a trio of Callidus Assassins disguised as Neophyte Hybrids, but the cult had spread far enough for multiple Patriarchs to arise, with one of them becoming the new Grandsire Wurm. In the meantime, they have managed to spread to Vigilus' moon, Neo-Vellum.

Vigilus itself is about as badly fucked over as you would think, but with the threats to Vigilus now being at relatively manageable levels the Imperium can now consider the planet to be safely in their hands. For now, anyway.

{{40k-Timeline}}

War of Beasts

2019-09-25T20:02:17Z

2600:1006:B105:8611:58CC:338D:D9D2:B1D4: /* The Carnival of Pain */

''Not to be confused with the [[War of the Beast]] that took place in M32''

[[File:Vigilus_Defiant.jpeg|320px|thumb|right|From backwater to Armageddon 2.0]]

The '''War of Beasts''' (aka Armageddon on steroids, later the '''War of Nightmares''') is the term used to label the ongoing conflict between the forces of the [[Imperium|Imperium of Mankind]] and the various [[Xenos]] and [[Chaos]] forces trying to wrest its control of the strategic planet of [[Vigilus]]. The loss of Vigilus would mean the loss of a vital staging area for the Imperium for any kind of crusade into the Dark Imperium, and as such it is important for it to stay in Imperial hands.

== '''The Opening Phases''' ==
===The Speed Freekz Cometh===

The first major threat to hit the planet in the wake of the Great Rift opening was a massive [[WAAAGH|Waaagh!]] of [[Orks]]. Bursting from the Rift seemingly at random, and led by powerful [[Speed_Freek|Speed Freeks]], the Ork fleet easily broke through the naval cordon and landed its boyz in the deserts between the great hives.

While most of the fleet crashed and burned, the Orks soon used remains of the downed fleet to create ramshackle scrap-cities, and from there '''Speedboss Krooldakka''' roared out at the head of a massive force of bikes, trukks, and battlewagons. Still reeling from the birth of the Rift, the Imperial forces gathered could do nothing to stop it.

At first, the Orks met little success, as the force fields were too strong. Growing bored, they resorted to raiding caravans or battling and racing each other in the massive deserts outside of the hives. This state of affairs didn't last however; the Great Rift continued to grow, and with its expansion Warp Storms washed over Vigilus.

The bastion fields soon flickered, then failed outright, which was what the Orks were waiting for. The green tide rushed to each Hive, and despite the best efforts of the [[Imperial Guard]], the [[Skitarii]] of the Adeptus Mechanicus, and the [[Sisters of Battle]], it was all they could do to avoid being overwhelmed.

===They Came From Underneath===

Despite the threat of the Orks, there were threats to the defense of Vigilus much closer to home. Centuries before, a [[Genestealer Cult]] derived from the '''Pauper Princes''' had managed to get a single Purestrain Genestealer onto the world. The Genestealer grew into the [[Genestealer Patriarch]] called the '''Grandsire Wurm''', and its cult refused to let its years of preparation go to waste due to the unexpected greenskin arrivals. Uprisings that were supposed to be triggered decades down the road were forced to do so prematurely, and soon every Hivesprawl was in chaos due to the simultaneous insurrections. Imperial defenders fell to synchronized ambushes across the planet, as the Cult consolidated its hold on the Hives.

The response to the Genestealer Cult-led revolt was slow, as the Imperial Government initially thought it was the work of criminals and malcontents, and instead focused on shoring up its defenses. These uprisings, plus the constant ork raids, essentially forced the industry on the planet to grind to a halt. Things were, to put it mildly, looking grim.

===Tooth and Claw===

[[File:Vigilus_tooth_and_claw.jpg|320px|thumb|right|Bugs vs. Furries.]]

It was at this point that a task force of [[Space Marines]] made of elements from the [[Iron Hands]] and the [[Brazen Claws]], decided to throw their hats into the proceedings. On the way to the Stygies Front, they made a detour to Vigilus once contacted by their Mechanicus allies. Led by [[Kardan Stronos]], the Astartes made a massed [[Steel Rain|drop pod assault]] on the outskirts of each major Hivesprawl, before converging toward Megaborealis. Expecting to find Orks, they found cultists and [[Genestealers]] instead. Battles with these cultists would keep the sons of [[Ferrus Manus]] busy for many months.

Later on, a second task force of Astartes, this time [[Space Wolves]] from the Great Company of [[Ragnar Blackmane]] arrived to do battle with the xenos occupying the Oteck Hivesprawl. There was little coordination between the Wolves and the Iron Hands, and hilariously ''none'' of these Chapters saw fit to inform the Vigilus ruling council of what the heck was going on in their cities.

===The Megaborealis Throwdown===

A Mechanicus stronghold, Megaborealis was thought unassailable by '''Ipluvius XIV''', the [[Tech_Priest_Dominus|Magus Dominus]] in command of the Skitarii forces there, enough that he let himself get distracted by his studies. However, a squad of Ork [[Ork_Kommando|Kommandos]] begged to disagree, and brought down the hive's forcefield. The massive speed freekz attack that followed, coupled with a [[Just As Planned|simultaneous attack by genestealer cultists]], caused the magos' cogitators to freeze up due to the stress, leaving the defenders without coordination. It was bad enough that the cultists were able to steal [[Warp_Weapons#Imperial_Variants|Vortex Missiles]] and detonate it in the middle of the Hivesprawl, destroying countless Imperial war assets (including the [[Warlord Titan]] '''Dominus Rex''').

In a decisive move, Archmagos '''Nesium Caldrike''' took control of the remaining defenders, and coordinating with elements of the [[Iron Hands]] Clan Kaargul put a stop to the Genestealer shenanigans, for now at least.

While all of '''this''' was happening, the [[Imperial Guard]] was making a large-scale counterattack, with the aim of reinforcing Megaborealis. The armored convoys of [[Leman_Russ_Battle_Tank|Leman Russes]] and [[Chimera#In_Warhammer_40000|Chimeras]] took a heavy toll on the greenskins, but all this just seemed to draw more and more mobs of speed freekz to the convoys.

===Chaos Crashes The Party (Literally)===

At Hivesprawl Dontoria, already under pressure from mysterious attackers (who turned out to be [[Dark Eldar]] opportunists), an unknown spacecraft decided to crash into the hive's center, despite the best efforts from the anti-air emplacements surrounding it. From its ruined depths came the mutants of the '''Gellerpox Infected''', but the worse was to come, as in their wake came the Heretic Astartes of the '''[[Death Guard]]'''.

While the [[Tempestus Scions]] there were able to repel the Infected's assault, the sons of [[Mortarion]] soon overwhelmed the defenses. In desperation the Hive's lower levels were firebombed in a two-mile radius, but this was not enough to contain Nurgle's followers, and soon the Gellerpox spread through Dontoria. Despite the warnings of Rogue Trader '''Delarique du Languille''', the Aquilarian Council was slow to react to the threat. Acting on a warning from her psyker servant that the Gellerpox would threaten Terra if left unchecked, she took matters into her own hands. The Rogue Trader was able to halt shipping offworld and intercept and destroy what was thought to be the only Gellerpox-infected vessel departing Vigilus- but it was later found that two other infected ships had escaped and were now headed directly to [[Terra]].

===Here Come Guilliman's Boys===

After receiving a vision from [[Varro_Tigurius|Tigurius]], as well as a message from [[Roboute Guilliman]] to not allow Vigilus to fall, [[Chapter Master]] '''[[Marneus Calgar]]''' rushed as many of the [[Ultramarines]] that he could spare to the planet's defense. The going was difficult, and even with Tigurius' guidance many [[Librarian#Ranks|Epistolaries]] die to get the Chapter to the world on time.

Once there, he swiftly had those in the Aquilarian Council he determined to be Genestealer Cult infiltrators executed, and had the Vigilus Senate set up in its place.

===Wolf Bites Bug===

[[File:Tooth_And_Claw_Oteck_Rumble_2.jpg|320px|thumb|right|Rumble in the Hive Sumps, take 2!]]

The [[Space Wolves]] of course, were not idle. At Oteck Hivesprawl they tried to reclaim the all-important water supply back from the cultists. Things turned nasty very quickly when the Wolves' artillery support in the Imperial Guard turned out to have been controlled by the Cultists, and a whole lot of Hive City was suddenly dropped on the Wolves' heads. Many died, but enough Battle Brothers remained to continue the hunt for the xenos. The cultists were finally cornered and annihilated, but in their wake they left the water supply mostly tainted.

'''Haldor Icepelt''', the commander of the Space Wolves there, ordered whatever explosives the cultists stockpiled found, and then used these to bury the polluted water source under tons of rubble, preventing its spread to other hives.

== '''The Conflict Escalates even MORE''' ==
===Wake the Dead===

[[File:Wake-the-Dead.jpg|320px|thumb|right|AKA, I got Angry so I'll do Chaos' work for it!]]

It was at this point that one '''[[Farseer]] Keltoc''' from [[Craftworld]] [[Saim-Hann]] had a vision suggesting that it was important for its forces to intervene in the conflict, as ''something'' there would influence the future of the [[Eldar]] race. Apparently a home-grown [[Tzeentch|Tzeentchian]] cult led by one Vannadan planned to trigger a magma explosion that would eventually wipe out the leaders of Vigilus' defense, which would lead to the loss of the planet to Chaos, so they can't have that now, can they? Amazingly, one of the times the Eldar had genuinely good intentions (for themselves like usual, but in a way that honestly benefits someone else).

Using an underground [[Webway]] gate to avoid their dark kin, the Saim-Hann task force, led by [[Autarch]] '''Rhyloor''' and [[Spiritseer]] '''Quelanaris''', swiftly isolated the Chaos cultists and slaughtered them to a man. Word of their arrival spread to the [[Imperial Guard]] stormtroopers stationed nearby however, and the Imperials rushed to the location, fully convinced that these were the same Eldar who had been gleefully raiding the Hivesprawls during the past few months (and the Imperium does not distinguish between types of Eldar because all xenos are equally deserving of annihilation, but mostly because the only noteworthy difference between Eldar types beyond aesthetics is that Dark Eldar usually take prisoners)).

Quelanaris and Rhyloor tried desperately to explain to the arriving Stormtroopers that, no, they looked nothing like the [[Dark Eldar]] dicks who ''were'' the cause of all the trouble and that they had just eliminated a major threat to the planet (keep in mind the Imperials had no idea that the humans they had just killed were Chaos Cultists or indeed even knew there was a Chaos cult in the planet). The Tempestor Prime in charge, however, did not know or care about the difference between the Craftworlders and Dark Eldar let alone believe their story, and so the Imperials opened fire. This is what happens when you spend ten thousand years lying through your teeth, ruining operations that doom billions of innocents, and generally work very hard to earn everyone’s mistrust and undying hatred. Like usual, their asstard nature bit the spelves in the ass.

Many Eldar were cut down, including Rhyloor, but Quelanaris managed to escape with his fallen comrades' spirit stones. Vowing vengeance for an incident of his own people’s making and for his own invasion of an Imperial World shockingly getting his warriors shot to pieces (because Imperials are famous for loving it when xenos pop up on their worlds without permission), he had the spirit stones installed into waiting Wraith Constructs and led a second strike Force back to Vigilus to avenge the Autarch (y’know, by trying to kill the people whose deaths would doom his Craftworld, the usual Elfdar stupidity).

Some time later, this strike force attempted a direct attack on the Imperial leadership council as revenge for their recent losses. Primaris Lieutenant '''Eothrus''' of the Ultramarines attempted to talk down the Spiritseer, having heard about Saim-Hann assisting the Space Wolves on Stygius from Haldor Ice-Pelt, but Quelanaris refused to listen to reason and ordered his forces to attack. Since killing that leadership (who by the way are ironically innocent of blame for what happened) is what he was sent to prevent in the first place because it would ultimately doom his Craftworld, it will be curious to know what Saim-Hann thinks of him trying to kill those people himself now...probably not gonna be too pleased. To be fair, he’s not going around murdering people and isn’t technically trying to harm the Imperial forces, he’s just trying to kill the people he believes are ultimately responsible for their distant subordinates’ actions...and too cowardly to face the Stormtroopers that curbstomped his forces earlier.

===The Carnival of Pain===

While the Imperial Guard wasted their time with the Craftworlders, the ''actual'' Dark Eldar continued their merry time harassing and generally making the residents of Hivesprawls Hyperia and Oteck ''wish'' for the swift release of death. Led primarily by the [[Haemonculi]] coven of '''The Altered''', [[Kabalite_Warriors|Kabalite]] troops joined with Wych cults and Haemonculi constructs in raids that were both spectacular and deadly. The Altered in particular had a specific beef with the [[Ultramarines]], as Guilliman had kicked their ass in during the [[Indomitus Crusade]], and took particular amusement in hauling entire ''squads'' of Ultramarines back to [[Commorragh]] for "entertainment". Although, taking entire squads of Astartes is honestly not believable. If they could do that then the Dark Eldar would be basically invincible. Which they’re very much not.

===Holding Back The Foul Tide===

Back in Dontoria Hive, the newly-arrived Primaris Chapter [[Necropolis Hawks]] fought to hold back the Gellerpox Infected, while the [[Crimson Fists]] and the [[Iron Hands]] worked to create a barrier with the assistance of du Languille to hold back the Chaos-spawned plague. Using the PDF's [[Hellhound#Warhammer_40.2C000|hellhound tanks]], the Fists set fire to the hive's promethium pipelines, creating a literal firewall around the infected zone.

===The Mortwald Defense===

With the destruction of the waterworks at Oteck Hivesprawl, water was getting harder to come by at Vigilus. Dontoria's own water source was also in danger of contamination, due to everyone forgetting that the [[Death Guard]] had already made landfall.

Mortwald, the source of most of the planet's food and medicine, was also under threat. Defending it were regiments of '''Ventrillian Nobles''', '''Vostroyan Firstborn''', and '''Cadian Shock Troopers''', all under the command of '''Deinos''', the [[Awesome|surprisingly-competent]] brother of the Imperial governor.

When the Greenskins came, the trench network Deinos had prepared showed its worth, and slowed down the advance of the Orks for Weeks. Within the walls of the Hivesprawl, the Guard proved themselves equally adept at putting down Genestealer Cult uprisings. Lord Deinos was adamant -- '''Mortwald will not fall''' -- and his mantra became the rallying cry of the defenders there. This stalwart defense was only improved by the arrival of the [[Imperial Fists]] 5th Company under '''Brother-Captain Dravatis Fane''', though his forces would be tested as Ork [[Stompa|Stompas]] emerged by the hundreds. Although his forces had to retreat to higher ground, Fane would counter-attack. With him were loyalists [[Imperial Knight|Knights]] from '''House Terryn''', as well as Freeblades formerly from the traitorous House Mandrakor.

In a charge that was the stuff of legends, the knights attacked the Stompa horde. Supported by the [[Reaver_Battle_Titan|Reaver Titan]] '''Heresium's Bane''', the Knights actually forced the Orks to break. Rather than running them down, the Imperials halted (notwithstanding the Freeblades who wanted to pursue them), as they insisted that the [[Noblebright|defending the people of Mortwald came first]]. This decision would soon bite them in the arse however, as a few days later the Orks attacked. While it was driven off easily enough, these attacks increased in strength week after work, until the Imperials were facing machines the size of ''reavers''.

Fane had enough. He ordered an expedition into the wastelands to find the factories churning these machines out, and put them out of commission. Permanently.

The Imperial forces found a large scrap city east of Mortwald and, under the cover of a dust storm, attacked. With [[Warhound_Scout_Titan|Warhounds]] as support, the Knights identified, then destroyed the major factories. With the mission completed, Fane ordered a withdrawal, but the Freeblades in their zeal to redeem themselves ignored this, and [[RAGE|charged straight into the ''next'' scrap city]]. Much facepalming ensued, as while the Knights killed countless orks in their reckless attack, they soon found themselves surrounded.

Fane led an airborne rescue force alongside elements of the [[White Scars]] Brotherhood led by '''Olujin Khan''' and [[Dark Angels]] Ravenwing commanded by '''Meneraeus''' to aid the beleaguered Knights. The [[Stormtalon|Stormtalons]] of the White Scars destroyed the anti-air and artillery emplacements, and without these the [[Bike_Squad|Bike Squads]] of the two Chapters cut a path through the Orks.

Without warning, the Ravenwing [[Fallen|suddenly abandoned the attack, and thundered into the dusty wilderness of the Vhulian Swirl]]. The White Scars, now bereft of support, found themselves on the verge of being swamped by Greenskins, so Olujin was forced to call a fighting withdrawal.

===Water War===

Back at Megaborealis the Mechanicus and Iron Hands was getting their Genestealer problem somewhat under control. The Sons of Manus would lead the attacks, then the Mechanicus would handle clean-up. Using xenos-detection tech, the Genestealer nests were found and destroyed, which forced the Pauper Princes to slink back into the shadows and resort to guerilla warfare to strike back.

The same could ''not'' be said of the Stygian Spires region, which controlled the asteroid water mining operations of Megaborealis. Led by the Grandsire Wurm itself, the Cultists overwhelmed the Skitarii defenders. Before long, the top levels of the water plant were taken over by the Patriarch and its kin.

=='''Bad Portents, Bad People'''==

Despite all of this, the general consensus of the population was that things had stabilized enough that the Imperium just ''might'' eke a win out of all this. This, despite Calgar being forced to have Dirkden's civilian population evacuated.

===Raptor Rampage===

[[File:Urban_Conquest_Vigilus.jpg|320px|thumb|right|From Bad, to the Worst]]

Then things really started to go tits up. Reports of disappearances and horrible monsters in the upper spires started to spread, with everyone trying to investigate vanishing without a trace. The Great Rift seemed to darken in the sky, and readings of the Emperor's Tarot all produced the same ominous reading.

By the time the [[Ordo Malleus]] had deciphered the mumbling of comatose Imperial Psykers as a warning about a "Dark King", the monsters had been identified as a scouting force of [[Black Legion]] [[Chaos Raptor|Raptors]], [[Heldrake]]s, and [[Warp Talons]].

Soon afterward, every vox network on the planet received a message from '''[[Haarken Worldclaimer]]''', the Chaos Raptor Lord leading the Black Legion forces and Herald of the Apocalypse: Vigilus now belonged to '''[[Abaddon]]''' and the Despoiler would soon arrive to oversee its conquest personally.

As the Vigilus Senate convened to discuss the alarming turn of events, they were [[Awesome|attacked by a]] [[Heldrake]] [[Awesome|that smashed through the Senate spire's ceiling.]] The Victrix Guard were able to prevent it from harming Calgar, but now they had to deal with the impending arrival of the Warmaster himself.

Meanwhile, [[Thousand Sons]] [[Rubric Marines]] were burning their way through Oteck Hivesprawl, a new Gellerpox outbreak in Mortwald led the nobles to hoard food and water for themselves and inadvertently inspire even ''more'' Chaos and Genestealer Cult uprisings, and the defenses of the planet were being stretched thinner and thinner. And the bulk of the Black Legion's forces hadn't even shown up yet.

Haarken had boasted that Vigilus would fall within 80 days of his arrival. Sure enough, after 80 days a massive number of Warp signatures was detected in the Nachmund Gauntlet.

The War of Nightmares had begun.

===Shadowspear At Nemendghast===

During all of this madness, at the outskirts of the Vigilus System a taskforce of Vanguard Primaris are covertly inserted into the planet '''Nemendghast''' after receiving a distress call from there. To their horror, they find that the world had already been taken over the Dark Powers, and its forges used to churn out Daemon Engines for the [[Black Legion]]. As it turns out, it had been trapped within the Great Rift for a time and Abaddon had taken the opportunity to capture it as a staging area for his planned invasion force.

Although heavily outnumbered by the [[Possessed|Daemonkin]] there, the task force, led by Ultramarines Librarian '''Maltis''', try to sabotage the forges ruled over by Master of Possession '''Vorash Soulflayer'''. It succeeded, but at great cost, with only Maltis escaping to bring word to Calgar of the Black Legion fleet's imminent arrival.

===Clash in the Void===
Having learned of the approaching fleet from Maltis, Calgar called for a double cordon to intercept the Chaos armada. In spite of a torpedo barrage meant to box in the fleet, the Imperials were pushed back after the Chaos forces began summoning daemons onto the Imperial ships. Even Calgar's own flagship ''Laurels of Victory'' was not spared, and he was wounded by the [[Keeper of Secrets]] that manifested onboard.

Following his return, Calgar had no choice but to abandon Dirkden Hivesprawl and Kaelac's Bane in favor of shoring up the defenses of Mortwald, Megaborealis, Oteck, and Dontoria.

===Vannadan's Legacy===
While Vannadan's plan had been thwarted by the Eldar intervention, the pyroclastic cults of Storvhal soon rallied around Haarken Worldclaimer. After defeating the local Skitarii defenders, they were able to open a Warp portal to summon an army of daemons of Tzeentch; soon even the volcanoes were erupting with warpfire.

The quick thinking of '''Fabricator Vosch''' was able to stop the continent from being swallowed by Chaos by using [[Tectonic Fragdrill]]s to trigger a massive but more conventional eruption that wiped out both Chaos forces and whatever AdMech couldn't get out of the way. Even then, Storvhal remained in Chaos hands, with Worldclaimer's Raptor packs using the ash to conceal their movements.

===Stormclaw Revisited===
Around this time, another detachment of Space Wolves led by '''[[Krom Dragongaze]]''' arrived to reinforce Vigilus. Showing his well-known disregard for little things like "waiting for orders", he immediately led an assault on the Ork-held Space Hulk ''Worldsmasha''. Following the destruction of several smaller hulks by the Wolves' Battle-Barges, Krom's forces were able to teleport directly to the ''Worldsmasha'' and kill its Big Mek commander before sending the Space Hulk on a crash course with an Ork settlement.

Marneus Calgar was less than impressed with Krom's recklessness, but news of a renewed greenskin threat in Hyperia prevented them from coming to blows over the matter.

===Creepy Crawlies===
The arrival of Abaddon's fleet had demoralized the population even further. Looting and rioting were widespread, and many of the despairing populace had turned to the Genestealer Cults or Chaos if they had not simply become Zealots for the Imperial Cult.

However, Abaddon had underestimated the strength of the xenos on Vigilus. Initial attempts at capturing the spires were stymied by Orks and the Pauper Princes, forcing Haarken to change his initial plans. An attack on Dirkden by the [[Night Lords]] and [[The Scourged]] killed millions of the cultists, but ultimately failed under a massive assault by Metamorphs and Aberrants.

===Sisters of Battle: Not Jobbing This Time===
The Genestealer Cultists had also started to tunnel underneath Dirkden into Oteck in the hopes of spreading their uprising further, but the Sisters of Battle from the Order of the Argent Shroud and the Order of the Last Prioress were able to keep them contained. Exploration of the tunnels revealed that they had already begun infiltrating Hyperia, though, and the Sisters' plans to counter-attack through the tunnels had to be put on hold.

The Orders Dialogus had also kept busy by mapping the Ork Speedwaaagh! races, allowing Imperial convoys to be ready for the greenskins' raids. This frustrated the Orks enough to get them to go out of their way to hunt down convoys protected by the Sisters.

===Retaking the Hoist===
To deal with their water problem, the Imperials set out to recapture the Omnissian Hoist from the Genestealers. The cults had already been weakened by a prior skirmish with the Magma Hounds warband, allowing a combined force of Iron Hands and Skitarii to push through the alien hordes.

The Grandsire Wurm itself was forced to lead the counter-attack, eventually sealing itself into the hoist's main control center in a final effort to deny it to the AdMech. But it hadn't counted on the Onager Dunecrawlers that had crawled up the structure, and it was forced to retreat after being wounded. After that, the Dunecrawlers were able to mop up the remaining Purestrains without difficulty.

===Vigilus Ablaze===
Hyperia Hivesprawl had at this point come under heavy attack by the [[Iron Warriors]] and the [[Word Bearers]], the latter of which had taken the time to build Noctilith Crowns to summon even more daemons. After receiving news that the Black Legion had led a major assault into a critical water purification plant on top of another Gellerpox outbreak, Calgar had no choice but to take desperate measures.

On the advice of the Planetary Governor, massive fires were started in each of the major Hivesprawls to prevent their corruption from spreading further. "Calgar's Fires" did manage to eliminate considerable parts of the xenos and Chaos forces, but only at a terrible cost. Even worse, the ''[[Vengeful Spirit]]'' had arrived on Vigilus and was effortlessly destroying every Imperial vessel sent to repel it.

===The Fallen Angels are Assholes===
Abaddon's first course of action was to pay a visit to the center of the Vhulian Swirl. The great storms were in fact artificial, and intended to conceal the location of a fortress called the Citadel Vigilant that had been occupied by a group of [[Fallen Angels]] that had forged a blood pact with Abaddon during the Pandorax campaign. Their leader, the former Librarian '''Osandus''', had come into possession of a gravitic weapon dating from the Dark Age of Technology, dubbed the Voidclaw.

Osandus had originally planned to lure the Dark Angels to Vigilus using hints from Fallen that let themselves be captured as bait; they would bring the Rock with them, and the Voidclaw would then be used to destroy it and wipe out the Dark Angels in the process. Abaddon sought to use it on the space between Vigilus and its moon Neo-Vellum, altering the planet's orbit in a way that would reshape the Nachmund Gauntlet if not close it completely, thus ensuring that the Imperium Nihilus was lost for good.

The Fallen Librarian was pleased to help with such a major blow against the Imperium, and the Voidclaw was fired. Needless to say, this royally fucked over just about '''''everybody''''' on Vigilus. Mercifully, the Dark Angels were later able to find the Citadel Vigilant, destroy the Voidclaw before it could close the Gauntlet, and deal with the Fallen in their usual manner.

=='''All Downhill From Here'''==
As you would probably expect, the Imperials were left badly reeling from the Voidclaw's activation. Calgar managed to salvage things somewhat by manipulating Chaos forces into clashes with the Speedwaaagh!, but even then the Imperials were struggling and countless hives had been badly damaged if not outright destroyed.

===Mortwald Falls===
At Mortwald, the Imperial Fists and Iron Warriors had been engaged in a long trench war, but when they and Deinos' elite forces were forced to redeploy against other threats the Hivesprawl fell to the forces of Chaos. The nobles that had been hoarding food all this time unsurprisingly fell to Slaanesh, a situation that the [[Flawless Host]] used to their advantage by overwhelming the defenders with Daemonettes as they shut down the automated defenses. By the time the Imperial Fists could respond, the rioters opposing the corrupt nobles had devolved into cultists of Khorne.

===Purge-ing Dontoria===
At the peak of the Death Guard invasion of Dontoria Hivesprawl, the Gellerpox-infected freighters that had departed near the beginning of the war came back, now full of mutants eager to claim Dontoria for Nurgle.

[[The Purge]] were insulted by the Death Guard's sudden influx of corrupted life, and sought to deal with it in their traditional manner: with lots of chemical weaponry. Citizens and mutants alike were thrown into manufactorums, producing a foul miasma that suffocated everything it came into contact with. As you might expect, the Death Guard and the Gellerpox Infected did not appreciate the interference and the two Nurglite armies quickly turned on each other.

Marneus Calgar decided that breaking their stalemate would not be worth it; even if the Nurglites could be driven off, Dontoria was now a hopelessly corrupted shithole too far gone to be saved.

===Blizzard Battles===
The Dark Eldar and the Thousand Sons spent most of the later parts of the war fighting over the Webway Gate at Kaelac's Bane. The Dark Eldar seemingly triumphed after unleashing stolen terraforming devices that froze the Rubric Marines solid, but before retreating to the Webway their sorcerers left them a "parting gift": a Keeper of Secrets. This particular Keeper of Secrets, known as "The Pale Stalker", was able to blend in perfectly with the blizzards, and within three weeks it had slain nearly a third of the Dark Eldar forces. The survivors were left so petrified of the daemon that they abandoned Vigilus outright. After one last slave raid, of course.

===Like Primarch, Like Chapter Master===
The Imperial forces were increasingly confronted with the possibility that they were going to lose. Chaos kept gaining ground, and the remaining relay stations on Neo-Vellum were warning that the Great Rift was expanding closer to Vigilus. Left unchecked, the world would be lost to the Warp and the entirety of the Imperium Nihilus with it.

Some among the Vigilus Senate brought up the prospect of Exterminatus, but Marneus Calgar reminded them that Guilliman told them not to abandon the planet under any circumstances. More importantly, the Chaos forces were still being weakened by the xenos and Imperial forces were still eking out victories here and there.

While seeking the aid of the Orks was out of the question, Calgar decided that an alliance with the Eldar of Saim-Hann would work to their mutual advantage. During a lull in the fighting, Calgar was able to call for a parley and meet with Farseer Keltoc. While Keltoc was still upset with the death of Autarch Rhyloor, the Farseer agreed that the Eldar could not afford for Vigilus to fall.

The exact details of the pact Calgar made with Keltoc are uncertain, but given that the Farseer and his senior chieftains were allowed into the Governor's Palace and that the Planetary Governor and the other members of the former Aquilarian Council who had a role in Rhyloor's death were never heard from again, it isn't difficult to figure out the terms. In exchange, the Eldar agreed to allow the Imperials the use of the stealth ship ''Vaul's Ghost'', which Calgar needed to carry out his plan to force the Black Legion's withdrawal.

The Eldar soon began to create a diversion for the Imperials, leading Orks into Chaos Space Marines strongpoints across Vigilus. While countless battles continued to rage, only Calgar, Keltoc, and a handful of Ultramarines commanders knew that only one- the battle for New Vitae Docks- mattered. Countless bulk freighters were sent into low orbit despite the Iron Warriors' best efforts to shoot them down. Most were decoys, but one of them was carrying a payload of six Deathstrike Missiles- including two Vortex Missiles. Meanwhile, the Imperial fleet had been hastily reassembled to engage the Black Legion's fleet, in the hopes that it would buy enough time for the ''Vaul's Ghost'' to pick up the missiles.

===The Main Event===
To ensure that the Warmaster couldn't catch onto what the Imperial fleet was planning, Marneus Calgar challenged Abaddon to a duel at Saint's Haven. The Despoiler was eager to humiliate the Chapter Master, and promptly teleported there with a retinue of Terminators and Possessed.

As their bodyguards fought, Calgar and Abaddon exchanged volleys of bolter fire before a loose flagstone left the Chapter Master off-balance long enough for the Warmaster to damage one of the Gauntlets of Ultramar. Calgar countered with a punch strong enough to knock Abaddon off his feet, but a slash from Drach'nyen cut off two of Calgar's fingers, badly damaged his armor, and destroyed his secondary heart.

As Abaddon prepared to finish off Calgar, he received an urgent warning from Worldclaimer: the ''Vaul's Ghost'' had crashed into the ''Vengeful Spirit'', detonating the Deathstrike Missiles in its hold and blowing a massive hole in the Black Legion's flagship. The critically damaged battleship would soon make an emergency Warp jump out of the Vigilus system, and Abaddon would have no choice but to teleport back to attend to the ship.

The Despoiler chose to leave his Possessed retinue behind to make sure Calgar didn't have the chance to learn his plan worked, but his Belisarian Furnace kicked in just in time to help him fight them off. By the time the Victrix Guard arrived, Calgar was on death's door (again) but was saved by his Apothecaries. However, he hasn't taken the field personally since then and is likely still recovering.

=='''The Aftermath'''==
The war didn't immediately end with Abaddon's departure, but without him to hold them together the forces of Chaos have splintered and begun fighting among themselves. The Despoiler has not allowed his setback to stop his plans to close the Gauntlet, though. In fact, he has already planned an attack on Vigilus' sister world of Sangua Terra, to be spearheaded by the [[Planet Killer]] itself.

Megaborealis was retaken by the combined forces of the AdMech and the Iron Hands, and while the Black Legion was able to destroy much of the Blackstone deposits that kept the Nachmund Gauntlet open with a cyclonic torpedo bombardment the cogboys kept enough of the stuff hidden away for the Gauntlet to stay stable. Hyperia is still contested, but Oteck and Dirkden are considered lost.

Speedboss Krooldakka was slain during the Black Legion's bombardment of Megaborealis, and while the Orks are a spent force in Vigilus' cities they still hold a considerable amount of territory in the wastelands. Two-thirds of their scrap cities are estimated to be intact, and word of Vigilus being a fun fight has attracted Orks to the world, just like on Armageddon.

With the Black Legion repelled and their honor avenged, the Eldar of Saim-Hann left without much fanfare from anyone.

The Pauper Princes still infest the entirety of Dirkden Hivesprawl, but their plans have suffered a blow that they may not be able to recover from. They now look to the stars for salvation, hoping their [[Tyranids|Star Saviors]] come to their aid. Grandsire Wurm was slain by a trio of Callidus Assassins disguised as Neophyte Hybrids, but the cult had spread far enough for multiple Patriarchs to arise, with one of them becoming the new Grandsire Wurm. In the meantime, they have managed to spread to Vigilus' moon, Neo-Vellum.

Vigilus itself is about as badly fucked over as you would think, but with the threats to Vigilus now being at relatively manageable levels the Imperium can now consider the planet to be safely in their hands. For now, anyway.

{{40k-Timeline}}

War of Beasts

2019-09-25T19:55:53Z

2600:1006:B105:8611:58CC:338D:D9D2:B1D4: /* Wake the Dead */

''Not to be confused with the [[War of the Beast]] that took place in M32''

[[File:Vigilus_Defiant.jpeg|320px|thumb|right|From backwater to Armageddon 2.0]]

The '''War of Beasts''' (aka Armageddon on steroids, later the '''War of Nightmares''') is the term used to label the ongoing conflict between the forces of the [[Imperium|Imperium of Mankind]] and the various [[Xenos]] and [[Chaos]] forces trying to wrest its control of the strategic planet of [[Vigilus]]. The loss of Vigilus would mean the loss of a vital staging area for the Imperium for any kind of crusade into the Dark Imperium, and as such it is important for it to stay in Imperial hands.

== '''The Opening Phases''' ==
===The Speed Freekz Cometh===

The first major threat to hit the planet in the wake of the Great Rift opening was a massive [[WAAAGH|Waaagh!]] of [[Orks]]. Bursting from the Rift seemingly at random, and led by powerful [[Speed_Freek|Speed Freeks]], the Ork fleet easily broke through the naval cordon and landed its boyz in the deserts between the great hives.

While most of the fleet crashed and burned, the Orks soon used remains of the downed fleet to create ramshackle scrap-cities, and from there '''Speedboss Krooldakka''' roared out at the head of a massive force of bikes, trukks, and battlewagons. Still reeling from the birth of the Rift, the Imperial forces gathered could do nothing to stop it.

At first, the Orks met little success, as the force fields were too strong. Growing bored, they resorted to raiding caravans or battling and racing each other in the massive deserts outside of the hives. This state of affairs didn't last however; the Great Rift continued to grow, and with its expansion Warp Storms washed over Vigilus.

The bastion fields soon flickered, then failed outright, which was what the Orks were waiting for. The green tide rushed to each Hive, and despite the best efforts of the [[Imperial Guard]], the [[Skitarii]] of the Adeptus Mechanicus, and the [[Sisters of Battle]], it was all they could do to avoid being overwhelmed.

===They Came From Underneath===

Despite the threat of the Orks, there were threats to the defense of Vigilus much closer to home. Centuries before, a [[Genestealer Cult]] derived from the '''Pauper Princes''' had managed to get a single Purestrain Genestealer onto the world. The Genestealer grew into the [[Genestealer Patriarch]] called the '''Grandsire Wurm''', and its cult refused to let its years of preparation go to waste due to the unexpected greenskin arrivals. Uprisings that were supposed to be triggered decades down the road were forced to do so prematurely, and soon every Hivesprawl was in chaos due to the simultaneous insurrections. Imperial defenders fell to synchronized ambushes across the planet, as the Cult consolidated its hold on the Hives.

The response to the Genestealer Cult-led revolt was slow, as the Imperial Government initially thought it was the work of criminals and malcontents, and instead focused on shoring up its defenses. These uprisings, plus the constant ork raids, essentially forced the industry on the planet to grind to a halt. Things were, to put it mildly, looking grim.

===Tooth and Claw===

[[File:Vigilus_tooth_and_claw.jpg|320px|thumb|right|Bugs vs. Furries.]]

It was at this point that a task force of [[Space Marines]] made of elements from the [[Iron Hands]] and the [[Brazen Claws]], decided to throw their hats into the proceedings. On the way to the Stygies Front, they made a detour to Vigilus once contacted by their Mechanicus allies. Led by [[Kardan Stronos]], the Astartes made a massed [[Steel Rain|drop pod assault]] on the outskirts of each major Hivesprawl, before converging toward Megaborealis. Expecting to find Orks, they found cultists and [[Genestealers]] instead. Battles with these cultists would keep the sons of [[Ferrus Manus]] busy for many months.

Later on, a second task force of Astartes, this time [[Space Wolves]] from the Great Company of [[Ragnar Blackmane]] arrived to do battle with the xenos occupying the Oteck Hivesprawl. There was little coordination between the Wolves and the Iron Hands, and hilariously ''none'' of these Chapters saw fit to inform the Vigilus ruling council of what the heck was going on in their cities.

===The Megaborealis Throwdown===

A Mechanicus stronghold, Megaborealis was thought unassailable by '''Ipluvius XIV''', the [[Tech_Priest_Dominus|Magus Dominus]] in command of the Skitarii forces there, enough that he let himself get distracted by his studies. However, a squad of Ork [[Ork_Kommando|Kommandos]] begged to disagree, and brought down the hive's forcefield. The massive speed freekz attack that followed, coupled with a [[Just As Planned|simultaneous attack by genestealer cultists]], caused the magos' cogitators to freeze up due to the stress, leaving the defenders without coordination. It was bad enough that the cultists were able to steal [[Warp_Weapons#Imperial_Variants|Vortex Missiles]] and detonate it in the middle of the Hivesprawl, destroying countless Imperial war assets (including the [[Warlord Titan]] '''Dominus Rex''').

In a decisive move, Archmagos '''Nesium Caldrike''' took control of the remaining defenders, and coordinating with elements of the [[Iron Hands]] Clan Kaargul put a stop to the Genestealer shenanigans, for now at least.

While all of '''this''' was happening, the [[Imperial Guard]] was making a large-scale counterattack, with the aim of reinforcing Megaborealis. The armored convoys of [[Leman_Russ_Battle_Tank|Leman Russes]] and [[Chimera#In_Warhammer_40000|Chimeras]] took a heavy toll on the greenskins, but all this just seemed to draw more and more mobs of speed freekz to the convoys.

===Chaos Crashes The Party (Literally)===

At Hivesprawl Dontoria, already under pressure from mysterious attackers (who turned out to be [[Dark Eldar]] opportunists), an unknown spacecraft decided to crash into the hive's center, despite the best efforts from the anti-air emplacements surrounding it. From its ruined depths came the mutants of the '''Gellerpox Infected''', but the worse was to come, as in their wake came the Heretic Astartes of the '''[[Death Guard]]'''.

While the [[Tempestus Scions]] there were able to repel the Infected's assault, the sons of [[Mortarion]] soon overwhelmed the defenses. In desperation the Hive's lower levels were firebombed in a two-mile radius, but this was not enough to contain Nurgle's followers, and soon the Gellerpox spread through Dontoria. Despite the warnings of Rogue Trader '''Delarique du Languille''', the Aquilarian Council was slow to react to the threat. Acting on a warning from her psyker servant that the Gellerpox would threaten Terra if left unchecked, she took matters into her own hands. The Rogue Trader was able to halt shipping offworld and intercept and destroy what was thought to be the only Gellerpox-infected vessel departing Vigilus- but it was later found that two other infected ships had escaped and were now headed directly to [[Terra]].

===Here Come Guilliman's Boys===

After receiving a vision from [[Varro_Tigurius|Tigurius]], as well as a message from [[Roboute Guilliman]] to not allow Vigilus to fall, [[Chapter Master]] '''[[Marneus Calgar]]''' rushed as many of the [[Ultramarines]] that he could spare to the planet's defense. The going was difficult, and even with Tigurius' guidance many [[Librarian#Ranks|Epistolaries]] die to get the Chapter to the world on time.

Once there, he swiftly had those in the Aquilarian Council he determined to be Genestealer Cult infiltrators executed, and had the Vigilus Senate set up in its place.

===Wolf Bites Bug===

[[File:Tooth_And_Claw_Oteck_Rumble_2.jpg|320px|thumb|right|Rumble in the Hive Sumps, take 2!]]

The [[Space Wolves]] of course, were not idle. At Oteck Hivesprawl they tried to reclaim the all-important water supply back from the cultists. Things turned nasty very quickly when the Wolves' artillery support in the Imperial Guard turned out to have been controlled by the Cultists, and a whole lot of Hive City was suddenly dropped on the Wolves' heads. Many died, but enough Battle Brothers remained to continue the hunt for the xenos. The cultists were finally cornered and annihilated, but in their wake they left the water supply mostly tainted.

'''Haldor Icepelt''', the commander of the Space Wolves there, ordered whatever explosives the cultists stockpiled found, and then used these to bury the polluted water source under tons of rubble, preventing its spread to other hives.

== '''The Conflict Escalates even MORE''' ==
===Wake the Dead===

[[File:Wake-the-Dead.jpg|320px|thumb|right|AKA, I got Angry so I'll do Chaos' work for it!]]

It was at this point that one '''[[Farseer]] Keltoc''' from [[Craftworld]] [[Saim-Hann]] had a vision suggesting that it was important for its forces to intervene in the conflict, as ''something'' there would influence the future of the [[Eldar]] race. Apparently a home-grown [[Tzeentch|Tzeentchian]] cult led by one Vannadan planned to trigger a magma explosion that would eventually wipe out the leaders of Vigilus' defense, which would lead to the loss of the planet to Chaos, so they can't have that now, can they? Amazingly, one of the times the Eldar had genuinely good intentions (for themselves like usual, but in a way that honestly benefits someone else).

Using an underground [[Webway]] gate to avoid their dark kin, the Saim-Hann task force, led by [[Autarch]] '''Rhyloor''' and [[Spiritseer]] '''Quelanaris''', swiftly isolated the Chaos cultists and slaughtered them to a man. Word of their arrival spread to the [[Imperial Guard]] stormtroopers stationed nearby however, and the Imperials rushed to the location, fully convinced that these were the same Eldar who had been gleefully raiding the Hivesprawls during the past few months (and the Imperium does not distinguish between types of Eldar because all xenos are equally deserving of annihilation, but mostly because the only noteworthy difference between Eldar types beyond aesthetics is that Dark Eldar usually take prisoners)).

Quelanaris and Rhyloor tried desperately to explain to the arriving Stormtroopers that, no, they looked nothing like the [[Dark Eldar]] dicks who ''were'' the cause of all the trouble and that they had just eliminated a major threat to the planet (keep in mind the Imperials had no idea that the humans they had just killed were Chaos Cultists or indeed even knew there was a Chaos cult in the planet). The Tempestor Prime in charge, however, did not know or care about the difference between the Craftworlders and Dark Eldar let alone believe their story, and so the Imperials opened fire. This is what happens when you spend ten thousand years lying through your teeth, ruining operations that doom billions of innocents, and generally work very hard to earn everyone’s mistrust and undying hatred. Like usual, their asstard nature bit the spelves in the ass.

Many Eldar were cut down, including Rhyloor, but Quelanaris managed to escape with his fallen comrades' spirit stones. Vowing vengeance for an incident of his own people’s making and for his own invasion of an Imperial World shockingly getting his warriors shot to pieces (because Imperials are famous for loving it when xenos pop up on their worlds without permission), he had the spirit stones installed into waiting Wraith Constructs and led a second strike Force back to Vigilus to avenge the Autarch (y’know, by trying to kill the people whose deaths would doom his Craftworld, the usual Elfdar stupidity).

Some time later, this strike force attempted a direct attack on the Imperial leadership council as revenge for their recent losses. Primaris Lieutenant '''Eothrus''' of the Ultramarines attempted to talk down the Spiritseer, having heard about Saim-Hann assisting the Space Wolves on Stygius from Haldor Ice-Pelt, but Quelanaris refused to listen to reason and ordered his forces to attack. Since killing that leadership (who by the way are ironically innocent of blame for what happened) is what he was sent to prevent in the first place because it would ultimately doom his Craftworld, it will be curious to know what Saim-Hann thinks of him trying to kill those people himself now...probably not gonna be too pleased. To be fair, he’s not going around murdering people and isn’t technically trying to harm the Imperial forces, he’s just trying to kill the people he believes are ultimately responsible for their distant subordinates’ actions...and too cowardly to face the Stormtroopers that curbstomped his forces earlier.

===The Carnival of Pain===

While the Imperial Guard wasted their time with the Craftworlders, the ''actual'' Dark Eldar continued their merry time harassing and generally making the residents of Hivesprawls Hyperia and Oteck ''wish'' for the swift release of death. Led primarily by the [[Haemonculi]] coven of '''The Altered''', [[Kabalite_Warriors|Kabalite]] troops joined with Wych cults and Haemonculi constructs in raids that were both spectacular and deadly. The Altered in particular had a specific beef with the [[Ultramarines]], as Guilliman had kicked their ass in during the [[Indomitus Crusade]], and took particular amusement in hauling entire ''squads'' of Ultramarines back to [[Commorragh]] for "entertainment".

===Holding Back The Foul Tide===

Back in Dontoria Hive, the newly-arrived Primaris Chapter [[Necropolis Hawks]] fought to hold back the Gellerpox Infected, while the [[Crimson Fists]] and the [[Iron Hands]] worked to create a barrier with the assistance of du Languille to hold back the Chaos-spawned plague. Using the PDF's [[Hellhound#Warhammer_40.2C000|hellhound tanks]], the Fists set fire to the hive's promethium pipelines, creating a literal firewall around the infected zone.

===The Mortwald Defense===

With the destruction of the waterworks at Oteck Hivesprawl, water was getting harder to come by at Vigilus. Dontoria's own water source was also in danger of contamination, due to everyone forgetting that the [[Death Guard]] had already made landfall.

Mortwald, the source of most of the planet's food and medicine, was also under threat. Defending it were regiments of '''Ventrillian Nobles''', '''Vostroyan Firstborn''', and '''Cadian Shock Troopers''', all under the command of '''Deinos''', the [[Awesome|surprisingly-competent]] brother of the Imperial governor.

When the Greenskins came, the trench network Deinos had prepared showed its worth, and slowed down the advance of the Orks for Weeks. Within the walls of the Hivesprawl, the Guard proved themselves equally adept at putting down Genestealer Cult uprisings. Lord Deinos was adamant -- '''Mortwald will not fall''' -- and his mantra became the rallying cry of the defenders there. This stalwart defense was only improved by the arrival of the [[Imperial Fists]] 5th Company under '''Brother-Captain Dravatis Fane''', though his forces would be tested as Ork [[Stompa|Stompas]] emerged by the hundreds. Although his forces had to retreat to higher ground, Fane would counter-attack. With him were loyalists [[Imperial Knight|Knights]] from '''House Terryn''', as well as Freeblades formerly from the traitorous House Mandrakor.

In a charge that was the stuff of legends, the knights attacked the Stompa horde. Supported by the [[Reaver_Battle_Titan|Reaver Titan]] '''Heresium's Bane''', the Knights actually forced the Orks to break. Rather than running them down, the Imperials halted (notwithstanding the Freeblades who wanted to pursue them), as they insisted that the [[Noblebright|defending the people of Mortwald came first]]. This decision would soon bite them in the arse however, as a few days later the Orks attacked. While it was driven off easily enough, these attacks increased in strength week after work, until the Imperials were facing machines the size of ''reavers''.

Fane had enough. He ordered an expedition into the wastelands to find the factories churning these machines out, and put them out of commission. Permanently.

The Imperial forces found a large scrap city east of Mortwald and, under the cover of a dust storm, attacked. With [[Warhound_Scout_Titan|Warhounds]] as support, the Knights identified, then destroyed the major factories. With the mission completed, Fane ordered a withdrawal, but the Freeblades in their zeal to redeem themselves ignored this, and [[RAGE|charged straight into the ''next'' scrap city]]. Much facepalming ensued, as while the Knights killed countless orks in their reckless attack, they soon found themselves surrounded.

Fane led an airborne rescue force alongside elements of the [[White Scars]] Brotherhood led by '''Olujin Khan''' and [[Dark Angels]] Ravenwing commanded by '''Meneraeus''' to aid the beleaguered Knights. The [[Stormtalon|Stormtalons]] of the White Scars destroyed the anti-air and artillery emplacements, and without these the [[Bike_Squad|Bike Squads]] of the two Chapters cut a path through the Orks.

Without warning, the Ravenwing [[Fallen|suddenly abandoned the attack, and thundered into the dusty wilderness of the Vhulian Swirl]]. The White Scars, now bereft of support, found themselves on the verge of being swamped by Greenskins, so Olujin was forced to call a fighting withdrawal.

===Water War===

Back at Megaborealis the Mechanicus and Iron Hands was getting their Genestealer problem somewhat under control. The Sons of Manus would lead the attacks, then the Mechanicus would handle clean-up. Using xenos-detection tech, the Genestealer nests were found and destroyed, which forced the Pauper Princes to slink back into the shadows and resort to guerilla warfare to strike back.

The same could ''not'' be said of the Stygian Spires region, which controlled the asteroid water mining operations of Megaborealis. Led by the Grandsire Wurm itself, the Cultists overwhelmed the Skitarii defenders. Before long, the top levels of the water plant were taken over by the Patriarch and its kin.

=='''Bad Portents, Bad People'''==

Despite all of this, the general consensus of the population was that things had stabilized enough that the Imperium just ''might'' eke a win out of all this. This, despite Calgar being forced to have Dirkden's civilian population evacuated.

===Raptor Rampage===

[[File:Urban_Conquest_Vigilus.jpg|320px|thumb|right|From Bad, to the Worst]]

Then things really started to go tits up. Reports of disappearances and horrible monsters in the upper spires started to spread, with everyone trying to investigate vanishing without a trace. The Great Rift seemed to darken in the sky, and readings of the Emperor's Tarot all produced the same ominous reading.

By the time the [[Ordo Malleus]] had deciphered the mumbling of comatose Imperial Psykers as a warning about a "Dark King", the monsters had been identified as a scouting force of [[Black Legion]] [[Chaos Raptor|Raptors]], [[Heldrake]]s, and [[Warp Talons]].

Soon afterward, every vox network on the planet received a message from '''[[Haarken Worldclaimer]]''', the Chaos Raptor Lord leading the Black Legion forces and Herald of the Apocalypse: Vigilus now belonged to '''[[Abaddon]]''' and the Despoiler would soon arrive to oversee its conquest personally.

As the Vigilus Senate convened to discuss the alarming turn of events, they were [[Awesome|attacked by a]] [[Heldrake]] [[Awesome|that smashed through the Senate spire's ceiling.]] The Victrix Guard were able to prevent it from harming Calgar, but now they had to deal with the impending arrival of the Warmaster himself.

Meanwhile, [[Thousand Sons]] [[Rubric Marines]] were burning their way through Oteck Hivesprawl, a new Gellerpox outbreak in Mortwald led the nobles to hoard food and water for themselves and inadvertently inspire even ''more'' Chaos and Genestealer Cult uprisings, and the defenses of the planet were being stretched thinner and thinner. And the bulk of the Black Legion's forces hadn't even shown up yet.

Haarken had boasted that Vigilus would fall within 80 days of his arrival. Sure enough, after 80 days a massive number of Warp signatures was detected in the Nachmund Gauntlet.

The War of Nightmares had begun.

===Shadowspear At Nemendghast===

During all of this madness, at the outskirts of the Vigilus System a taskforce of Vanguard Primaris are covertly inserted into the planet '''Nemendghast''' after receiving a distress call from there. To their horror, they find that the world had already been taken over the Dark Powers, and its forges used to churn out Daemon Engines for the [[Black Legion]]. As it turns out, it had been trapped within the Great Rift for a time and Abaddon had taken the opportunity to capture it as a staging area for his planned invasion force.

Although heavily outnumbered by the [[Possessed|Daemonkin]] there, the task force, led by Ultramarines Librarian '''Maltis''', try to sabotage the forges ruled over by Master of Possession '''Vorash Soulflayer'''. It succeeded, but at great cost, with only Maltis escaping to bring word to Calgar of the Black Legion fleet's imminent arrival.

===Clash in the Void===
Having learned of the approaching fleet from Maltis, Calgar called for a double cordon to intercept the Chaos armada. In spite of a torpedo barrage meant to box in the fleet, the Imperials were pushed back after the Chaos forces began summoning daemons onto the Imperial ships. Even Calgar's own flagship ''Laurels of Victory'' was not spared, and he was wounded by the [[Keeper of Secrets]] that manifested onboard.

Following his return, Calgar had no choice but to abandon Dirkden Hivesprawl and Kaelac's Bane in favor of shoring up the defenses of Mortwald, Megaborealis, Oteck, and Dontoria.

===Vannadan's Legacy===
While Vannadan's plan had been thwarted by the Eldar intervention, the pyroclastic cults of Storvhal soon rallied around Haarken Worldclaimer. After defeating the local Skitarii defenders, they were able to open a Warp portal to summon an army of daemons of Tzeentch; soon even the volcanoes were erupting with warpfire.

The quick thinking of '''Fabricator Vosch''' was able to stop the continent from being swallowed by Chaos by using [[Tectonic Fragdrill]]s to trigger a massive but more conventional eruption that wiped out both Chaos forces and whatever AdMech couldn't get out of the way. Even then, Storvhal remained in Chaos hands, with Worldclaimer's Raptor packs using the ash to conceal their movements.

===Stormclaw Revisited===
Around this time, another detachment of Space Wolves led by '''[[Krom Dragongaze]]''' arrived to reinforce Vigilus. Showing his well-known disregard for little things like "waiting for orders", he immediately led an assault on the Ork-held Space Hulk ''Worldsmasha''. Following the destruction of several smaller hulks by the Wolves' Battle-Barges, Krom's forces were able to teleport directly to the ''Worldsmasha'' and kill its Big Mek commander before sending the Space Hulk on a crash course with an Ork settlement.

Marneus Calgar was less than impressed with Krom's recklessness, but news of a renewed greenskin threat in Hyperia prevented them from coming to blows over the matter.

===Creepy Crawlies===
The arrival of Abaddon's fleet had demoralized the population even further. Looting and rioting were widespread, and many of the despairing populace had turned to the Genestealer Cults or Chaos if they had not simply become Zealots for the Imperial Cult.

However, Abaddon had underestimated the strength of the xenos on Vigilus. Initial attempts at capturing the spires were stymied by Orks and the Pauper Princes, forcing Haarken to change his initial plans. An attack on Dirkden by the [[Night Lords]] and [[The Scourged]] killed millions of the cultists, but ultimately failed under a massive assault by Metamorphs and Aberrants.

===Sisters of Battle: Not Jobbing This Time===
The Genestealer Cultists had also started to tunnel underneath Dirkden into Oteck in the hopes of spreading their uprising further, but the Sisters of Battle from the Order of the Argent Shroud and the Order of the Last Prioress were able to keep them contained. Exploration of the tunnels revealed that they had already begun infiltrating Hyperia, though, and the Sisters' plans to counter-attack through the tunnels had to be put on hold.

The Orders Dialogus had also kept busy by mapping the Ork Speedwaaagh! races, allowing Imperial convoys to be ready for the greenskins' raids. This frustrated the Orks enough to get them to go out of their way to hunt down convoys protected by the Sisters.

===Retaking the Hoist===
To deal with their water problem, the Imperials set out to recapture the Omnissian Hoist from the Genestealers. The cults had already been weakened by a prior skirmish with the Magma Hounds warband, allowing a combined force of Iron Hands and Skitarii to push through the alien hordes.

The Grandsire Wurm itself was forced to lead the counter-attack, eventually sealing itself into the hoist's main control center in a final effort to deny it to the AdMech. But it hadn't counted on the Onager Dunecrawlers that had crawled up the structure, and it was forced to retreat after being wounded. After that, the Dunecrawlers were able to mop up the remaining Purestrains without difficulty.

===Vigilus Ablaze===
Hyperia Hivesprawl had at this point come under heavy attack by the [[Iron Warriors]] and the [[Word Bearers]], the latter of which had taken the time to build Noctilith Crowns to summon even more daemons. After receiving news that the Black Legion had led a major assault into a critical water purification plant on top of another Gellerpox outbreak, Calgar had no choice but to take desperate measures.

On the advice of the Planetary Governor, massive fires were started in each of the major Hivesprawls to prevent their corruption from spreading further. "Calgar's Fires" did manage to eliminate considerable parts of the xenos and Chaos forces, but only at a terrible cost. Even worse, the ''[[Vengeful Spirit]]'' had arrived on Vigilus and was effortlessly destroying every Imperial vessel sent to repel it.

===The Fallen Angels are Assholes===
Abaddon's first course of action was to pay a visit to the center of the Vhulian Swirl. The great storms were in fact artificial, and intended to conceal the location of a fortress called the Citadel Vigilant that had been occupied by a group of [[Fallen Angels]] that had forged a blood pact with Abaddon during the Pandorax campaign. Their leader, the former Librarian '''Osandus''', had come into possession of a gravitic weapon dating from the Dark Age of Technology, dubbed the Voidclaw.

Osandus had originally planned to lure the Dark Angels to Vigilus using hints from Fallen that let themselves be captured as bait; they would bring the Rock with them, and the Voidclaw would then be used to destroy it and wipe out the Dark Angels in the process. Abaddon sought to use it on the space between Vigilus and its moon Neo-Vellum, altering the planet's orbit in a way that would reshape the Nachmund Gauntlet if not close it completely, thus ensuring that the Imperium Nihilus was lost for good.

The Fallen Librarian was pleased to help with such a major blow against the Imperium, and the Voidclaw was fired. Needless to say, this royally fucked over just about '''''everybody''''' on Vigilus. Mercifully, the Dark Angels were later able to find the Citadel Vigilant, destroy the Voidclaw before it could close the Gauntlet, and deal with the Fallen in their usual manner.

=='''All Downhill From Here'''==
As you would probably expect, the Imperials were left badly reeling from the Voidclaw's activation. Calgar managed to salvage things somewhat by manipulating Chaos forces into clashes with the Speedwaaagh!, but even then the Imperials were struggling and countless hives had been badly damaged if not outright destroyed.

===Mortwald Falls===
At Mortwald, the Imperial Fists and Iron Warriors had been engaged in a long trench war, but when they and Deinos' elite forces were forced to redeploy against other threats the Hivesprawl fell to the forces of Chaos. The nobles that had been hoarding food all this time unsurprisingly fell to Slaanesh, a situation that the [[Flawless Host]] used to their advantage by overwhelming the defenders with Daemonettes as they shut down the automated defenses. By the time the Imperial Fists could respond, the rioters opposing the corrupt nobles had devolved into cultists of Khorne.

===Purge-ing Dontoria===
At the peak of the Death Guard invasion of Dontoria Hivesprawl, the Gellerpox-infected freighters that had departed near the beginning of the war came back, now full of mutants eager to claim Dontoria for Nurgle.

[[The Purge]] were insulted by the Death Guard's sudden influx of corrupted life, and sought to deal with it in their traditional manner: with lots of chemical weaponry. Citizens and mutants alike were thrown into manufactorums, producing a foul miasma that suffocated everything it came into contact with. As you might expect, the Death Guard and the Gellerpox Infected did not appreciate the interference and the two Nurglite armies quickly turned on each other.

Marneus Calgar decided that breaking their stalemate would not be worth it; even if the Nurglites could be driven off, Dontoria was now a hopelessly corrupted shithole too far gone to be saved.

===Blizzard Battles===
The Dark Eldar and the Thousand Sons spent most of the later parts of the war fighting over the Webway Gate at Kaelac's Bane. The Dark Eldar seemingly triumphed after unleashing stolen terraforming devices that froze the Rubric Marines solid, but before retreating to the Webway their sorcerers left them a "parting gift": a Keeper of Secrets. This particular Keeper of Secrets, known as "The Pale Stalker", was able to blend in perfectly with the blizzards, and within three weeks it had slain nearly a third of the Dark Eldar forces. The survivors were left so petrified of the daemon that they abandoned Vigilus outright. After one last slave raid, of course.

===Like Primarch, Like Chapter Master===
The Imperial forces were increasingly confronted with the possibility that they were going to lose. Chaos kept gaining ground, and the remaining relay stations on Neo-Vellum were warning that the Great Rift was expanding closer to Vigilus. Left unchecked, the world would be lost to the Warp and the entirety of the Imperium Nihilus with it.

Some among the Vigilus Senate brought up the prospect of Exterminatus, but Marneus Calgar reminded them that Guilliman told them not to abandon the planet under any circumstances. More importantly, the Chaos forces were still being weakened by the xenos and Imperial forces were still eking out victories here and there.

While seeking the aid of the Orks was out of the question, Calgar decided that an alliance with the Eldar of Saim-Hann would work to their mutual advantage. During a lull in the fighting, Calgar was able to call for a parley and meet with Farseer Keltoc. While Keltoc was still upset with the death of Autarch Rhyloor, the Farseer agreed that the Eldar could not afford for Vigilus to fall.

The exact details of the pact Calgar made with Keltoc are uncertain, but given that the Farseer and his senior chieftains were allowed into the Governor's Palace and that the Planetary Governor and the other members of the former Aquilarian Council who had a role in Rhyloor's death were never heard from again, it isn't difficult to figure out the terms. In exchange, the Eldar agreed to allow the Imperials the use of the stealth ship ''Vaul's Ghost'', which Calgar needed to carry out his plan to force the Black Legion's withdrawal.

The Eldar soon began to create a diversion for the Imperials, leading Orks into Chaos Space Marines strongpoints across Vigilus. While countless battles continued to rage, only Calgar, Keltoc, and a handful of Ultramarines commanders knew that only one- the battle for New Vitae Docks- mattered. Countless bulk freighters were sent into low orbit despite the Iron Warriors' best efforts to shoot them down. Most were decoys, but one of them was carrying a payload of six Deathstrike Missiles- including two Vortex Missiles. Meanwhile, the Imperial fleet had been hastily reassembled to engage the Black Legion's fleet, in the hopes that it would buy enough time for the ''Vaul's Ghost'' to pick up the missiles.

===The Main Event===
To ensure that the Warmaster couldn't catch onto what the Imperial fleet was planning, Marneus Calgar challenged Abaddon to a duel at Saint's Haven. The Despoiler was eager to humiliate the Chapter Master, and promptly teleported there with a retinue of Terminators and Possessed.

As their bodyguards fought, Calgar and Abaddon exchanged volleys of bolter fire before a loose flagstone left the Chapter Master off-balance long enough for the Warmaster to damage one of the Gauntlets of Ultramar. Calgar countered with a punch strong enough to knock Abaddon off his feet, but a slash from Drach'nyen cut off two of Calgar's fingers, badly damaged his armor, and destroyed his secondary heart.

As Abaddon prepared to finish off Calgar, he received an urgent warning from Worldclaimer: the ''Vaul's Ghost'' had crashed into the ''Vengeful Spirit'', detonating the Deathstrike Missiles in its hold and blowing a massive hole in the Black Legion's flagship. The critically damaged battleship would soon make an emergency Warp jump out of the Vigilus system, and Abaddon would have no choice but to teleport back to attend to the ship.

The Despoiler chose to leave his Possessed retinue behind to make sure Calgar didn't have the chance to learn his plan worked, but his Belisarian Furnace kicked in just in time to help him fight them off. By the time the Victrix Guard arrived, Calgar was on death's door (again) but was saved by his Apothecaries. However, he hasn't taken the field personally since then and is likely still recovering.

=='''The Aftermath'''==
The war didn't immediately end with Abaddon's departure, but without him to hold them together the forces of Chaos have splintered and begun fighting among themselves. The Despoiler has not allowed his setback to stop his plans to close the Gauntlet, though. In fact, he has already planned an attack on Vigilus' sister world of Sangua Terra, to be spearheaded by the [[Planet Killer]] itself.

Megaborealis was retaken by the combined forces of the AdMech and the Iron Hands, and while the Black Legion was able to destroy much of the Blackstone deposits that kept the Nachmund Gauntlet open with a cyclonic torpedo bombardment the cogboys kept enough of the stuff hidden away for the Gauntlet to stay stable. Hyperia is still contested, but Oteck and Dirkden are considered lost.

Speedboss Krooldakka was slain during the Black Legion's bombardment of Megaborealis, and while the Orks are a spent force in Vigilus' cities they still hold a considerable amount of territory in the wastelands. Two-thirds of their scrap cities are estimated to be intact, and word of Vigilus being a fun fight has attracted Orks to the world, just like on Armageddon.

With the Black Legion repelled and their honor avenged, the Eldar of Saim-Hann left without much fanfare from anyone.

The Pauper Princes still infest the entirety of Dirkden Hivesprawl, but their plans have suffered a blow that they may not be able to recover from. They now look to the stars for salvation, hoping their [[Tyranids|Star Saviors]] come to their aid. Grandsire Wurm was slain by a trio of Callidus Assassins disguised as Neophyte Hybrids, but the cult had spread far enough for multiple Patriarchs to arise, with one of them becoming the new Grandsire Wurm. In the meantime, they have managed to spread to Vigilus' moon, Neo-Vellum.

Vigilus itself is about as badly fucked over as you would think, but with the threats to Vigilus now being at relatively manageable levels the Imperium can now consider the planet to be safely in their hands. For now, anyway.

{{40k-Timeline}}

Land Raider

2019-09-25T17:01:13Z

2600:1006:B105:8611:58CC:338D:D9D2:B1D4: /* Angel Infernus Pattern (Chapter Approved, only for Open Play) */

{{Topquote|Scorch the earth and all who stand upon it!|[[Dawn of War 2|Land Raider pilots doing what they do best.]]}}

[[File:LandRaider.jpg|500px|right|thumb|A Land Raider assaulting a position. Calling or playing it as a front line tank or a Baneblade knockoff is a [[Rage|sure way of getting your]] [[Anal Circumference|ass shredded]] [[Space Marines|by SM players.]]]]
Sometimes the only solution to a problem is a complete lack of anything resembling subtlety.

A [[Rhino Transport]] grown several orders of magnitude too large, the mighty Land Raider is one of the biggest available tanks that [[Space Marines]] and [[Chaos Space Marines]] can field. Its firepower is incredible, and its armor betrays no weakpoints: it has maximum armor (14) for ''every side'', something that only the [[Monolith#Warhammer_40.2C000|Necron Monolith]], [[Necron Pylon]], and [[Spartan Assault Tank]] share with the Land Raider; not even [[Baneblade|Baneblades]] have this. Its armor is pretty much only beaten by [[Warlord Battle Titan|Warlord Class battle titans]]. It can also transport Terminators. This is the [[METAL BOXES|Metalboxiest]] of all the [[Metal Boxes|METAHL BAWKSES]].

==Overview==
[[File:Land_Raider_Insides.png|500px|right]]
The Land Raider has always been a somewhat insane beast, owing to its large weapon load and the fact that only part of this load can usually fire at a given time, making it so that it's of questionable value - this is because there are almost always better choices to do what the Land Raider can do for cost - Predators generally do better at vehicle busting or infantry killing, and the main use of the Land Raider is as a transport vehicle for Terminators and getting them right into the heart of the battle, which is kind of lopsided with its heavy armament.

Even with this, the Land Raider is still something of a good combat vehicle, if only because of the changes to the 5th edition vehicle weaponry rules. Stationary, the Land Raider can fire off all its weaponry in a salvo, which is especially good for the Chaos version, which can mount a Havoc Launcher to add a little extra infantry-raping punch. The Grey Knight version is also notable (Psycannon Bolts help this thing a lot) since it's pretty much the only heavy tank Daemonhunters get.

Make no mistake: It may be inefficient, large, and points-heavy, but the Land Raider is ''still'' a powerful force and should not be underestimated under any circumstances. Virtually any form of Land Raider is a daunting foe if it sticks around, whether it has troops in it or not. AV14 all around makes it a tough nut to crack without dedicated anti-armor weapons, and the Land Raider still is likely to survive the opening salvo, especially if it has extra armor. However, keep your Land Raider away from dedicated anti-heavy armor (Railguns, melta), or you will very quickly feel the pain of losing all those points.

And before you say it, a Land Raider is not a main battle tank or an armored personnel carrier; it is an infantry fighting vehicle like the Razorback, since it can carry people inside and provide heavy fire support (hence Infantry and Fighting). A Baneblade is a main battle tank (well, it is if you don't accept the term heavy or superheavy battle tank), a Rhino is an an armored personnel carrier, a Land Raider is an Infantry Fighting vehicle (though perhaps you could throw in heavy into that term). Well, that is unless you can actually get the Ares and Terminus Ultra pattern models, who traded their transport capabilities for even more and bigger guns, where they're pretty much <s>MBTs</s> an assault gun and a tank destroyer respectively...Okay, now that that's over, the original Land Raider was designated an MBT by the man who found the STC and whom the vehicle is named after, Arkhan Land. If the theory that the Land Raider Proteus is actually the default/original variant of the Land Raider is correct, then the Land Raider IS an MBT, it's just that the variants that permitted honest troop capacity were utilized more often by the Assault-happy Astartes to the point that Land Raiders are now known by the more common offspring of the original pattern. Except it’s not. An MBT requires the armored fighting vehicle to be fully capable of engaging armor and infantry with its primary weapon(s), keeping pace with mechanized infantry and other vehicle forces, and possessing enough armor and firepower to rival heavy tank threats. Some patterns fulfill this to varying degrees. However, the Land Raider is simply too slow and rare to be classified as a Main Battle Tank. If anything, its most common varients are a form of Infantry Tank with troop carrying capability. A slow armored fighting vehicle capable of defending infantry against vehicles and helping infantry against enemy infantry and suppressing or destroying defensive positions. This is also why a Leman Russ standard is an MBT. It can use different shells to destroy infantry, light vehicles, and heavy vehicles all from a platform easily capable of keeping up with mechanized elements and dueling heavy tanks. It is also far more common, as an MBT is the primary and most numerous tank of a military, whereas the Land Raider is extremely rare. While the lascannons and heavy bolters working together could enable the Land Raider to serve as an MBT, the tank itself is far too slow and far too rare to qualify.

In terms of appearance, a Land Raider is basically a cross between giant World War I Mark series tank and a modern armored fighting vehicle. It's shaped more like the latter, but the exposed treads on the entire front of the tank and the sponson-mounted guns resemble the former. Oddly, the placement of sponson mounted guns on the Mark series tank was a feature implemented so the tanks could fire into enemy trenches more easily while also keeping them from becoming too tall and unstable; after the war, that design was scrapped in favor of rotating turrets that gave an entire 360 degree firing arc (cannons on a Mark tank could only be pointed at things in front of them or to the side, they could not aim behind it).. Why GW decided to model something after this is a mystery, but they seem to have a thing for giving the Imperium of Man pre-<s>Cold War</s>World War II vehicle designs. Isn't it obvious? The Mark I was a British invention! And now for the low price of $110 a piece! Holy shit. They do have an excuse, though. Most Imperial vehicles were either meant for exploration or utility and had guns and armor more as a “just in case”. So, there was no reason for them to be designed with combat practicality or effectiveness in mind. Heck, the Baneblade’s STC data says it is a light scout tank and it actually walks the walk of a true tank and its oddly tall frame makes sense for mounting anti-infantry/anti-vehicle supplementary weapons. Which it does and to great effect. The Land Raider is in the same boat and also uses its defensive armament effectively but its height is probably for transportation capacity.

Now in 8th edition, the Land Raider is a much more fearsome beast, being able to fire all of its weapons at different targets, and benefiting greatly from the new twin-linked rules. It's also T8 with 16 wounds and one of the very few 2+ armour saves on vehicles. It basically went from schizophrenic IFV to being a very effective IFV.

=={{anchor|Variants}} Variants and Such==
The Land Raider has a ton of variants. Some of the more noteworthy ones are listed below.

==={{anchor|Phobos}} Phobos Pattern===
[[File:StandardRaider.jpg|280px|thumb|right|A [[Ultramarines|Smurf]] Land Raider. AKA the Godhammer Pattern.]]
The basic one has two [[Twin-Linked]] Lascannons in sponsons (called "Godhammer" pattern, [[Sigmar|for some odd reason]]) and a twin-linked [[Heavy Bolter]], making it some kind of heavy infantry fighting vehicle derpfish. It's very flexible, but ultimately rather inefficient. The Predator Annihilator is better at tankbusting, as it can unleash 3 lascannon beams, one of which is twin-linked, plus a Hunter-killer missile if you've taken one, whereas the Land Raider only has 2 twin-linked Lascannon (though the Land Raider can take a pintle-mounted Multi-Melta, which can one-shot almost any tank). The Predator Destructor is better at killing infantry; 2 shots from an Autocannon and 6 more from Heavy Bolters shred all kinds of medium/light infantry, plus two more shots if you choose to add a Storm Bolter, whereas the Land Raider only has the single twin-linked Heavy Bolter to fight infantry (plus an optional Storm Bolter). The Rhino is generally a better transport for its price, only falling short in its inability to carry Terminators. The Land Raider stands apart from the Predator and Rhino because it can fill multiple duties at once (it's recommended that you add a Storm Bolter/Multi-Melta, extra-armor, and Hunter-Killer missile to help in this task), and is the only vehicle in many armies that allow a unit to disembark and assault in the same turn. It may be schizophrenic, but it is ''effective'', especially if you use it right. Now in 7e, put 3 in the Land Raider Spearhead Formation for 750 points stock and you got a lethal counter to those super-heavies, gargantuan creatures, and buildings with Mighty Bulwark thanks to the re-roll failed to wound/armor penetration.

As of 8th, it's far more potent, benefiting not only from the generally-increased durability of vehicles in 8th and the elimination of firing arcs, it now has greater firepower than either predator variant (in fact, it's close to being tied with both of them put together), and the change to rhino prices means that while the Land Raider is still expensive, it's not as point-inefficient as it was.

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===Venerable Land Raider===
[[File:99120101061 CustodianLandraider01.jpg|280px|thumb|right|The 'Venerable' sub-variant of the Godhammer Pattern. Deadly not because of its weapons, [[Custodian Guard|but the cargo it is holding.]]]]
The [[Adeptus Custodes]] also have their own sub-variant of the Phobos/Godhammer Pattern Land Raider called the aptly named '''Venerable Land Raider''' which is a Land Raider bristling in gold to blind the enemies of men with the superiority of the <u>BLING</u>. Venerable Land Raiders ignore shaken and stunned results and also comes with some pretty cool upgrades as well now like a 5+ invulnerable save from the aegis ability, and a 6+ FNP (yes, it has both an Invulnerable and a FNP because ''of course it does''), all for mega mucho points. Other than that there is very little difference armament wise other then being a 'cheap' (for Custodes standards anyway) replacement to the vastly superior [[Coronus Grav Carrier]], [[promotions|which is faster, inflicts a -1 to hit in melee, and is actually designed for Custodians (transports capacity of 6 means that it can carry two MSU guard squads, or a 5-man with Shield-Captain, at the cost of having a 3+ armour save)]]. Still, don't try to underestimate this sub-variant as the cargo it's holding just so happens to be [[Custodian Guard|dudes who can]] [[Rape|tear your Riptide a new asshole.]]

In terms of fluff, Venerable Land Raiders have a enhanced <s>AI</s> Machine Spirit, more so than conventional Land Raiders. Many Venerable Land Raiders can trace their history back to the earliest years of the Imperium and fought in the [[Great Crusade]] and [[Horus Heresy]]. As you can imagine, such engines of war was considered as a secondhand watered down version of the [[Coronus Grav Carrier|type]] [[Pallas Grav-Attack|of]] [[Gyrfalcon Pattern Jetbike|shit]] [[Caladius Grav-Tank|the]] [[Adeptus Custodes|Custodes]] [[Telemon Heavy Dreadnought|used]] [[Contemptor-Galatus Dreadnought|to]] [[Orion Gunship |have,]] or rather still have but have been mothballed for...[[Derp|reasons.]]

Still, these dauntless war engines have now served for ten thousand years and each has built a legend every bit as magnificent as those possessed by the greatest Imperial champions. They have also developed Magos-class machine spirits and these noble and aggressive entities can independently aim and fire the vehicle's guns and coordinate its auto-repair rituals when circumstances require it. In extreme circumstances these amazing war engines have even been teleported directly onto the battlefield, through the use of ancient [[Just As Planned|Godstrike-pattern teleportariums.]] [[Rape|Deepstriking teleporting Land Raiders full of golden demigods?]] [[Cheese|Oh...all of the yes.]]

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==={{anchor|Chaos}} Chaos Land Raider===
[[File:99120102052 CSMLandRaiderRepack01.jpg|280px|thumb|right|Chaos Land Raiders are now at a reasonable price of a 100,000 Chaos Credits! Call your local [[Dark Mechanicum]] today!]]
Functionally identical to the Phobos Pattern Land Raider, the Chaos version has a number of small changes that actually make it quite a bit better than its standard counterpart. It has Assault Vehicle like the loyalist, meaning that troops exiting it can assault the same turn, and it can be further specialized as an assault transport with Daemonic Possession, Extra Armor, and Dirge Caster. It can also be turned into a better combat vehicle due to its ability to pack on a Havoc Launcher; this gives it the ability to fire a few clusters of blast templates downrange for those using it as a heavy offensive vehicle. You can alternately pack on a Combi-Bolter and Combi-Flamer/Melta, and they're even comparable with [[Havoc Launcher]] in current codex.

It's usually a bit more valuable to Chaos than it is to the Loyalists as a result. However, unfortunately for Chaos; this is the only kind of Land Raider they get, and compared to some of the other things on this list, it's out-specialized by other Land Raiders - the Crusader does Assault Transport (arguably; Daemonic Possession does a LOT to make this thing more dangerous, or DID before the rules change made Daemonic Possession cause the Chaos Raider to randomly eat passengers) better, and the Ares, Redeemer, and Achilles handle massed infantry better, whilst the Terminus Ultra is basically a tank destroyer. Add to this that the Chaos Land Raider doesn't have Power of the Machine Spirit rule that loyalist Land Raiders have, and the Chaos Land Raider is more limited in the ways it can shoot.

However, like the Godhammer, the Chaos Land Raider can handle [[Indrick Boreale|multiple simultaneous]] roles as needed, which, paired with the Chaos Land Raider's generally-better utility makes it something of a decent deal. Worth using if you have the points to spend, or if you have some big nasty close-combat squad that absolutely MUST get into close-combat.

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==={{anchor|Crusader}} Crusader Pattern===
[[File:LandRaiderCrusader.gif|280px|thumb|right|PURGING WITH MY KIIIIIIIIIN!]]
Once upon a time, during a Crusade to bring the Emperor's Light to some foul heretics, the Black Templars' Techmarines considered that Twin-linked Lascannons weren't particularly useful when rushing forward to disgorge Sword Brethren [[rape|right where it hurts the most]], so they decided to [[heresy|tinker a bit]] with one of their Land Raiders and swap out its Mars-sanctioned weapon loadout... and thus the Crusader Pattern Land Raider was born. It forgoes long-range firepower in favor of a dedicated role as an assault transport/infantry fighting vehicle, generally making it a bit more effective at getting into the enemy's face and spewing out a truly immense amount of dakka just before its passengers double up on the beating in melee. Armed with a pair of Hurricane Bolter sponsons, an optional Multi-Melta (just in case a vehicle/fortification would think of getting in the way) and twin-linked Assault Cannons, the Crusader Pattern basically delivers a truly beautiful amount of dakka at (twelve Bolters, and two assault cannons=some 272+ rounds per second) close range (with the Multi-Melta being there to deal with the errant vehicle threat) before disgorging its troops into the heart of enemy forces. Making it even better, the Crusader holds more men and has Frag Assault Launchers, ensuring that the disembarking troops gain the benefits of Frag Grenades (which Terminators normally lack). This vehicle was so effective that it spread, to some of the other Marine chapters, including the [[Grey Knights]], who were given a few for helping the Templars out once, and eventually even got official recognition from Mars.

If you play Dark Angels, you owe it to yourself to play at least one game where this beast is boosted by a Banner of Devastation and some power fields, for an utterly hilarious TWENTY FOUR twin linked Bolter shots all protected by an AV 14 4 HP 4++ monster of a vehicle. All of this, however, comes at the price of the baseline Land Raider's raw offensive punch (unless you're fighting guard/cultist/Ork/Tyranid blobs, then you will eat people) - fight accordingly.

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==={{anchor|Redeemer}} Redeemer Pattern===
[[File:LandRaiderRedeemer.jpg|280px|thumb|right|I like my [[Tyranid|Tyranids]] nicely minced and cooked well-done.]]
The Redeemer is designed to maximize close-range punch. Whilst it's not the balls-out dedicated infantry-fighting vehicle/assault transport that the Crusader is, the Redeemer packs on considerably heavier '''fire'''power. It maintains the Assault Cannons, Frag Assault Launcher, and optional Multi-Melta, but replaces the sponson-mounted Hurricane Bolters with a pair of Flamestorm Cannons - functionally improved Flamers with S6, AP3, the only drawback to them being that since they're sponson mounted they can't hit targets that are too close to the front or back of the Redeemer.

Cheaper than the other Land Raiders, this is one of the more popular Land Raiders due to its slightly lower points-cost. Tends to annihilate infantry by the dozens once in-close and makes tyranblob crap itself in sheer terror, but seriously needs Extra Armor. Using these when facing Tyranids or bikes-heavy lists (Ravenwing) is highly recommended since they don't have any vehicles or anything with more than toughness 6. Flamers ignore any armour but 2+ saves and ALL cover saves, meaning you'll be BBQing nids and bikers negating their Venomthrope/bullshit rerollable jink save.

Interestingly the Redeemer was invented by the Fire Lords Space marine chapter, and they wanted to name the pattern "Prometheus" after the titan who gave fire to man, but the name was already taken by the actual Land raider Prometheus designed by the Salamanders, so instead it was named the Redeemer.

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==={{anchor|Vortimer Redeemer}} Vortimer Redeemer Pattern===
[[File:99590107034_GREYKNIGHTSLANDRAIDERREDEEMER1.jpg|280px|thumb|right|The proverbial daemon steamroller.]]
A [[Grey Knights]] exclusive variant of the Land Raider Redeemer that replaces the assault cannons with psycannons and frag assault launchers with psyk-out assault launchers. These Land Raiders are a bane to [[Daemon]] players everywhere due to its armaments and the fact that it safely carries a detachment of [[Grey Knight Paladin|prolific Daemon rapists]] [[Purifier|and molesters.]] Because it is a more specialized version of the regular Redeemer Pattern and the rarity of the weapons it carries, the Vortimer is both a rare and expensive vehicle to produce, not to mention an utterly secret weapon from the general public.

Because of its psycannons, the Vortimer could mulch Warp creatures into dog food, that includes and up to even greater daemons if the dice gods are in your favor. Hell, because it carries not one, but two psycannons, it could just as easily chew up light to medium vehicles as well. The Vortimer not doing enough in clearing out those pesky ethereal creatures from the Warp? No problem, you can just mount [[Rape|two heavy incinerator sponsons]] [[Cheese|for quadruple the fun.]] [[Troll|Watch and see]] [[Butthurt|Chaos players weep bitter tears]] as this machine proceeds to unload its cargo of holy retribution and cleanse their heretical armies into smoking cinders.

This vehicle was best seen during the Dawn of War 2 Elite Mod as the ultimate unit for the Grey Knights. Just as expected from the fluff, this thing was an [[Powergamer|overpowered train wreck,]] able to lay down massive suppressive fire whilst protecting its precious cargo of [[Mary Sue|Mary Sues]] to the frontlines. It would have been broken if it wasn't so damned expensive in an already expensive army.

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==={{anchor|Ares}} Ares Pattern (Chapter Approved)===
[[File:LandRaiderAres000.png|280px|thumb|right|The Ares is like the discount [[Typhon Heavy Siege Tank|Typhon.]]]]
Decides to say ''"Fuck that shit"'' regarding transporting and seeks to become the most destructive linebreaker around, trying to eclipse even the dreaded [[Leman Russ Battle Tank|Leman Russ Demolisher]] and [[Vindicator]]. No transport capability, and costs about 50 points more than the standard Land Raider, but you get what you pay for; Twin-Linked Heavy Flamer Sponsons, Twin-Linked Assault Cannons and a fucking ''Demolisher Cannon'' make this thing filthy rape to anything with the misfortune of getting anywhere near it. This tank lacks tactical flexibility, as none of its weapons has a range of more than 24"(although due to power of the machine spirit its demolisher cannon actually has a threat range of 36"), but what it lacks in versatility it more than makes up for in close-range balls-out power, it concentrates on applying overwhelming fire-power to a single point in the enemy battle line. If your opponents weren't shitting bricks trying to kill/escape your Vindicators, they most assuredly will at the sight of this fucking thing. Tyranid players tend to weep tears of blood, piss themselves, and crap their pants all at the same time when these show up. Now if only Chaos had them so we could toss on a Havoc Launcher and make it possessed. Now that would be the ''ultimate'' blob destroyer.

Basically, blow a hole in the enemy’s attempt to stop you, roll into it and spew fire and bullets until everything is dead. Rinse, repeat, lulz.

With the release of the Typhon you could spend fifty more points to get two more hull points and upgrade your gun to 7" blast Ignores Cover, but with the Ares people might actually play you.

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=== {{anchor|Terminus Ultra}} Terminus Ultra Pattern ===
[[File:Terminus.jpg|280px|thumb||right|Shouting "420 BLAZE IT!" or "IMMA' FIRIN MA LASER!" will be met with disciplinary action.]]
Now available as a free upgrade for a Land Raider formation in Apocalypse, but only as the exclusive ride of [[Antaro Chronus]]. The Yang to the Ares's Yin, and the second of the ''"[[Commissar Fuklaw|fuck transporting]]!"'' Land Raiders, which lack transport capability and anything resembling subtlety, the Terminus Ultra is designed as a dedicated vehicle-killer, armed with a hilariously over-the-top three twin-linked Lascannons and two single lascannons, the Terminus Ultra can overheat and explode if it fires the bulk of its Lascannon payload ''(you should know however, that the chances of this happening are tiny, you need to roll FOUR 1's when rolling to hit, or 1 in 1296)''.

Known for making Vehicle units shit bricks, and for destroying [[Titan]]s on its own. Beam spam and Shoop Da whoop indeed. There aren't many other vehicles that are better at the role of tank destroyer than this. Plop these in a nice easily defended spot where your enemy will have to bring his vehicles, super-heavy vehicles, high value HQ units, monstrous creatures, and gargantuan through and turn their most valuable units into swiss cheese. Make a note, however, that it's generally inefficient for the role, is a huge target and becomes 100% useless if facing blob armies of any sort - fight accordingly.

It made it's way into the offical Index as of 8th, though still exclusively for the Ultramarines and as Lord of War for no clearly defined reason. It's chance of blowing itself up has increased now that's firing 8 lascannons a turn, but it's far less likely to kill itself when doing so, and keeping a captain or rhino primaris nearby can mitigate that risk. While inferior to other LoWs in regards to raw firepower (the fellblade can match it's number of shots and packs more firepower on top of that, with no risk of blowing itself up), the Terminus stands out with it's lower cost and ability to fire at 5 separate targets every round. As of Chapter Approved 2017, the Terminus Ultra is now available to chapters other than Ultramarines as well - but only in open play!

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==={{anchor|Achilles}} Achilles Pattern (Forge World)===
[[File:Achilles_Pattern.jpg|280px|right|thumb|It's like [[Rogal Dorn]] thinking to himself, "Hmmmm...fortifying a Land Raider? Challenge accepted."]]
The Achilles Pattern is the most heavily armored Land Raider, and was originally-created by the Imperial Fists. The Achilles Pattern is a giant derpy hunk of metal, bristling with guns and designed to get in close, firing off heavy firepower before discharging its payload of troops right into enemy formations. In other words, it is exactly the sort of thing that comes to mind when you hear the words "land raider". Its armor is impervious to the Lance and Melta special rules and most other weapons suffer a -1 on armor penetration rolls (essentially its armor is the same as a Necron Monolith's prior to the 5th Edition codex, it's just that the rules are given different names). The only things killing it are heavy-bore anti-vehicle weapons like the Leman Russ Vanquisher outside of lucky shots with high-strength armor-piercing weapons, like a Baneblade or Terminus Ultra firing all of its weapons (thus using the law of averages to help in its attempt to pierce the armor), or anti-vehicle Titan guns (like those used by a Shadowsword or like the epic beamspam that can be unleashed by a Reaver or Warhound dual wielding Turbo-laser Destructors), or some weird shit like haywire, gauss, entropic touch and so on (because xenos are dirty cheaters). It mounts a devastating [[Thunderfire Cannon]] (which is a massive quad-barreled mortar that can cause several flavors of infantry death) and twin-linked Multi-Melta sponsons, but it carries only 6 people (that means only three termies), have no assault ramp and costs more than Ares and Terminus Ultra - generally those 6 places are for techmarine and his servitor retinue, or for command squad loaded with Plasmaguns. The earlier Achilles Alpha prototype swapped the Thunderfire Cannon for a Quad Mortar and was equipped with twin-linked Volkite Culverins as sponson weapons.

Chaos Space Marines recently got access to this version of Land Raider as well through [[Imperial Armour]] volume 13. Along with access to all the typical upgrades for Chaos Space Marine vehicles, the Chaos Achilles swaps out the Thunderfire Cannon for a Quad Mortar, which is weaker and less capable of penetrating armor but compensates with the Pinning rule- and as a bonus, its pinning tests are made with a -1 penalty. On top of that, the Quad Mortar's Strength, AP, and Pinning test penalty all increase as the Chaos Achilles loses hull points, making it more and more deadly as it takes damage. This is of course assuming it isn't killed in one turn like most vehicles do in the current meta when they draw the ire of the nearest D-strength weapon. God fucking damn it.

As of 8th, it's gotten far nastier, with a pair of heavy 2 multimeltas and the quad launcher now has access to shatter shells, a set of short range shots with [[Rape|performance similar to battle cannon shells]]. It's armor has received the same buff, as it's previous collection of special rules have been removed and replaced with a blanket [[Awesome|4+ invul save]].

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==={{anchor|Helios}} Helios Pattern (Forge World)===
[[File:Helios4dwje6q4no3.jpg|280px|right|thumb|The [[Whirlwind|Whirlwind's]] bigger and badder brother.]]
The Helios Pattern Land Raider is designed for fire support, replacing the usual [[Heavy Bolter]]s with a pair of twin-linked [[Lascannon]]s and sacrificing ten transport spaces for a missile battery from a [[Whirlwind]]. This allows it to provide heavy fire support at long ranges and with minimal opportunities for retaliation, though it's quite points-intensive for what it does, whilst the Achilles does it better. If you do use one, be sure to employ it with a [[shooty]] force that can actually use the damned thing, like a Devastator Squad.

It was originally designed by the [[Red Scorpions]], who didn't trust the Imperial Guard to provide them with artillery support. Of course, this means that you're probably going to use it as an artillery tank, meaning you still have transport space. And a lot of armor. That will probably go to waste because you didn't just get a Whirlwind instead. It also has the option of taking an anti-air [[Whirlwind#Hyperios|Hyperios]] launcher, just in case you just want to equally pepper the skies in flak and falling plane bits hitting the ground at full speed. Although in terms of pound-per-points cost, it is still more efficient to just get a couple of Hyperios Missile Launchers themselves to fit the bill rather than wasting the points to put on a fucking Land Raider.

It lost the Hyperios launcher in 8th, but it's missiles were reworked to be a decent combination of the whirlwind's two missile types and the buff to twin linked weapons upped it's firepower considerably. It's now effectively a combination of the predator annihilator and the whirlwind, but with 2+ armor, T8, and transport capability, all for only a small increase in the point cost over a predator and whirlwind. If you want a fun toy for your command squad, or have the points for more heavy support units and not the slots, the Helios is a worthwhile choice. Bombard the enemy, then advance into them and pretend to be a vanilla raider, dump troops, bombard other enemies while your dudes assrape. Continue.

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==={{anchor|Prometheus}} Prometheus Pattern (Forge World)===
[[File:RaiderPrometheus.jpg|280px|thumb|right|A [[Ultramarines|Smurf]] Land Raider Prometheus. It's like staring at an open cesspool.]]
20 points more than a standard Land Raider, this variant loses a few transport spaces (it has 10, so no IC with your terminators) for two quad Heavy Bolters (because FUCK hordes) and some interesting abilities: you get to subtract one from your enemy's cover save (because fuck hordes, again) and you also get to choose whether or not to add 1 to your reserve rolls. Essentially, you get to choose whether or not something comes in if you roll a 2. Not bad, does its job fairly well. It's the only Land Raider that can't penetrate the armour of another Land Raider, so keep it away from tanks.

In fluffy terms, [[Skub|there has been some debates on the true exact origins of this particular Land Raider.]] The exact origins of the 'Prometheus' pattern Land Raider remains a mystery. Some Tech-adepts believe it to be a variant of the 'Tartarus' pattern Land Raider, due to the striking similarities between the two. Although no clear evidence has been found to support this claim there is at least one archival report that depicts the vehicle, or else one that closely resembles it, that fought on the side of the Loyalists during the early period of the [[Horus Heresy]]. Others believe that it was the Salamanders which first produced it as they retain more Prometheus models, than any other Chapter and because they are often the go-to guys for 'super ornate shit with vague origins' (strangely however, the Salamanders deny this claim which is completely out of character... [[Alpha Legion|unless]]...). In any case, the number of Chapters which do have a Prometheus within their Armories is unknown. For example, the White Scars only have four of these Land Raiders. There is even another version that the origins of 'Prometheus' where in fact founded by the Landites - followers of the famous Arkhan Land.

In 8th, it remains largely similar to its 7th edition version. It's guns now [[Awesome|ignore cover entirely]], and the buff to reserve rolls has been changed to make one stratagem you use cost one fewer command point (to a minimum of one), so long as your warlord is embarked inside. This tank offers a lot of tactical choices now, such as the choice between using your warlord as the beatstick he most likely is, and keeping him inside the tank to buff the army.

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==={{anchor|Proteus}} Proteus Pattern (Forge World)===
[[File:LandRaiderProteus.png|280px|right|thumb|The Proteus which is a Land Raider equivalent of [[Old Man Henderson]].]]
The Proteus pattern is the latest in the long line-up of Forge World turning its sucky job of covering for GW's old models and fluff into a glorious winblob of [[Awesome]]. This is the old, goofy-looking [[Rogue Trader]] Raider, all grown up. Barely even considered a Land Raider, it doesn't even use the same Phobos-pattern chassis as all of the other Land Raiders do. This thing is so old that [[Eldar]] consider it old. This thing is so old it was a mysterious, time-shrouded relic when the [[Horus Heresy]] took place; i.e. the time from whence on all things made before that moment were mysterious, time-shrouded relics. This self-contained vehicle was supposedly used as a universal Main Battle Tank during humanity's first expansion, similar to the Leman Russ or Predator today; which just goes to show you how awesome things were back during the Dark Age of Technology. It was designed to combat all kinds of new and evolving enemies, as well as do exploratory recon work on unexplored worlds. This implies Proteus tanks not made by them Imperium might be around twenty to thirty thousand years old as of the forty-first millennium.

So, on the wargame side of things, this thing is the metal-est box on the battlefield. It works like a normal Raider, with the option to switch out the Lascannons for Heavy Bolters or Heavy Flamers. But now, it gets the Scout rule, it can screw with enemy reserves rolling or buff your own rolls, it can get the Achilles' anti-melta armor (but not the anti-Lance), and no Infiltrators can get within 24" of it. You can get a pintle-mounted Multi-Melta, Heavy Bolter, or Storm Bolter. But that isn't the best part. The best part is that Chaos gets it too. Finally, the [[Chaos Space Marines]] get to [[meme|FIRE THEIR LAZORZ]] at multiple targets! And, Chaos gets to put on a pintle-mounted Havoc Launcher on top (so do loyal space marines as well if used in Horus Heresy and time span after that). And that thing is right next to the twin-linked Bolter, Heavy Bolter, or Multimelta we can put it too! The only downside to the Proteus is that it only has an 8 model transport capacity (assuming you take the Explorator Augury Web or the Ark of Unnameable Horror described below) due to its role as a universal tank, not a dedicated infantry ferry/weaponspam platform. It also lacks the frontal assault ramp and the Assault Vehicle rule, so don't even think about using this to drop termies. Loyalists should use it like a spearhead linebreaker, systematically killing tanks while screwing with reserves, and to safely transport some plasma gunners to rapid fire range.

The Chaos version doesn't get to use the Explorator Augury Web; instead, it gets Fear and a nasty toy called the Ark of Unnameable Horror. Whatever is in it is so horrible that anyone shooting at it has to take a pinning test before they attack- failing the test means the shooter must forfeit their attack and go to ground immediately. Although artillery, Fearless units, and units with no Ld score are exempt from this effect, it gives the Chaos Proteus an extra degree of protection against shooty foes, encouraging them to be used in a far more aggressive manner than their Loyalist counterparts. Of course, using it to ferry a few Havocs or Chosen to where they need to be is a good idea as well.

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===Excelsior Pattern (Warhammer World exclusive)===
[[File:Space-Marine-Land-Raider-Exelsior-Command-Tank.jpg|280px|thumb|right|The Land Raider Exelsior. For when you both need to lead and destroy.]]
The Excelsior is a command vehicle, equipped with augur and communications arrays to effectively deliver orders on the battlefield. Due to the equipment and weapons it carries, it is quite the rare piece of tech to field.

A newly announced variant of Land Raider described as a command tank, the ridiculously named Excelsior, (which means "high" so, highest landraider) has the Phobos' Lascannon sponsons but replaces the hull Heavy Bolters with a [[Grav-Weaponry|Grav-Cannon and Grav-Amp]], and it can take a Combi-Plasma as a pintle-mounted weapon instead of the standard Storm Bolter. Basically a Rhino Primaris on too much hormonal growth, if anything it pairs quite well with the Rhino.

It comes with a 6++ invulnerable save and built-in immunity to Crew Shaken and Crew Stunned, but that's not its main draw. That would be its Tactical Authority rule- at the start of each shooting phase, any model of the same faction as the Excelsior within 12" (18" with the right upgrade) gets their choice of Counter-Attack, Fearless, Hit and Run, Interceptor, Skyfire, Preferred Enemy, and Tank Hunters. Finally, it gains an extra +1 BS as long as it's within 24" of a [[Rhino|Rhino Primaris]].

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===Wrath of Mjalnar Pattern (Chapter Approved, only for Open Play)===
[[File:LRMjalnar.jpg|280px|thumb|right|The Wrath of Mjalnar. A more practical way to mount a freeze-ray in contrast to the [[Stormfang|flying cargo container.]]]]
Because of course the [[Space Wolves|Furries]] need another special vehicle to suit their [[Mary Sue|special snowflake needs.]]

The Land Raider Wrath of Mjalnar is a variant of the Land Raider, that was created by the Space Wolves Chapter. What makes it unique among normal Land Raider is its main armaments, which are twin [[Helfrost Weaponry|Helfrost Cannons]] and two twin Lascannons. Whilst the Lascannons are pretty standards, the introduction of not one but <u>two</u> Helfrost Cannons makes it a pretty special looking Land Raider. How the Yiffers manage to do such unsanctioned modification without starting a war with the Mechanicus for [[Heresy|obvious reasons]] is unknown. Although it could be explain via the aftermath of the First War for Armageddon and the Cold War between the Wolves and the Inquisition.

Anyways, because of its Helfrost weapons, the Wrath of Mjalnar is a dedicated anti-tank vehicle as the Helfrost Cannons instantly turn the strongest of armor into brittle and immobile targets for the ensuing Lascannon fire. These makes the likes of Superheavies and even light skimmers vulnerable to these payloads.

Unfortunately, the introduction of these weapons makes this specific Land Raider to lose its transportation capability. Being able to only have a transport capacity of 5. Would still make a nice pimpmobile for a kitted out Wolf Lord and small retinue or Rune Priest to buff it.

{{Clear}}

===Solemnus Aggressor Pattern (Chapter Approved, only for Open Play)===
[[File:LRAggressor.jpg|280px|right|thumb|The Solemnus Aggressor, making the Land Raider Prometheus feel useless for 1,000 years and counting.]]
Think Land Raider Crusader on steroids.

The [[Dark Angels|brooding, secretive organization]] saw the [[Heresy|heretical]] things the Space Wolves were doing with their Land Raiders and decided their 'friendly' rivalry will not be concluded in the Furries' favor. Not to be outdone, the Dark Angels released their own version of the Land Raider to one-up them in a show of [[Lulz|absolute hilarity.]] The Solemnus Aggressor is born.

It is not known whether this thing was a relic discovered and kept by the Dark Angels or a piece of tech-heresy that will rile up even the most tightly screwed pants of a Mechanicum Magos. What is known is that this thing is every blob and tarpit armies worst nightmare (The Blood Angel's Angel Infernus is [[Skub|arguably/maybe better]]). Why is it so rapetastic? Well, because this monster packs quite the punch. Its main armaments are twin Assault Cannons, two Heavy bolters and two Hurricane bolters, which gives the Solemnus Aggressor the firepower to shatter an infantry advance in a single volley.

Seriously, [[Dakka|16 guns on almost all sides.]] I don't care how many [[Termagaunt|Termagaunts]] you have, they're all gonna turn into mince meat on the first turn.

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===Angel Infernus Pattern (Chapter Approved, only for Open Play)===
[[File:LRInfernus.jpg|280px|right|thumb|If you are not wearing fully enclosed ceramite armor that is at minimum, 15 centimeters thick. Consider yourself quite boned.]]
The close range assault dakka to the Solemnus Aggressor's long range assault dakka. It's every [[Sisters of Battle|Sister's]] wet dream (not personally involving [[Sanguinius]] that is) come true and a vehicle that would be more appropriate with the [[Salamanders]] than the [[Blood Angels]].

Like the Solemnus Aggressor, it is not known whether this thing was a relic discovered and kept by the Blood Angels on Baal's somewhat heretical underground tech caves. But what is ''definitely'' known is that this Land Raider focuses mainly on flamers. Kind of a reverse Wrath of Mjalnar if you count the twin-linked Helfrost cannon as a reverse flamer (Helfrost is really more like a reverse volkite). Its armament is the perfect ingredient in cooking blob armies to medium rare.

Its main armaments are twin Assault Cannons, two Heavy Flamers and two Flamestorm Cannons as well as a pintle-mounted Multi-Melta just to be sure. Essentially, 8 barrels of <u>'''Hell'''</u>. These weapons allow the Angel Infernus to unleash firestorms so intense, that even the most dug-in defenders are reduced to ashes in a heartbeat, Tarpitters would melt ''literally''. It is gobsmacking that the Blood Angels did not use more of these during the Devastation of Baal fiasco.

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===Hades Diabolus Pattern (Chapter Approved, only for Open Play)===
A Chaos only Land Raider variant, equipped with a hull mounted Reaper Autocannon, Sponson Twin Lascannons and Sponson Heavy Bolters. Created and used by the [[Black Legion]] during the Fall of Cadia to turn Cadians Infantry and Tanks into chunks, and it started gaining popularity within the Chaos Marines forces ever since.

Just as some of the loyalist Space Marine Chapters have adapted their Land Raiders to suit their particular styles of warfare, so some especially well-resourced or innovative Heretic Astartes factions have done the same. Perhaps the most enduring traitor Land Raider variant so far recorded is the Hades Diabolus, which was developed by the [[Black Legion]].

===Anvilarum Pattern===
An obscure pattern of Land Raider only mentioned offhand in one of the Black Library novels. Its weapon loadout is unknown, but it is said to have been open-topped, uplink-modified, and capable of carrying [[Dreadnought]]s into battle. It is said they were made in rememberance of ancient Terra's chariots. Imagine a tank being ridden by another tank. That is about the level of [[rape]] to be expected if it ever gets a model.

==={{anchor|Variants}} [[Looted]] Land Raider===
[[File:Looted_Land_Raider_Battlewagon.jpg|280px|thumb|right|OI! WE'Z GOT DA MOST DAKKA TANK FROM DA UMIES BOSS!]]
Every once in a while, an [[Ork]] [[Looted|gets it into his head]] to [[Blood Ravens|capture, rather than blow up, a Land Raider]], or [[Adeptus Mechanicus|salvage one from a bombed-out husk]]. Once the thing's been made suitably [[Ork]]y, it makes for a great Battlewagon, and though most Orks extensively modify the design until little of the vehicle's original shape remains, a few enterprising Orks like the boxy design of the Land Raider, and modify their vehicle accordingly. [[Counts As|Though it can no longer be considered a true Land Raider]] due to the various modifications the Orks have made to it, it's still killy and flash.

Certain ambitious/filthy rich Orks can also turn the Land Raider into a supped up [[Battlefortress]]. They just replaced the main cargo transport capacity and use that empty space to mount a [[Dakka|giant fucking gun on the top.]] It is also noted that such Land Raiders are converted into the Rokkitspitta variant of the Battlefortress or the anti-air Flakk Battlefortress. The amount of things you can mount on a empty troop compartment bay is endless

Just don't expect its [[Machine Spirit]] [[Rage|to go too swimmingly well with its new makeover.]] Chances of malfunctioning and exploding: Too damned high for the cost, but it's always good for a larf.

{{clear}}

===Grav-Raider===
While it's never gotten a model, the existence of a Land Raider even larger than a Spartan Assault Tank fitted with anti-gravitic plates that allowed it to function as a skimmer has been mentioned in the Horus Heresy novels. Quite notably, Arkham Land used one as his personal transport (the appropriately named ''Land's Raider''), which was equipped with a turret-mounted [[Volkite Weaponry|quad- Volkite Caliver]] array. Incidentally, this also makes it the only known model of Land Raider with a turret-mounted weapon.

==External Links==
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvdD50nSISs Forge World talks about the history of the vehicle]
* [http://www.chamber42.com/files/datasheets/Ares/Archive/Ares_Final_4th_ED.pdf Original 4th Edition Land Raider Ares Datasheet from the original creator]
* [http://chamber42.com/blog/archives/251 Updated 8th Edition Land Raider Ares Datasheet from the original creator]

==Gallery==
<gallery>
image:99590101236 ArmouredProteusLandRaider02.jpg|<center>Armoured Proteus Variant</center>
Image:ChaosRaider.jpg|A [[Chaos]] Land Raider, impressively modded.
File:Party Raider.jpg|Another modded out Chaos Land Raider, belonging to the [[Emperor's Children]]. It functions as an assault transport and mobile crack party.
Image:RaiderCrusader.jpg|A [[Ultramarines|Smurf]] Land Raider Crusader. This design originated with the [[Black Templars]].
Image:RaiderRedeemer.jpg|A Land Raider Redeemer, widely known for being one of the only things that can scare Tyranids.
Image:RaiderAres.png|A [[Dark Angels]] Land Raider Ares
Image:TerminusUltra.jpg|A [[Salamanders]] Terminus Ultra, in all of its Las-cannony glory. (IMMA FIRIN' MAH LAZORS!!!!!)
Image:RaiderAchilles.jpg|A [[Minotaurs]] Land Raider Achilles. Fielding one may inspire [[Rage|fury]].
Image:RaiderHelios.jpg|A [[Space Wolves]] Land Raider Helios. Aim away from eyes and face.
Image:Looted_Land_Raider.jpg|WE'Z GOT DA BEST [[METAL BOXES|BOX]] ON DA FIELD!
</gallery>

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{{Marines-Forces}}
{{Blood Angels}}
{{Dark Angels}}
{{Deathwatch}}
{{Grey Knights}}
{{Space Wolves}}
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{{Custodes}}
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{{Chaos Space Marines}}
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Land Raider

2019-09-25T16:31:34Z

2600:1006:B105:8611:58CC:338D:D9D2:B1D4: /* {{anchor|Proteus}} Proteus Pattern (Forge World) */

{{Topquote|Scorch the earth and all who stand upon it!|[[Dawn of War 2|Land Raider pilots doing what they do best.]]}}

[[File:LandRaider.jpg|500px|right|thumb|A Land Raider assaulting a position. Calling or playing it as a front line tank or a Baneblade knockoff is a [[Rage|sure way of getting your]] [[Anal Circumference|ass shredded]] [[Space Marines|by SM players.]]]]
Sometimes the only solution to a problem is a complete lack of anything resembling subtlety.

A [[Rhino Transport]] grown several orders of magnitude too large, the mighty Land Raider is one of the biggest available tanks that [[Space Marines]] and [[Chaos Space Marines]] can field. Its firepower is incredible, and its armor betrays no weakpoints: it has maximum armor (14) for ''every side'', something that only the [[Monolith#Warhammer_40.2C000|Necron Monolith]], [[Necron Pylon]], and [[Spartan Assault Tank]] share with the Land Raider; not even [[Baneblade|Baneblades]] have this. Its armor is pretty much only beaten by [[Warlord Battle Titan|Warlord Class battle titans]]. It can also transport Terminators. This is the [[METAL BOXES|Metalboxiest]] of all the [[Metal Boxes|METAHL BAWKSES]].

==Overview==
[[File:Land_Raider_Insides.png|500px|right]]
The Land Raider has always been a somewhat insane beast, owing to its large weapon load and the fact that only part of this load can usually fire at a given time, making it so that it's of questionable value - this is because there are almost always better choices to do what the Land Raider can do for cost - Predators generally do better at vehicle busting or infantry killing, and the main use of the Land Raider is as a transport vehicle for Terminators and getting them right into the heart of the battle, which is kind of lopsided with its heavy armament.

Even with this, the Land Raider is still something of a good combat vehicle, if only because of the changes to the 5th edition vehicle weaponry rules. Stationary, the Land Raider can fire off all its weaponry in a salvo, which is especially good for the Chaos version, which can mount a Havoc Launcher to add a little extra infantry-raping punch. The Grey Knight version is also notable (Psycannon Bolts help this thing a lot) since it's pretty much the only heavy tank Daemonhunters get.

Make no mistake: It may be inefficient, large, and points-heavy, but the Land Raider is ''still'' a powerful force and should not be underestimated under any circumstances. Virtually any form of Land Raider is a daunting foe if it sticks around, whether it has troops in it or not. AV14 all around makes it a tough nut to crack without dedicated anti-armor weapons, and the Land Raider still is likely to survive the opening salvo, especially if it has extra armor. However, keep your Land Raider away from dedicated anti-heavy armor (Railguns, melta), or you will very quickly feel the pain of losing all those points.

And before you say it, a Land Raider is not a main battle tank or an armored personnel carrier; it is an infantry fighting vehicle like the Razorback, since it can carry people inside and provide heavy fire support (hence Infantry and Fighting). A Baneblade is a main battle tank (well, it is if you don't accept the term heavy or superheavy battle tank), a Rhino is an an armored personnel carrier, a Land Raider is an Infantry Fighting vehicle (though perhaps you could throw in heavy into that term). Well, that is unless you can actually get the Ares and Terminus Ultra pattern models, who traded their transport capabilities for even more and bigger guns, where they're pretty much <s>MBTs</s> an assault gun and a tank destroyer respectively...Okay, now that that's over, the original Land Raider was designated an MBT by the man who found the STC and whom the vehicle is named after, Arkhan Land. If the theory that the Land Raider Proteus is actually the default/original variant of the Land Raider is correct, then the Land Raider IS an MBT, it's just that the variants that permitted honest troop capacity were utilized more often by the Assault-happy Astartes to the point that Land Raiders are now known by the more common offspring of the original pattern. Except it’s not. An MBT requires the armored fighting vehicle to be fully capable of engaging armor and infantry with its primary weapon(s), keeping pace with mechanized infantry and other vehicle forces, and possessing enough armor and firepower to rival heavy tank threats. Some patterns fulfill this to varying degrees. However, the Land Raider is simply too slow and rare to be classified as a Main Battle Tank. If anything, its most common varients are a form of Infantry Tank with troop carrying capability. A slow armored fighting vehicle capable of defending infantry against vehicles and helping infantry against enemy infantry and suppressing or destroying defensive positions. This is also why a Leman Russ standard is an MBT. It can use different shells to destroy infantry, light vehicles, and heavy vehicles all from a platform easily capable of keeping up with mechanized elements and dueling heavy tanks. It is also far more common, as an MBT is the primary and most numerous tank of a military, whereas the Land Raider is extremely rare. While the lascannons and heavy bolters working together could enable the Land Raider to serve as an MBT, the tank itself is far too slow and far too rare to qualify.

In terms of appearance, a Land Raider is basically a cross between giant World War I Mark series tank and a modern armored fighting vehicle. It's shaped more like the latter, but the exposed treads on the entire front of the tank and the sponson-mounted guns resemble the former. Oddly, the placement of sponson mounted guns on the Mark series tank was a feature implemented so the tanks could fire into enemy trenches more easily while also keeping them from becoming too tall and unstable; after the war, that design was scrapped in favor of rotating turrets that gave an entire 360 degree firing arc (cannons on a Mark tank could only be pointed at things in front of them or to the side, they could not aim behind it).. Why GW decided to model something after this is a mystery, but they seem to have a thing for giving the Imperium of Man pre-<s>Cold War</s>World War II vehicle designs. Isn't it obvious? The Mark I was a British invention! And now for the low price of $110 a piece! Holy shit. They do have an excuse, though. Most Imperial vehicles were either meant for exploration or utility and had guns and armor more as a “just in case”. So, there was no reason for them to be designed with combat practicality or effectiveness in mind. Heck, the Baneblade’s STC data says it is a light scout tank and it actually walks the walk of a true tank and its oddly tall frame makes sense for mounting anti-infantry/anti-vehicle supplementary weapons. Which it does and to great effect. The Land Raider is in the same boat and also uses its defensive armament effectively but its height is probably for transportation capacity.

Now in 8th edition, the Land Raider is a much more fearsome beast, being able to fire all of its weapons at different targets, and benefiting greatly from the new twin-linked rules. It's also T8 with 16 wounds and one of the very few 2+ armour saves on vehicles. It basically went from schizophrenic IFV to being a very effective IFV.

=={{anchor|Variants}} Variants and Such==
The Land Raider has a ton of variants. Some of the more noteworthy ones are listed below.

==={{anchor|Phobos}} Phobos Pattern===
[[File:StandardRaider.jpg|280px|thumb|right|A [[Ultramarines|Smurf]] Land Raider. AKA the Godhammer Pattern.]]
The basic one has two [[Twin-Linked]] Lascannons in sponsons (called "Godhammer" pattern, [[Sigmar|for some odd reason]]) and a twin-linked [[Heavy Bolter]], making it some kind of heavy infantry fighting vehicle derpfish. It's very flexible, but ultimately rather inefficient. The Predator Annihilator is better at tankbusting, as it can unleash 3 lascannon beams, one of which is twin-linked, plus a Hunter-killer missile if you've taken one, whereas the Land Raider only has 2 twin-linked Lascannon (though the Land Raider can take a pintle-mounted Multi-Melta, which can one-shot almost any tank). The Predator Destructor is better at killing infantry; 2 shots from an Autocannon and 6 more from Heavy Bolters shred all kinds of medium/light infantry, plus two more shots if you choose to add a Storm Bolter, whereas the Land Raider only has the single twin-linked Heavy Bolter to fight infantry (plus an optional Storm Bolter). The Rhino is generally a better transport for its price, only falling short in its inability to carry Terminators. The Land Raider stands apart from the Predator and Rhino because it can fill multiple duties at once (it's recommended that you add a Storm Bolter/Multi-Melta, extra-armor, and Hunter-Killer missile to help in this task), and is the only vehicle in many armies that allow a unit to disembark and assault in the same turn. It may be schizophrenic, but it is ''effective'', especially if you use it right. Now in 7e, put 3 in the Land Raider Spearhead Formation for 750 points stock and you got a lethal counter to those super-heavies, gargantuan creatures, and buildings with Mighty Bulwark thanks to the re-roll failed to wound/armor penetration.

As of 8th, it's far more potent, benefiting not only from the generally-increased durability of vehicles in 8th and the elimination of firing arcs, it now has greater firepower than either predator variant (in fact, it's close to being tied with both of them put together), and the change to rhino prices means that while the Land Raider is still expensive, it's not as point-inefficient as it was.

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===Venerable Land Raider===
[[File:99120101061 CustodianLandraider01.jpg|280px|thumb|right|The 'Venerable' sub-variant of the Godhammer Pattern. Deadly not because of its weapons, [[Custodian Guard|but the cargo it is holding.]]]]
The [[Adeptus Custodes]] also have their own sub-variant of the Phobos/Godhammer Pattern Land Raider called the aptly named '''Venerable Land Raider''' which is a Land Raider bristling in gold to blind the enemies of men with the superiority of the <u>BLING</u>. Venerable Land Raiders ignore shaken and stunned results and also comes with some pretty cool upgrades as well now like a 5+ invulnerable save from the aegis ability, and a 6+ FNP (yes, it has both an Invulnerable and a FNP because ''of course it does''), all for mega mucho points. Other than that there is very little difference armament wise other then being a 'cheap' (for Custodes standards anyway) replacement to the vastly superior [[Coronus Grav Carrier]], [[promotions|which is faster, inflicts a -1 to hit in melee, and is actually designed for Custodians (transports capacity of 6 means that it can carry two MSU guard squads, or a 5-man with Shield-Captain, at the cost of having a 3+ armour save)]]. Still, don't try to underestimate this sub-variant as the cargo it's holding just so happens to be [[Custodian Guard|dudes who can]] [[Rape|tear your Riptide a new asshole.]]

In terms of fluff, Venerable Land Raiders have a enhanced <s>AI</s> Machine Spirit, more so than conventional Land Raiders. Many Venerable Land Raiders can trace their history back to the earliest years of the Imperium and fought in the [[Great Crusade]] and [[Horus Heresy]]. As you can imagine, such engines of war was considered as a secondhand watered down version of the [[Coronus Grav Carrier|type]] [[Pallas Grav-Attack|of]] [[Gyrfalcon Pattern Jetbike|shit]] [[Caladius Grav-Tank|the]] [[Adeptus Custodes|Custodes]] [[Telemon Heavy Dreadnought|used]] [[Contemptor-Galatus Dreadnought|to]] [[Orion Gunship |have,]] or rather still have but have been mothballed for...[[Derp|reasons.]]

Still, these dauntless war engines have now served for ten thousand years and each has built a legend every bit as magnificent as those possessed by the greatest Imperial champions. They have also developed Magos-class machine spirits and these noble and aggressive entities can independently aim and fire the vehicle's guns and coordinate its auto-repair rituals when circumstances require it. In extreme circumstances these amazing war engines have even been teleported directly onto the battlefield, through the use of ancient [[Just As Planned|Godstrike-pattern teleportariums.]] [[Rape|Deepstriking teleporting Land Raiders full of golden demigods?]] [[Cheese|Oh...all of the yes.]]

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==={{anchor|Chaos}} Chaos Land Raider===
[[File:99120102052 CSMLandRaiderRepack01.jpg|280px|thumb|right|Chaos Land Raiders are now at a reasonable price of a 100,000 Chaos Credits! Call your local [[Dark Mechanicum]] today!]]
Functionally identical to the Phobos Pattern Land Raider, the Chaos version has a number of small changes that actually make it quite a bit better than its standard counterpart. It has Assault Vehicle like the loyalist, meaning that troops exiting it can assault the same turn, and it can be further specialized as an assault transport with Daemonic Possession, Extra Armor, and Dirge Caster. It can also be turned into a better combat vehicle due to its ability to pack on a Havoc Launcher; this gives it the ability to fire a few clusters of blast templates downrange for those using it as a heavy offensive vehicle. You can alternately pack on a Combi-Bolter and Combi-Flamer/Melta, and they're even comparable with [[Havoc Launcher]] in current codex.

It's usually a bit more valuable to Chaos than it is to the Loyalists as a result. However, unfortunately for Chaos; this is the only kind of Land Raider they get, and compared to some of the other things on this list, it's out-specialized by other Land Raiders - the Crusader does Assault Transport (arguably; Daemonic Possession does a LOT to make this thing more dangerous, or DID before the rules change made Daemonic Possession cause the Chaos Raider to randomly eat passengers) better, and the Ares, Redeemer, and Achilles handle massed infantry better, whilst the Terminus Ultra is basically a tank destroyer. Add to this that the Chaos Land Raider doesn't have Power of the Machine Spirit rule that loyalist Land Raiders have, and the Chaos Land Raider is more limited in the ways it can shoot.

However, like the Godhammer, the Chaos Land Raider can handle [[Indrick Boreale|multiple simultaneous]] roles as needed, which, paired with the Chaos Land Raider's generally-better utility makes it something of a decent deal. Worth using if you have the points to spend, or if you have some big nasty close-combat squad that absolutely MUST get into close-combat.

{{clear}}

==={{anchor|Crusader}} Crusader Pattern===
[[File:LandRaiderCrusader.gif|280px|thumb|right|PURGING WITH MY KIIIIIIIIIN!]]
Once upon a time, during a Crusade to bring the Emperor's Light to some foul heretics, the Black Templars' Techmarines considered that Twin-linked Lascannons weren't particularly useful when rushing forward to disgorge Sword Brethren [[rape|right where it hurts the most]], so they decided to [[heresy|tinker a bit]] with one of their Land Raiders and swap out its Mars-sanctioned weapon loadout... and thus the Crusader Pattern Land Raider was born. It forgoes long-range firepower in favor of a dedicated role as an assault transport/infantry fighting vehicle, generally making it a bit more effective at getting into the enemy's face and spewing out a truly immense amount of dakka just before its passengers double up on the beating in melee. Armed with a pair of Hurricane Bolter sponsons, an optional Multi-Melta (just in case a vehicle/fortification would think of getting in the way) and twin-linked Assault Cannons, the Crusader Pattern basically delivers a truly beautiful amount of dakka at (twelve Bolters, and two assault cannons=some 272+ rounds per second) close range (with the Multi-Melta being there to deal with the errant vehicle threat) before disgorging its troops into the heart of enemy forces. Making it even better, the Crusader holds more men and has Frag Assault Launchers, ensuring that the disembarking troops gain the benefits of Frag Grenades (which Terminators normally lack). This vehicle was so effective that it spread, to some of the other Marine chapters, including the [[Grey Knights]], who were given a few for helping the Templars out once, and eventually even got official recognition from Mars.

If you play Dark Angels, you owe it to yourself to play at least one game where this beast is boosted by a Banner of Devastation and some power fields, for an utterly hilarious TWENTY FOUR twin linked Bolter shots all protected by an AV 14 4 HP 4++ monster of a vehicle. All of this, however, comes at the price of the baseline Land Raider's raw offensive punch (unless you're fighting guard/cultist/Ork/Tyranid blobs, then you will eat people) - fight accordingly.

{{clear}}

==={{anchor|Redeemer}} Redeemer Pattern===
[[File:LandRaiderRedeemer.jpg|280px|thumb|right|I like my [[Tyranid|Tyranids]] nicely minced and cooked well-done.]]
The Redeemer is designed to maximize close-range punch. Whilst it's not the balls-out dedicated infantry-fighting vehicle/assault transport that the Crusader is, the Redeemer packs on considerably heavier '''fire'''power. It maintains the Assault Cannons, Frag Assault Launcher, and optional Multi-Melta, but replaces the sponson-mounted Hurricane Bolters with a pair of Flamestorm Cannons - functionally improved Flamers with S6, AP3, the only drawback to them being that since they're sponson mounted they can't hit targets that are too close to the front or back of the Redeemer.

Cheaper than the other Land Raiders, this is one of the more popular Land Raiders due to its slightly lower points-cost. Tends to annihilate infantry by the dozens once in-close and makes tyranblob crap itself in sheer terror, but seriously needs Extra Armor. Using these when facing Tyranids or bikes-heavy lists (Ravenwing) is highly recommended since they don't have any vehicles or anything with more than toughness 6. Flamers ignore any armour but 2+ saves and ALL cover saves, meaning you'll be BBQing nids and bikers negating their Venomthrope/bullshit rerollable jink save.

Interestingly the Redeemer was invented by the Fire Lords Space marine chapter, and they wanted to name the pattern "Prometheus" after the titan who gave fire to man, but the name was already taken by the actual Land raider Prometheus designed by the Salamanders, so instead it was named the Redeemer.

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==={{anchor|Vortimer Redeemer}} Vortimer Redeemer Pattern===
[[File:99590107034_GREYKNIGHTSLANDRAIDERREDEEMER1.jpg|280px|thumb|right|The proverbial daemon steamroller.]]
A [[Grey Knights]] exclusive variant of the Land Raider Redeemer that replaces the assault cannons with psycannons and frag assault launchers with psyk-out assault launchers. These Land Raiders are a bane to [[Daemon]] players everywhere due to its armaments and the fact that it safely carries a detachment of [[Grey Knight Paladin|prolific Daemon rapists]] [[Purifier|and molesters.]] Because it is a more specialized version of the regular Redeemer Pattern and the rarity of the weapons it carries, the Vortimer is both a rare and expensive vehicle to produce, not to mention an utterly secret weapon from the general public.

Because of its psycannons, the Vortimer could mulch Warp creatures into dog food, that includes and up to even greater daemons if the dice gods are in your favor. Hell, because it carries not one, but two psycannons, it could just as easily chew up light to medium vehicles as well. The Vortimer not doing enough in clearing out those pesky ethereal creatures from the Warp? No problem, you can just mount [[Rape|two heavy incinerator sponsons]] [[Cheese|for quadruple the fun.]] [[Troll|Watch and see]] [[Butthurt|Chaos players weep bitter tears]] as this machine proceeds to unload its cargo of holy retribution and cleanse their heretical armies into smoking cinders.

This vehicle was best seen during the Dawn of War 2 Elite Mod as the ultimate unit for the Grey Knights. Just as expected from the fluff, this thing was an [[Powergamer|overpowered train wreck,]] able to lay down massive suppressive fire whilst protecting its precious cargo of [[Mary Sue|Mary Sues]] to the frontlines. It would have been broken if it wasn't so damned expensive in an already expensive army.

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==={{anchor|Ares}} Ares Pattern (Chapter Approved)===
[[File:LandRaiderAres000.png|280px|thumb|right|The Ares is like the discount [[Typhon Heavy Siege Tank|Typhon.]]]]
Decides to say ''"Fuck that shit"'' regarding transporting and seeks to become the most destructive linebreaker around, trying to eclipse even the dreaded [[Leman Russ Battle Tank|Leman Russ Demolisher]] and [[Vindicator]]. No transport capability, and costs about 50 points more than the standard Land Raider, but you get what you pay for; Twin-Linked Heavy Flamer Sponsons, Twin-Linked Assault Cannons and a fucking ''Demolisher Cannon'' make this thing filthy rape to anything with the misfortune of getting anywhere near it. This tank lacks tactical flexibility, as none of its weapons has a range of more than 24"(although due to power of the machine spirit its demolisher cannon actually has a threat range of 36"), but what it lacks in versatility it more than makes up for in close-range balls-out power, it concentrates on applying overwhelming fire-power to a single point in the enemy battle line. If your opponents weren't shitting bricks trying to kill/escape your Vindicators, they most assuredly will at the sight of this fucking thing. Tyranid players tend to weep tears of blood, piss themselves, and crap their pants all at the same time when these show up. Now if only Chaos had them so we could toss on a Havoc Launcher and make it possessed. Now that would be the ''ultimate'' blob destroyer.

Basically, blow a hole in the enemy’s attempt to stop you, roll into it and spew fire and bullets until everything is dead. Rinse, repeat, lulz.

With the release of the Typhon you could spend fifty more points to get two more hull points and upgrade your gun to 7" blast Ignores Cover, but with the Ares people might actually play you.

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=== {{anchor|Terminus Ultra}} Terminus Ultra Pattern ===
[[File:Terminus.jpg|280px|thumb||right|Shouting "420 BLAZE IT!" or "IMMA' FIRIN MA LASER!" will be met with disciplinary action.]]
Now available as a free upgrade for a Land Raider formation in Apocalypse, but only as the exclusive ride of [[Antaro Chronus]]. The Yang to the Ares's Yin, and the second of the ''"[[Commissar Fuklaw|fuck transporting]]!"'' Land Raiders, which lack transport capability and anything resembling subtlety, the Terminus Ultra is designed as a dedicated vehicle-killer, armed with a hilariously over-the-top three twin-linked Lascannons and two single lascannons, the Terminus Ultra can overheat and explode if it fires the bulk of its Lascannon payload ''(you should know however, that the chances of this happening are tiny, you need to roll FOUR 1's when rolling to hit, or 1 in 1296)''.

Known for making Vehicle units shit bricks, and for destroying [[Titan]]s on its own. Beam spam and Shoop Da whoop indeed. There aren't many other vehicles that are better at the role of tank destroyer than this. Plop these in a nice easily defended spot where your enemy will have to bring his vehicles, super-heavy vehicles, high value HQ units, monstrous creatures, and gargantuan through and turn their most valuable units into swiss cheese. Make a note, however, that it's generally inefficient for the role, is a huge target and becomes 100% useless if facing blob armies of any sort - fight accordingly.

It made it's way into the offical Index as of 8th, though still exclusively for the Ultramarines and as Lord of War for no clearly defined reason. It's chance of blowing itself up has increased now that's firing 8 lascannons a turn, but it's far less likely to kill itself when doing so, and keeping a captain or rhino primaris nearby can mitigate that risk. While inferior to other LoWs in regards to raw firepower (the fellblade can match it's number of shots and packs more firepower on top of that, with no risk of blowing itself up), the Terminus stands out with it's lower cost and ability to fire at 5 separate targets every round. As of Chapter Approved 2017, the Terminus Ultra is now available to chapters other than Ultramarines as well - but only in open play!

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==={{anchor|Achilles}} Achilles Pattern (Forge World)===
[[File:Achilles_Pattern.jpg|280px|right|thumb|It's like [[Rogal Dorn]] thinking to himself, "Hmmmm...fortifying a Land Raider? Challenge accepted."]]
The Achilles Pattern is the most heavily armored Land Raider, and was originally-created by the Imperial Fists. The Achilles Pattern is a giant derpy hunk of metal, bristling with guns and designed to get in close, firing off heavy firepower before discharging its payload of troops right into enemy formations. In other words, it is exactly the sort of thing that comes to mind when you hear the words "land raider". Its armor is impervious to the Lance and Melta special rules and most other weapons suffer a -1 on armor penetration rolls (essentially its armor is the same as a Necron Monolith's prior to the 5th Edition codex, it's just that the rules are given different names). The only things killing it are heavy-bore anti-vehicle weapons like the Leman Russ Vanquisher outside of lucky shots with high-strength armor-piercing weapons, like a Baneblade or Terminus Ultra firing all of its weapons (thus using the law of averages to help in its attempt to pierce the armor), or anti-vehicle Titan guns (like those used by a Shadowsword or like the epic beamspam that can be unleashed by a Reaver or Warhound dual wielding Turbo-laser Destructors), or some weird shit like haywire, gauss, entropic touch and so on (because xenos are dirty cheaters). It mounts a devastating [[Thunderfire Cannon]] (which is a massive quad-barreled mortar that can cause several flavors of infantry death) and twin-linked Multi-Melta sponsons, but it carries only 6 people (that means only three termies), have no assault ramp and costs more than Ares and Terminus Ultra - generally those 6 places are for techmarine and his servitor retinue, or for command squad loaded with Plasmaguns. The earlier Achilles Alpha prototype swapped the Thunderfire Cannon for a Quad Mortar and was equipped with twin-linked Volkite Culverins as sponson weapons.

Chaos Space Marines recently got access to this version of Land Raider as well through [[Imperial Armour]] volume 13. Along with access to all the typical upgrades for Chaos Space Marine vehicles, the Chaos Achilles swaps out the Thunderfire Cannon for a Quad Mortar, which is weaker and less capable of penetrating armor but compensates with the Pinning rule- and as a bonus, its pinning tests are made with a -1 penalty. On top of that, the Quad Mortar's Strength, AP, and Pinning test penalty all increase as the Chaos Achilles loses hull points, making it more and more deadly as it takes damage. This is of course assuming it isn't killed in one turn like most vehicles do in the current meta when they draw the ire of the nearest D-strength weapon. God fucking damn it.

As of 8th, it's gotten far nastier, with a pair of heavy 2 multimeltas and the quad launcher now has access to shatter shells, a set of short range shots with [[Rape|performance similar to battle cannon shells]]. It's armor has received the same buff, as it's previous collection of special rules have been removed and replaced with a blanket [[Awesome|4+ invul save]].

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==={{anchor|Helios}} Helios Pattern (Forge World)===
[[File:Helios4dwje6q4no3.jpg|280px|right|thumb|The [[Whirlwind|Whirlwind's]] bigger and badder brother.]]
The Helios Pattern Land Raider is designed for fire support, replacing the usual [[Heavy Bolter]]s with a pair of twin-linked [[Lascannon]]s and sacrificing ten transport spaces for a missile battery from a [[Whirlwind]]. This allows it to provide heavy fire support at long ranges and with minimal opportunities for retaliation, though it's quite points-intensive for what it does, whilst the Achilles does it better. If you do use one, be sure to employ it with a [[shooty]] force that can actually use the damned thing, like a Devastator Squad.

It was originally designed by the [[Red Scorpions]], who didn't trust the Imperial Guard to provide them with artillery support. Of course, this means that you're probably going to use it as an artillery tank, meaning you still have transport space. And a lot of armor. That will probably go to waste because you didn't just get a Whirlwind instead. It also has the option of taking an anti-air [[Whirlwind#Hyperios|Hyperios]] launcher, just in case you just want to equally pepper the skies in flak and falling plane bits hitting the ground at full speed. Although in terms of pound-per-points cost, it is still more efficient to just get a couple of Hyperios Missile Launchers themselves to fit the bill rather than wasting the points to put on a fucking Land Raider.

It lost the Hyperios launcher in 8th, but it's missiles were reworked to be a decent combination of the whirlwind's two missile types and the buff to twin linked weapons upped it's firepower considerably. It's now effectively a combination of the predator annihilator and the whirlwind, but with 2+ armor, T8, and transport capability, all for only a small increase in the point cost over a predator and whirlwind. If you want a fun toy for your command squad, or have the points for more heavy support units and not the slots, the Helios is a worthwhile choice. Bombard the enemy, then advance into them and pretend to be a vanilla raider, dump troops, bombard other enemies while your dudes assrape. Continue.

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==={{anchor|Prometheus}} Prometheus Pattern (Forge World)===
[[File:RaiderPrometheus.jpg|280px|thumb|right|A [[Ultramarines|Smurf]] Land Raider Prometheus. It's like staring at an open cesspool.]]
20 points more than a standard Land Raider, this variant loses a few transport spaces (it has 10, so no IC with your terminators) for two quad Heavy Bolters (because FUCK hordes) and some interesting abilities: you get to subtract one from your enemy's cover save (because fuck hordes, again) and you also get to choose whether or not to add 1 to your reserve rolls. Essentially, you get to choose whether or not something comes in if you roll a 2. Not bad, does its job fairly well. It's the only Land Raider that can't penetrate the armour of another Land Raider, so keep it away from tanks.

In fluffy terms, [[Skub|there has been some debates on the true exact origins of this particular Land Raider.]] The exact origins of the 'Prometheus' pattern Land Raider remains a mystery. Some Tech-adepts believe it to be a variant of the 'Tartarus' pattern Land Raider, due to the striking similarities between the two. Although no clear evidence has been found to support this claim there is at least one archival report that depicts the vehicle, or else one that closely resembles it, that fought on the side of the Loyalists during the early period of the [[Horus Heresy]]. Others believe that it was the Salamanders which first produced it as they retain more Prometheus models, than any other Chapter and because they are often the go-to guys for 'super ornate shit with vague origins' (strangely however, the Salamanders deny this claim which is completely out of character... [[Alpha Legion|unless]]...). In any case, the number of Chapters which do have a Prometheus within their Armories is unknown. For example, the White Scars only have four of these Land Raiders. There is even another version that the origins of 'Prometheus' where in fact founded by the Landites - followers of the famous Arkhan Land.

In 8th, it remains largely similar to its 7th edition version. It's guns now [[Awesome|ignore cover entirely]], and the buff to reserve rolls has been changed to make one stratagem you use cost one fewer command point (to a minimum of one), so long as your warlord is embarked inside. This tank offers a lot of tactical choices now, such as the choice between using your warlord as the beatstick he most likely is, and keeping him inside the tank to buff the army.

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==={{anchor|Proteus}} Proteus Pattern (Forge World)===
[[File:LandRaiderProteus.png|280px|right|thumb|The Proteus which is a Land Raider equivalent of [[Old Man Henderson]].]]
The Proteus pattern is the latest in the long line-up of Forge World turning its sucky job of covering for GW's old models and fluff into a glorious winblob of [[Awesome]]. This is the old, goofy-looking [[Rogue Trader]] Raider, all grown up. Barely even considered a Land Raider, it doesn't even use the same Phobos-pattern chassis as all of the other Land Raiders do. This thing is so old that [[Eldar]] consider it old. This thing is so old it was a mysterious, time-shrouded relic when the [[Horus Heresy]] took place; i.e. the time from whence on all things made before that moment were mysterious, time-shrouded relics. This self-contained vehicle was supposedly used as a universal Main Battle Tank during humanity's first expansion, similar to the Leman Russ or Predator today; which just goes to show you how awesome things were back during the Dark Age of Technology. It was designed to combat all kinds of new and evolving enemies, as well as do exploratory recon work on unexplored worlds. This implies Proteus tanks not made by them Imperium might be around twenty to thirty thousand years old as of the forty-first millennium.

So, on the wargame side of things, this thing is the metal-est box on the battlefield. It works like a normal Raider, with the option to switch out the Lascannons for Heavy Bolters or Heavy Flamers. But now, it gets the Scout rule, it can screw with enemy reserves rolling or buff your own rolls, it can get the Achilles' anti-melta armor (but not the anti-Lance), and no Infiltrators can get within 24" of it. You can get a pintle-mounted Multi-Melta, Heavy Bolter, or Storm Bolter. But that isn't the best part. The best part is that Chaos gets it too. Finally, the [[Chaos Space Marines]] get to [[meme|FIRE THEIR LAZORZ]] at multiple targets! And, Chaos gets to put on a pintle-mounted Havoc Launcher on top (so do loyal space marines as well if used in Horus Heresy and time span after that). And that thing is right next to the twin-linked Bolter, Heavy Bolter, or Multimelta we can put it too! The only downside to the Proteus is that it only has an 8 model transport capacity (assuming you take the Explorator Augury Web or the Ark of Unnameable Horror described below) due to its role as a universal tank, not a dedicated infantry ferry/weaponspam platform. It also lacks the frontal assault ramp and the Assault Vehicle rule, so don't even think about using this to drop termies. Loyalists should use it like a spearhead linebreaker, systematically killing tanks while screwing with reserves, and to safely transport some plasma gunners to rapid fire range.

The Chaos version doesn't get to use the Explorator Augury Web; instead, it gets Fear and a nasty toy called the Ark of Unnameable Horror. Whatever is in it is so horrible that anyone shooting at it has to take a pinning test before they attack- failing the test means the shooter must forfeit their attack and go to ground immediately. Although artillery, Fearless units, and units with no Ld score are exempt from this effect, it gives the Chaos Proteus an extra degree of protection against shooty foes, encouraging them to be used in a far more aggressive manner than their Loyalist counterparts. Of course, using it to ferry a few Havocs or Chosen to where they need to be is a good idea as well.

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===Excelsior Pattern (Warhammer World exclusive)===
[[File:Space-Marine-Land-Raider-Exelsior-Command-Tank.jpg|280px|thumb|right|The Land Raider Exelsior. For when you both need to lead and destroy.]]
The Excelsior is a command vehicle, equipped with augur and communications arrays to effectively deliver orders on the battlefield. Due to the equipment and weapons it carries, it is quite the rare piece of tech to field.

A newly announced variant of Land Raider described as a command tank, the ridiculously named Excelsior, (which means "high" so, highest landraider) has the Phobos' Lascannon sponsons but replaces the hull Heavy Bolters with a [[Grav-Weaponry|Grav-Cannon and Grav-Amp]], and it can take a Combi-Plasma as a pintle-mounted weapon instead of the standard Storm Bolter. Basically a Rhino Primaris on too much hormonal growth, if anything it pairs quite well with the Rhino.

It comes with a 6++ invulnerable save and built-in immunity to Crew Shaken and Crew Stunned, but that's not its main draw. That would be its Tactical Authority rule- at the start of each shooting phase, any model of the same faction as the Excelsior within 12" (18" with the right upgrade) gets their choice of Counter-Attack, Fearless, Hit and Run, Interceptor, Skyfire, Preferred Enemy, and Tank Hunters. Finally, it gains an extra +1 BS as long as it's within 24" of a [[Rhino|Rhino Primaris]].

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===Wrath of Mjalnar Pattern (Chapter Approved, only for Open Play)===
[[File:LRMjalnar.jpg|280px|thumb|right|The Wrath of Mjalnar. A more practical way to mount a freeze-ray in contrast to the [[Stormfang|flying cargo container.]]]]
Because of course the [[Space Wolves|Furries]] need another special vehicle to suit their [[Mary Sue|special snowflake needs.]]

The Land Raider Wrath of Mjalnar is a variant of the Land Raider, that was created by the Space Wolves Chapter. What makes it unique among normal Land Raider is its main armaments, which are twin [[Helfrost Weaponry|Helfrost Cannons]] and two twin Lascannons. Whilst the Lascannons are pretty standards, the introduction of not one but <u>two</u> Helfrost Cannons makes it a pretty special looking Land Raider. How the Yiffers manage to do such unsanctioned modification without starting a war with the Mechanicus for [[Heresy|obvious reasons]] is unknown. Although it could be explain via the aftermath of the First War for Armageddon and the Cold War between the Wolves and the Inquisition.

Anyways, because of its Helfrost weapons, the Wrath of Mjalnar is a dedicated anti-tank vehicle as the Helfrost Cannons instantly turn the strongest of armor into brittle and immobile targets for the ensuing Lascannon fire. These makes the likes of Superheavies and even light skimmers vulnerable to these payloads.

Unfortunately, the introduction of these weapons makes this specific Land Raider to lose its transportation capability. Being able to only have a transport capacity of 5. Would still make a nice pimpmobile for a kitted out Wolf Lord and small retinue or Rune Priest to buff it.

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===Solemnus Aggressor Pattern (Chapter Approved, only for Open Play)===
[[File:LRAggressor.jpg|280px|right|thumb|The Solemnus Aggressor, making the Land Raider Prometheus feel useless for 1,000 years and counting.]]
Think Land Raider Crusader on steroids.

The [[Dark Angels|brooding, secretive organization]] saw the [[Heresy|heretical]] things the Space Wolves were doing with their Land Raiders and decided their 'friendly' rivalry will not be concluded in the Furries' favor. Not to be outdone, the Dark Angels released their own version of the Land Raider to one-up them in a show of [[Lulz|absolute hilarity.]] The Solemnus Aggressor is born.

It is not known whether this thing was a relic discovered and kept by the Dark Angels or a piece of tech-heresy that will rile up even the most tightly screwed pants of a Mechanicum Magos. What is known is that this thing is every blob and tarpit armies worst nightmare (The Blood Angel's Angel Infernus is [[Skub|arguably/maybe better]]). Why is it so rapetastic? Well, because this monster packs quite the punch. Its main armaments are twin Assault Cannons, two Heavy bolters and two Hurricane bolters, which gives the Solemnus Aggressor the firepower to shatter an infantry advance in a single volley.

Seriously, [[Dakka|16 guns on almost all sides.]] I don't care how many [[Termagaunt|Termagaunts]] you have, they're all gonna turn into mince meat on the first turn.

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===Angel Infernus Pattern (Chapter Approved, only for Open Play)===
[[File:LRInfernus.jpg|280px|right|thumb|If you are not wearing fully enclosed ceramite armor that is at minimum, 15 centimeters thick. Consider yourself quite boned.]]
The close range assault dakka to the Solemnus Aggressor's long range assault dakka. It's every [[Sisters of Battle|Sister's]] wet dream (not personally involving [[Sanguinius]] that is) come true and a vehicle that would be more appropriate with the [[Salamanders]] than the [[Blood Angels]].

Like the Solemnus Aggressor, it is not known whether this thing was a relic discovered and kept by the Blood Angels on Baal's somewhat heretical underground tech caves. But what is ''definitely'' known is that this Land Raider focuses mainly on flamers. Kind of a reverse Wrath of Mjalnar if you count the twin-linked Helfrost cannon as a reverse flamer. Its armament is the perfect ingredient in cooking blob armies to medium rare.

Its main armaments are twin Assault Cannons, two Heavy Flamers and two Flamestorm Cannons as well as a pintle-mounted Multi-Melta just to be sure. Essentially, 8 barrels of <u>'''Hell'''</u>. These weapons allow the Angel Infernus to unleash firestorms so intense, that even the most dug-in defenders are reduced to ashes in a heartbeat, Tarpitters would melt ''literally''. It is gobsmacking that the Blood Angels did not use more of these during the Devastation of Baal fiasco.

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===Hades Diabolus Pattern (Chapter Approved, only for Open Play)===
A Chaos only Land Raider variant, equipped with a hull mounted Reaper Autocannon, Sponson Twin Lascannons and Sponson Heavy Bolters. Created and used by the [[Black Legion]] during the Fall of Cadia to turn Cadians Infantry and Tanks into chunks, and it started gaining popularity within the Chaos Marines forces ever since.

Just as some of the loyalist Space Marine Chapters have adapted their Land Raiders to suit their particular styles of warfare, so some especially well-resourced or innovative Heretic Astartes factions have done the same. Perhaps the most enduring traitor Land Raider variant so far recorded is the Hades Diabolus, which was developed by the [[Black Legion]].

===Anvilarum Pattern===
An obscure pattern of Land Raider only mentioned offhand in one of the Black Library novels. Its weapon loadout is unknown, but it is said to have been open-topped, uplink-modified, and capable of carrying [[Dreadnought]]s into battle. It is said they were made in rememberance of ancient Terra's chariots. Imagine a tank being ridden by another tank. That is about the level of [[rape]] to be expected if it ever gets a model.

==={{anchor|Variants}} [[Looted]] Land Raider===
[[File:Looted_Land_Raider_Battlewagon.jpg|280px|thumb|right|OI! WE'Z GOT DA MOST DAKKA TANK FROM DA UMIES BOSS!]]
Every once in a while, an [[Ork]] [[Looted|gets it into his head]] to [[Blood Ravens|capture, rather than blow up, a Land Raider]], or [[Adeptus Mechanicus|salvage one from a bombed-out husk]]. Once the thing's been made suitably [[Ork]]y, it makes for a great Battlewagon, and though most Orks extensively modify the design until little of the vehicle's original shape remains, a few enterprising Orks like the boxy design of the Land Raider, and modify their vehicle accordingly. [[Counts As|Though it can no longer be considered a true Land Raider]] due to the various modifications the Orks have made to it, it's still killy and flash.

Certain ambitious/filthy rich Orks can also turn the Land Raider into a supped up [[Battlefortress]]. They just replaced the main cargo transport capacity and use that empty space to mount a [[Dakka|giant fucking gun on the top.]] It is also noted that such Land Raiders are converted into the Rokkitspitta variant of the Battlefortress or the anti-air Flakk Battlefortress. The amount of things you can mount on a empty troop compartment bay is endless

Just don't expect its [[Machine Spirit]] [[Rage|to go too swimmingly well with its new makeover.]] Chances of malfunctioning and exploding: Too damned high for the cost, but it's always good for a larf.

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===Grav-Raider===
While it's never gotten a model, the existence of a Land Raider even larger than a Spartan Assault Tank fitted with anti-gravitic plates that allowed it to function as a skimmer has been mentioned in the Horus Heresy novels. Quite notably, Arkham Land used one as his personal transport (the appropriately named ''Land's Raider''), which was equipped with a turret-mounted [[Volkite Weaponry|quad- Volkite Caliver]] array. Incidentally, this also makes it the only known model of Land Raider with a turret-mounted weapon.

==External Links==
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvdD50nSISs Forge World talks about the history of the vehicle]
* [http://www.chamber42.com/files/datasheets/Ares/Archive/Ares_Final_4th_ED.pdf Original 4th Edition Land Raider Ares Datasheet from the original creator]
* [http://chamber42.com/blog/archives/251 Updated 8th Edition Land Raider Ares Datasheet from the original creator]

==Gallery==
<gallery>
image:99590101236 ArmouredProteusLandRaider02.jpg|<center>Armoured Proteus Variant</center>
Image:ChaosRaider.jpg|A [[Chaos]] Land Raider, impressively modded.
File:Party Raider.jpg|Another modded out Chaos Land Raider, belonging to the [[Emperor's Children]]. It functions as an assault transport and mobile crack party.
Image:RaiderCrusader.jpg|A [[Ultramarines|Smurf]] Land Raider Crusader. This design originated with the [[Black Templars]].
Image:RaiderRedeemer.jpg|A Land Raider Redeemer, widely known for being one of the only things that can scare Tyranids.
Image:RaiderAres.png|A [[Dark Angels]] Land Raider Ares
Image:TerminusUltra.jpg|A [[Salamanders]] Terminus Ultra, in all of its Las-cannony glory. (IMMA FIRIN' MAH LAZORS!!!!!)
Image:RaiderAchilles.jpg|A [[Minotaurs]] Land Raider Achilles. Fielding one may inspire [[Rage|fury]].
Image:RaiderHelios.jpg|A [[Space Wolves]] Land Raider Helios. Aim away from eyes and face.
Image:Looted_Land_Raider.jpg|WE'Z GOT DA BEST [[METAL BOXES|BOX]] ON DA FIELD!
</gallery>

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Land Raider

2019-09-25T16:25:45Z

2600:1006:B105:8611:58CC:338D:D9D2:B1D4: /* {{anchor|Helios}} Helios Pattern (Forge World) */

{{Topquote|Scorch the earth and all who stand upon it!|[[Dawn of War 2|Land Raider pilots doing what they do best.]]}}

[[File:LandRaider.jpg|500px|right|thumb|A Land Raider assaulting a position. Calling or playing it as a front line tank or a Baneblade knockoff is a [[Rage|sure way of getting your]] [[Anal Circumference|ass shredded]] [[Space Marines|by SM players.]]]]
Sometimes the only solution to a problem is a complete lack of anything resembling subtlety.

A [[Rhino Transport]] grown several orders of magnitude too large, the mighty Land Raider is one of the biggest available tanks that [[Space Marines]] and [[Chaos Space Marines]] can field. Its firepower is incredible, and its armor betrays no weakpoints: it has maximum armor (14) for ''every side'', something that only the [[Monolith#Warhammer_40.2C000|Necron Monolith]], [[Necron Pylon]], and [[Spartan Assault Tank]] share with the Land Raider; not even [[Baneblade|Baneblades]] have this. Its armor is pretty much only beaten by [[Warlord Battle Titan|Warlord Class battle titans]]. It can also transport Terminators. This is the [[METAL BOXES|Metalboxiest]] of all the [[Metal Boxes|METAHL BAWKSES]].

==Overview==
[[File:Land_Raider_Insides.png|500px|right]]
The Land Raider has always been a somewhat insane beast, owing to its large weapon load and the fact that only part of this load can usually fire at a given time, making it so that it's of questionable value - this is because there are almost always better choices to do what the Land Raider can do for cost - Predators generally do better at vehicle busting or infantry killing, and the main use of the Land Raider is as a transport vehicle for Terminators and getting them right into the heart of the battle, which is kind of lopsided with its heavy armament.

Even with this, the Land Raider is still something of a good combat vehicle, if only because of the changes to the 5th edition vehicle weaponry rules. Stationary, the Land Raider can fire off all its weaponry in a salvo, which is especially good for the Chaos version, which can mount a Havoc Launcher to add a little extra infantry-raping punch. The Grey Knight version is also notable (Psycannon Bolts help this thing a lot) since it's pretty much the only heavy tank Daemonhunters get.

Make no mistake: It may be inefficient, large, and points-heavy, but the Land Raider is ''still'' a powerful force and should not be underestimated under any circumstances. Virtually any form of Land Raider is a daunting foe if it sticks around, whether it has troops in it or not. AV14 all around makes it a tough nut to crack without dedicated anti-armor weapons, and the Land Raider still is likely to survive the opening salvo, especially if it has extra armor. However, keep your Land Raider away from dedicated anti-heavy armor (Railguns, melta), or you will very quickly feel the pain of losing all those points.

And before you say it, a Land Raider is not a main battle tank or an armored personnel carrier; it is an infantry fighting vehicle like the Razorback, since it can carry people inside and provide heavy fire support (hence Infantry and Fighting). A Baneblade is a main battle tank (well, it is if you don't accept the term heavy or superheavy battle tank), a Rhino is an an armored personnel carrier, a Land Raider is an Infantry Fighting vehicle (though perhaps you could throw in heavy into that term). Well, that is unless you can actually get the Ares and Terminus Ultra pattern models, who traded their transport capabilities for even more and bigger guns, where they're pretty much <s>MBTs</s> an assault gun and a tank destroyer respectively...Okay, now that that's over, the original Land Raider was designated an MBT by the man who found the STC and whom the vehicle is named after, Arkhan Land. If the theory that the Land Raider Proteus is actually the default/original variant of the Land Raider is correct, then the Land Raider IS an MBT, it's just that the variants that permitted honest troop capacity were utilized more often by the Assault-happy Astartes to the point that Land Raiders are now known by the more common offspring of the original pattern. Except it’s not. An MBT requires the armored fighting vehicle to be fully capable of engaging armor and infantry with its primary weapon(s), keeping pace with mechanized infantry and other vehicle forces, and possessing enough armor and firepower to rival heavy tank threats. Some patterns fulfill this to varying degrees. However, the Land Raider is simply too slow and rare to be classified as a Main Battle Tank. If anything, its most common varients are a form of Infantry Tank with troop carrying capability. A slow armored fighting vehicle capable of defending infantry against vehicles and helping infantry against enemy infantry and suppressing or destroying defensive positions. This is also why a Leman Russ standard is an MBT. It can use different shells to destroy infantry, light vehicles, and heavy vehicles all from a platform easily capable of keeping up with mechanized elements and dueling heavy tanks. It is also far more common, as an MBT is the primary and most numerous tank of a military, whereas the Land Raider is extremely rare. While the lascannons and heavy bolters working together could enable the Land Raider to serve as an MBT, the tank itself is far too slow and far too rare to qualify.

In terms of appearance, a Land Raider is basically a cross between giant World War I Mark series tank and a modern armored fighting vehicle. It's shaped more like the latter, but the exposed treads on the entire front of the tank and the sponson-mounted guns resemble the former. Oddly, the placement of sponson mounted guns on the Mark series tank was a feature implemented so the tanks could fire into enemy trenches more easily while also keeping them from becoming too tall and unstable; after the war, that design was scrapped in favor of rotating turrets that gave an entire 360 degree firing arc (cannons on a Mark tank could only be pointed at things in front of them or to the side, they could not aim behind it).. Why GW decided to model something after this is a mystery, but they seem to have a thing for giving the Imperium of Man pre-<s>Cold War</s>World War II vehicle designs. Isn't it obvious? The Mark I was a British invention! And now for the low price of $110 a piece! Holy shit. They do have an excuse, though. Most Imperial vehicles were either meant for exploration or utility and had guns and armor more as a “just in case”. So, there was no reason for them to be designed with combat practicality or effectiveness in mind. Heck, the Baneblade’s STC data says it is a light scout tank and it actually walks the walk of a true tank and its oddly tall frame makes sense for mounting anti-infantry/anti-vehicle supplementary weapons. Which it does and to great effect. The Land Raider is in the same boat and also uses its defensive armament effectively but its height is probably for transportation capacity.

Now in 8th edition, the Land Raider is a much more fearsome beast, being able to fire all of its weapons at different targets, and benefiting greatly from the new twin-linked rules. It's also T8 with 16 wounds and one of the very few 2+ armour saves on vehicles. It basically went from schizophrenic IFV to being a very effective IFV.

=={{anchor|Variants}} Variants and Such==
The Land Raider has a ton of variants. Some of the more noteworthy ones are listed below.

==={{anchor|Phobos}} Phobos Pattern===
[[File:StandardRaider.jpg|280px|thumb|right|A [[Ultramarines|Smurf]] Land Raider. AKA the Godhammer Pattern.]]
The basic one has two [[Twin-Linked]] Lascannons in sponsons (called "Godhammer" pattern, [[Sigmar|for some odd reason]]) and a twin-linked [[Heavy Bolter]], making it some kind of heavy infantry fighting vehicle derpfish. It's very flexible, but ultimately rather inefficient. The Predator Annihilator is better at tankbusting, as it can unleash 3 lascannon beams, one of which is twin-linked, plus a Hunter-killer missile if you've taken one, whereas the Land Raider only has 2 twin-linked Lascannon (though the Land Raider can take a pintle-mounted Multi-Melta, which can one-shot almost any tank). The Predator Destructor is better at killing infantry; 2 shots from an Autocannon and 6 more from Heavy Bolters shred all kinds of medium/light infantry, plus two more shots if you choose to add a Storm Bolter, whereas the Land Raider only has the single twin-linked Heavy Bolter to fight infantry (plus an optional Storm Bolter). The Rhino is generally a better transport for its price, only falling short in its inability to carry Terminators. The Land Raider stands apart from the Predator and Rhino because it can fill multiple duties at once (it's recommended that you add a Storm Bolter/Multi-Melta, extra-armor, and Hunter-Killer missile to help in this task), and is the only vehicle in many armies that allow a unit to disembark and assault in the same turn. It may be schizophrenic, but it is ''effective'', especially if you use it right. Now in 7e, put 3 in the Land Raider Spearhead Formation for 750 points stock and you got a lethal counter to those super-heavies, gargantuan creatures, and buildings with Mighty Bulwark thanks to the re-roll failed to wound/armor penetration.

As of 8th, it's far more potent, benefiting not only from the generally-increased durability of vehicles in 8th and the elimination of firing arcs, it now has greater firepower than either predator variant (in fact, it's close to being tied with both of them put together), and the change to rhino prices means that while the Land Raider is still expensive, it's not as point-inefficient as it was.

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===Venerable Land Raider===
[[File:99120101061 CustodianLandraider01.jpg|280px|thumb|right|The 'Venerable' sub-variant of the Godhammer Pattern. Deadly not because of its weapons, [[Custodian Guard|but the cargo it is holding.]]]]
The [[Adeptus Custodes]] also have their own sub-variant of the Phobos/Godhammer Pattern Land Raider called the aptly named '''Venerable Land Raider''' which is a Land Raider bristling in gold to blind the enemies of men with the superiority of the <u>BLING</u>. Venerable Land Raiders ignore shaken and stunned results and also comes with some pretty cool upgrades as well now like a 5+ invulnerable save from the aegis ability, and a 6+ FNP (yes, it has both an Invulnerable and a FNP because ''of course it does''), all for mega mucho points. Other than that there is very little difference armament wise other then being a 'cheap' (for Custodes standards anyway) replacement to the vastly superior [[Coronus Grav Carrier]], [[promotions|which is faster, inflicts a -1 to hit in melee, and is actually designed for Custodians (transports capacity of 6 means that it can carry two MSU guard squads, or a 5-man with Shield-Captain, at the cost of having a 3+ armour save)]]. Still, don't try to underestimate this sub-variant as the cargo it's holding just so happens to be [[Custodian Guard|dudes who can]] [[Rape|tear your Riptide a new asshole.]]

In terms of fluff, Venerable Land Raiders have a enhanced <s>AI</s> Machine Spirit, more so than conventional Land Raiders. Many Venerable Land Raiders can trace their history back to the earliest years of the Imperium and fought in the [[Great Crusade]] and [[Horus Heresy]]. As you can imagine, such engines of war was considered as a secondhand watered down version of the [[Coronus Grav Carrier|type]] [[Pallas Grav-Attack|of]] [[Gyrfalcon Pattern Jetbike|shit]] [[Caladius Grav-Tank|the]] [[Adeptus Custodes|Custodes]] [[Telemon Heavy Dreadnought|used]] [[Contemptor-Galatus Dreadnought|to]] [[Orion Gunship |have,]] or rather still have but have been mothballed for...[[Derp|reasons.]]

Still, these dauntless war engines have now served for ten thousand years and each has built a legend every bit as magnificent as those possessed by the greatest Imperial champions. They have also developed Magos-class machine spirits and these noble and aggressive entities can independently aim and fire the vehicle's guns and coordinate its auto-repair rituals when circumstances require it. In extreme circumstances these amazing war engines have even been teleported directly onto the battlefield, through the use of ancient [[Just As Planned|Godstrike-pattern teleportariums.]] [[Rape|Deepstriking teleporting Land Raiders full of golden demigods?]] [[Cheese|Oh...all of the yes.]]

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==={{anchor|Chaos}} Chaos Land Raider===
[[File:99120102052 CSMLandRaiderRepack01.jpg|280px|thumb|right|Chaos Land Raiders are now at a reasonable price of a 100,000 Chaos Credits! Call your local [[Dark Mechanicum]] today!]]
Functionally identical to the Phobos Pattern Land Raider, the Chaos version has a number of small changes that actually make it quite a bit better than its standard counterpart. It has Assault Vehicle like the loyalist, meaning that troops exiting it can assault the same turn, and it can be further specialized as an assault transport with Daemonic Possession, Extra Armor, and Dirge Caster. It can also be turned into a better combat vehicle due to its ability to pack on a Havoc Launcher; this gives it the ability to fire a few clusters of blast templates downrange for those using it as a heavy offensive vehicle. You can alternately pack on a Combi-Bolter and Combi-Flamer/Melta, and they're even comparable with [[Havoc Launcher]] in current codex.

It's usually a bit more valuable to Chaos than it is to the Loyalists as a result. However, unfortunately for Chaos; this is the only kind of Land Raider they get, and compared to some of the other things on this list, it's out-specialized by other Land Raiders - the Crusader does Assault Transport (arguably; Daemonic Possession does a LOT to make this thing more dangerous, or DID before the rules change made Daemonic Possession cause the Chaos Raider to randomly eat passengers) better, and the Ares, Redeemer, and Achilles handle massed infantry better, whilst the Terminus Ultra is basically a tank destroyer. Add to this that the Chaos Land Raider doesn't have Power of the Machine Spirit rule that loyalist Land Raiders have, and the Chaos Land Raider is more limited in the ways it can shoot.

However, like the Godhammer, the Chaos Land Raider can handle [[Indrick Boreale|multiple simultaneous]] roles as needed, which, paired with the Chaos Land Raider's generally-better utility makes it something of a decent deal. Worth using if you have the points to spend, or if you have some big nasty close-combat squad that absolutely MUST get into close-combat.

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==={{anchor|Crusader}} Crusader Pattern===
[[File:LandRaiderCrusader.gif|280px|thumb|right|PURGING WITH MY KIIIIIIIIIN!]]
Once upon a time, during a Crusade to bring the Emperor's Light to some foul heretics, the Black Templars' Techmarines considered that Twin-linked Lascannons weren't particularly useful when rushing forward to disgorge Sword Brethren [[rape|right where it hurts the most]], so they decided to [[heresy|tinker a bit]] with one of their Land Raiders and swap out its Mars-sanctioned weapon loadout... and thus the Crusader Pattern Land Raider was born. It forgoes long-range firepower in favor of a dedicated role as an assault transport/infantry fighting vehicle, generally making it a bit more effective at getting into the enemy's face and spewing out a truly immense amount of dakka just before its passengers double up on the beating in melee. Armed with a pair of Hurricane Bolter sponsons, an optional Multi-Melta (just in case a vehicle/fortification would think of getting in the way) and twin-linked Assault Cannons, the Crusader Pattern basically delivers a truly beautiful amount of dakka at (twelve Bolters, and two assault cannons=some 272+ rounds per second) close range (with the Multi-Melta being there to deal with the errant vehicle threat) before disgorging its troops into the heart of enemy forces. Making it even better, the Crusader holds more men and has Frag Assault Launchers, ensuring that the disembarking troops gain the benefits of Frag Grenades (which Terminators normally lack). This vehicle was so effective that it spread, to some of the other Marine chapters, including the [[Grey Knights]], who were given a few for helping the Templars out once, and eventually even got official recognition from Mars.

If you play Dark Angels, you owe it to yourself to play at least one game where this beast is boosted by a Banner of Devastation and some power fields, for an utterly hilarious TWENTY FOUR twin linked Bolter shots all protected by an AV 14 4 HP 4++ monster of a vehicle. All of this, however, comes at the price of the baseline Land Raider's raw offensive punch (unless you're fighting guard/cultist/Ork/Tyranid blobs, then you will eat people) - fight accordingly.

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==={{anchor|Redeemer}} Redeemer Pattern===
[[File:LandRaiderRedeemer.jpg|280px|thumb|right|I like my [[Tyranid|Tyranids]] nicely minced and cooked well-done.]]
The Redeemer is designed to maximize close-range punch. Whilst it's not the balls-out dedicated infantry-fighting vehicle/assault transport that the Crusader is, the Redeemer packs on considerably heavier '''fire'''power. It maintains the Assault Cannons, Frag Assault Launcher, and optional Multi-Melta, but replaces the sponson-mounted Hurricane Bolters with a pair of Flamestorm Cannons - functionally improved Flamers with S6, AP3, the only drawback to them being that since they're sponson mounted they can't hit targets that are too close to the front or back of the Redeemer.

Cheaper than the other Land Raiders, this is one of the more popular Land Raiders due to its slightly lower points-cost. Tends to annihilate infantry by the dozens once in-close and makes tyranblob crap itself in sheer terror, but seriously needs Extra Armor. Using these when facing Tyranids or bikes-heavy lists (Ravenwing) is highly recommended since they don't have any vehicles or anything with more than toughness 6. Flamers ignore any armour but 2+ saves and ALL cover saves, meaning you'll be BBQing nids and bikers negating their Venomthrope/bullshit rerollable jink save.

Interestingly the Redeemer was invented by the Fire Lords Space marine chapter, and they wanted to name the pattern "Prometheus" after the titan who gave fire to man, but the name was already taken by the actual Land raider Prometheus designed by the Salamanders, so instead it was named the Redeemer.

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==={{anchor|Vortimer Redeemer}} Vortimer Redeemer Pattern===
[[File:99590107034_GREYKNIGHTSLANDRAIDERREDEEMER1.jpg|280px|thumb|right|The proverbial daemon steamroller.]]
A [[Grey Knights]] exclusive variant of the Land Raider Redeemer that replaces the assault cannons with psycannons and frag assault launchers with psyk-out assault launchers. These Land Raiders are a bane to [[Daemon]] players everywhere due to its armaments and the fact that it safely carries a detachment of [[Grey Knight Paladin|prolific Daemon rapists]] [[Purifier|and molesters.]] Because it is a more specialized version of the regular Redeemer Pattern and the rarity of the weapons it carries, the Vortimer is both a rare and expensive vehicle to produce, not to mention an utterly secret weapon from the general public.

Because of its psycannons, the Vortimer could mulch Warp creatures into dog food, that includes and up to even greater daemons if the dice gods are in your favor. Hell, because it carries not one, but two psycannons, it could just as easily chew up light to medium vehicles as well. The Vortimer not doing enough in clearing out those pesky ethereal creatures from the Warp? No problem, you can just mount [[Rape|two heavy incinerator sponsons]] [[Cheese|for quadruple the fun.]] [[Troll|Watch and see]] [[Butthurt|Chaos players weep bitter tears]] as this machine proceeds to unload its cargo of holy retribution and cleanse their heretical armies into smoking cinders.

This vehicle was best seen during the Dawn of War 2 Elite Mod as the ultimate unit for the Grey Knights. Just as expected from the fluff, this thing was an [[Powergamer|overpowered train wreck,]] able to lay down massive suppressive fire whilst protecting its precious cargo of [[Mary Sue|Mary Sues]] to the frontlines. It would have been broken if it wasn't so damned expensive in an already expensive army.

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==={{anchor|Ares}} Ares Pattern (Chapter Approved)===
[[File:LandRaiderAres000.png|280px|thumb|right|The Ares is like the discount [[Typhon Heavy Siege Tank|Typhon.]]]]
Decides to say ''"Fuck that shit"'' regarding transporting and seeks to become the most destructive linebreaker around, trying to eclipse even the dreaded [[Leman Russ Battle Tank|Leman Russ Demolisher]] and [[Vindicator]]. No transport capability, and costs about 50 points more than the standard Land Raider, but you get what you pay for; Twin-Linked Heavy Flamer Sponsons, Twin-Linked Assault Cannons and a fucking ''Demolisher Cannon'' make this thing filthy rape to anything with the misfortune of getting anywhere near it. This tank lacks tactical flexibility, as none of its weapons has a range of more than 24"(although due to power of the machine spirit its demolisher cannon actually has a threat range of 36"), but what it lacks in versatility it more than makes up for in close-range balls-out power, it concentrates on applying overwhelming fire-power to a single point in the enemy battle line. If your opponents weren't shitting bricks trying to kill/escape your Vindicators, they most assuredly will at the sight of this fucking thing. Tyranid players tend to weep tears of blood, piss themselves, and crap their pants all at the same time when these show up. Now if only Chaos had them so we could toss on a Havoc Launcher and make it possessed. Now that would be the ''ultimate'' blob destroyer.

Basically, blow a hole in the enemy’s attempt to stop you, roll into it and spew fire and bullets until everything is dead. Rinse, repeat, lulz.

With the release of the Typhon you could spend fifty more points to get two more hull points and upgrade your gun to 7" blast Ignores Cover, but with the Ares people might actually play you.

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=== {{anchor|Terminus Ultra}} Terminus Ultra Pattern ===
[[File:Terminus.jpg|280px|thumb||right|Shouting "420 BLAZE IT!" or "IMMA' FIRIN MA LASER!" will be met with disciplinary action.]]
Now available as a free upgrade for a Land Raider formation in Apocalypse, but only as the exclusive ride of [[Antaro Chronus]]. The Yang to the Ares's Yin, and the second of the ''"[[Commissar Fuklaw|fuck transporting]]!"'' Land Raiders, which lack transport capability and anything resembling subtlety, the Terminus Ultra is designed as a dedicated vehicle-killer, armed with a hilariously over-the-top three twin-linked Lascannons and two single lascannons, the Terminus Ultra can overheat and explode if it fires the bulk of its Lascannon payload ''(you should know however, that the chances of this happening are tiny, you need to roll FOUR 1's when rolling to hit, or 1 in 1296)''.

Known for making Vehicle units shit bricks, and for destroying [[Titan]]s on its own. Beam spam and Shoop Da whoop indeed. There aren't many other vehicles that are better at the role of tank destroyer than this. Plop these in a nice easily defended spot where your enemy will have to bring his vehicles, super-heavy vehicles, high value HQ units, monstrous creatures, and gargantuan through and turn their most valuable units into swiss cheese. Make a note, however, that it's generally inefficient for the role, is a huge target and becomes 100% useless if facing blob armies of any sort - fight accordingly.

It made it's way into the offical Index as of 8th, though still exclusively for the Ultramarines and as Lord of War for no clearly defined reason. It's chance of blowing itself up has increased now that's firing 8 lascannons a turn, but it's far less likely to kill itself when doing so, and keeping a captain or rhino primaris nearby can mitigate that risk. While inferior to other LoWs in regards to raw firepower (the fellblade can match it's number of shots and packs more firepower on top of that, with no risk of blowing itself up), the Terminus stands out with it's lower cost and ability to fire at 5 separate targets every round. As of Chapter Approved 2017, the Terminus Ultra is now available to chapters other than Ultramarines as well - but only in open play!

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==={{anchor|Achilles}} Achilles Pattern (Forge World)===
[[File:Achilles_Pattern.jpg|280px|right|thumb|It's like [[Rogal Dorn]] thinking to himself, "Hmmmm...fortifying a Land Raider? Challenge accepted."]]
The Achilles Pattern is the most heavily armored Land Raider, and was originally-created by the Imperial Fists. The Achilles Pattern is a giant derpy hunk of metal, bristling with guns and designed to get in close, firing off heavy firepower before discharging its payload of troops right into enemy formations. In other words, it is exactly the sort of thing that comes to mind when you hear the words "land raider". Its armor is impervious to the Lance and Melta special rules and most other weapons suffer a -1 on armor penetration rolls (essentially its armor is the same as a Necron Monolith's prior to the 5th Edition codex, it's just that the rules are given different names). The only things killing it are heavy-bore anti-vehicle weapons like the Leman Russ Vanquisher outside of lucky shots with high-strength armor-piercing weapons, like a Baneblade or Terminus Ultra firing all of its weapons (thus using the law of averages to help in its attempt to pierce the armor), or anti-vehicle Titan guns (like those used by a Shadowsword or like the epic beamspam that can be unleashed by a Reaver or Warhound dual wielding Turbo-laser Destructors), or some weird shit like haywire, gauss, entropic touch and so on (because xenos are dirty cheaters). It mounts a devastating [[Thunderfire Cannon]] (which is a massive quad-barreled mortar that can cause several flavors of infantry death) and twin-linked Multi-Melta sponsons, but it carries only 6 people (that means only three termies), have no assault ramp and costs more than Ares and Terminus Ultra - generally those 6 places are for techmarine and his servitor retinue, or for command squad loaded with Plasmaguns. The earlier Achilles Alpha prototype swapped the Thunderfire Cannon for a Quad Mortar and was equipped with twin-linked Volkite Culverins as sponson weapons.

Chaos Space Marines recently got access to this version of Land Raider as well through [[Imperial Armour]] volume 13. Along with access to all the typical upgrades for Chaos Space Marine vehicles, the Chaos Achilles swaps out the Thunderfire Cannon for a Quad Mortar, which is weaker and less capable of penetrating armor but compensates with the Pinning rule- and as a bonus, its pinning tests are made with a -1 penalty. On top of that, the Quad Mortar's Strength, AP, and Pinning test penalty all increase as the Chaos Achilles loses hull points, making it more and more deadly as it takes damage. This is of course assuming it isn't killed in one turn like most vehicles do in the current meta when they draw the ire of the nearest D-strength weapon. God fucking damn it.

As of 8th, it's gotten far nastier, with a pair of heavy 2 multimeltas and the quad launcher now has access to shatter shells, a set of short range shots with [[Rape|performance similar to battle cannon shells]]. It's armor has received the same buff, as it's previous collection of special rules have been removed and replaced with a blanket [[Awesome|4+ invul save]].

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==={{anchor|Helios}} Helios Pattern (Forge World)===
[[File:Helios4dwje6q4no3.jpg|280px|right|thumb|The [[Whirlwind|Whirlwind's]] bigger and badder brother.]]
The Helios Pattern Land Raider is designed for fire support, replacing the usual [[Heavy Bolter]]s with a pair of twin-linked [[Lascannon]]s and sacrificing ten transport spaces for a missile battery from a [[Whirlwind]]. This allows it to provide heavy fire support at long ranges and with minimal opportunities for retaliation, though it's quite points-intensive for what it does, whilst the Achilles does it better. If you do use one, be sure to employ it with a [[shooty]] force that can actually use the damned thing, like a Devastator Squad.

It was originally designed by the [[Red Scorpions]], who didn't trust the Imperial Guard to provide them with artillery support. Of course, this means that you're probably going to use it as an artillery tank, meaning you still have transport space. And a lot of armor. That will probably go to waste because you didn't just get a Whirlwind instead. It also has the option of taking an anti-air [[Whirlwind#Hyperios|Hyperios]] launcher, just in case you just want to equally pepper the skies in flak and falling plane bits hitting the ground at full speed. Although in terms of pound-per-points cost, it is still more efficient to just get a couple of Hyperios Missile Launchers themselves to fit the bill rather than wasting the points to put on a fucking Land Raider.

It lost the Hyperios launcher in 8th, but it's missiles were reworked to be a decent combination of the whirlwind's two missile types and the buff to twin linked weapons upped it's firepower considerably. It's now effectively a combination of the predator annihilator and the whirlwind, but with 2+ armor, T8, and transport capability, all for only a small increase in the point cost over a predator and whirlwind. If you want a fun toy for your command squad, or have the points for more heavy support units and not the slots, the Helios is a worthwhile choice. Bombard the enemy, then advance into them and pretend to be a vanilla raider, dump troops, bombard other enemies while your dudes assrape. Continue.

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==={{anchor|Prometheus}} Prometheus Pattern (Forge World)===
[[File:RaiderPrometheus.jpg|280px|thumb|right|A [[Ultramarines|Smurf]] Land Raider Prometheus. It's like staring at an open cesspool.]]
20 points more than a standard Land Raider, this variant loses a few transport spaces (it has 10, so no IC with your terminators) for two quad Heavy Bolters (because FUCK hordes) and some interesting abilities: you get to subtract one from your enemy's cover save (because fuck hordes, again) and you also get to choose whether or not to add 1 to your reserve rolls. Essentially, you get to choose whether or not something comes in if you roll a 2. Not bad, does its job fairly well. It's the only Land Raider that can't penetrate the armour of another Land Raider, so keep it away from tanks.

In fluffy terms, [[Skub|there has been some debates on the true exact origins of this particular Land Raider.]] The exact origins of the 'Prometheus' pattern Land Raider remains a mystery. Some Tech-adepts believe it to be a variant of the 'Tartarus' pattern Land Raider, due to the striking similarities between the two. Although no clear evidence has been found to support this claim there is at least one archival report that depicts the vehicle, or else one that closely resembles it, that fought on the side of the Loyalists during the early period of the [[Horus Heresy]]. Others believe that it was the Salamanders which first produced it as they retain more Prometheus models, than any other Chapter and because they are often the go-to guys for 'super ornate shit with vague origins' (strangely however, the Salamanders deny this claim which is completely out of character... [[Alpha Legion|unless]]...). In any case, the number of Chapters which do have a Prometheus within their Armories is unknown. For example, the White Scars only have four of these Land Raiders. There is even another version that the origins of 'Prometheus' where in fact founded by the Landites - followers of the famous Arkhan Land.

In 8th, it remains largely similar to its 7th edition version. It's guns now [[Awesome|ignore cover entirely]], and the buff to reserve rolls has been changed to make one stratagem you use cost one fewer command point (to a minimum of one), so long as your warlord is embarked inside. This tank offers a lot of tactical choices now, such as the choice between using your warlord as the beatstick he most likely is, and keeping him inside the tank to buff the army.

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==={{anchor|Proteus}} Proteus Pattern (Forge World)===
[[File:LandRaiderProteus.png|280px|right|thumb|The Proteus which is a Land Raider equivalent of [[Old Man Henderson]].]]
The Proteus pattern is the latest in the long line-up of Forge World turning its sucky job of covering for GW's old models and fluff into a glorious winblob of [[Awesome]]. This is the old, goofy-looking [[Rogue Trader]] Raider, all grown up. Barely even considered a Land Raider, it doesn't even use the same Phobos-pattern chassis as all of the other Land Raiders do. This thing is so old that [[Eldar]] consider it old. This thing is so old it was a mysterious, time-shrouded relic when the [[Horus Heresy]] took place; i.e. the time from whence on all things made before that moment were mysterious, time-shrouded relics. This self-contained vehicle was supposedly used as a universal Main Battle Tank during humanity's first expansion, similar to the Leman Russ or Predator today; which just goes to show you how awesome things were back during the Dark Age of Technology. It was designed to combat all kinds of new and evolving enemies, as well as do exploratory recon work on unexplored worlds.

So, on the wargame side of things, this thing is the metal-est box on the battlefield. It works like a normal Raider, with the option to switch out the Lascannons for Heavy Bolters or Heavy Flamers. But now, it gets the Scout rule, it can screw with enemy reserves rolling or buff your own rolls, it can get the Achilles' anti-melta armor (but not the anti-Lance), and no Infiltrators can get within 24" of it. You can get a pintle-mounted Multi-Melta, Heavy Bolter, or Storm Bolter. But that isn't the best part. The best part is that Chaos gets it too. Finally, the [[Chaos Space Marines]] get to [[meme|FIRE THEIR LAZORZ]] at multiple targets! And, Chaos gets to put on a pintle-mounted Havoc Launcher on top (so do loyal space marines as well if used in Horus Heresy and time span after that). And that thing is right next to the twin-linked Bolter, Heavy Bolter, or Multimelta we can put it too! The only downside to the Proteus is that it only has an 8 model transport capacity (assuming you take the Explorator Augury Web or the Ark of Unnameable Horror described below) due to its role as a universal tank, not a dedicated infantry ferry/weaponspam platform. It also lacks the frontal assault ramp and the Assault Vehicle rule, so don't even think about using this to drop termies. Loyalists should use it like a spearhead linebreaker, systematically killing tanks while screwing with reserves, and to safely transport some plasma gunners to rapid fire range.

The Chaos version doesn't get to use the Explorator Augury Web; instead, it gets Fear and a nasty toy called the Ark of Unnameable Horror. Whatever is in it is so horrible that anyone shooting at it has to take a pinning test before they attack- failing the test means the shooter must forfeit their attack and go to ground immediately. Although artillery, Fearless units, and units with no Ld score are exempt from this effect, it gives the Chaos Proteus an extra degree of protection against shooty foes, encouraging them to be used in a far more aggressive manner than their Loyalist counterparts. Of course, using it to ferry a few Havocs or Chosen to where they need to be is a good idea as well.

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===Excelsior Pattern (Warhammer World exclusive)===
[[File:Space-Marine-Land-Raider-Exelsior-Command-Tank.jpg|280px|thumb|right|The Land Raider Exelsior. For when you both need to lead and destroy.]]
The Excelsior is a command vehicle, equipped with augur and communications arrays to effectively deliver orders on the battlefield. Due to the equipment and weapons it carries, it is quite the rare piece of tech to field.

A newly announced variant of Land Raider described as a command tank, the ridiculously named Excelsior, (which means "high" so, highest landraider) has the Phobos' Lascannon sponsons but replaces the hull Heavy Bolters with a [[Grav-Weaponry|Grav-Cannon and Grav-Amp]], and it can take a Combi-Plasma as a pintle-mounted weapon instead of the standard Storm Bolter. Basically a Rhino Primaris on too much hormonal growth, if anything it pairs quite well with the Rhino.

It comes with a 6++ invulnerable save and built-in immunity to Crew Shaken and Crew Stunned, but that's not its main draw. That would be its Tactical Authority rule- at the start of each shooting phase, any model of the same faction as the Excelsior within 12" (18" with the right upgrade) gets their choice of Counter-Attack, Fearless, Hit and Run, Interceptor, Skyfire, Preferred Enemy, and Tank Hunters. Finally, it gains an extra +1 BS as long as it's within 24" of a [[Rhino|Rhino Primaris]].

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===Wrath of Mjalnar Pattern (Chapter Approved, only for Open Play)===
[[File:LRMjalnar.jpg|280px|thumb|right|The Wrath of Mjalnar. A more practical way to mount a freeze-ray in contrast to the [[Stormfang|flying cargo container.]]]]
Because of course the [[Space Wolves|Furries]] need another special vehicle to suit their [[Mary Sue|special snowflake needs.]]

The Land Raider Wrath of Mjalnar is a variant of the Land Raider, that was created by the Space Wolves Chapter. What makes it unique among normal Land Raider is its main armaments, which are twin [[Helfrost Weaponry|Helfrost Cannons]] and two twin Lascannons. Whilst the Lascannons are pretty standards, the introduction of not one but <u>two</u> Helfrost Cannons makes it a pretty special looking Land Raider. How the Yiffers manage to do such unsanctioned modification without starting a war with the Mechanicus for [[Heresy|obvious reasons]] is unknown. Although it could be explain via the aftermath of the First War for Armageddon and the Cold War between the Wolves and the Inquisition.

Anyways, because of its Helfrost weapons, the Wrath of Mjalnar is a dedicated anti-tank vehicle as the Helfrost Cannons instantly turn the strongest of armor into brittle and immobile targets for the ensuing Lascannon fire. These makes the likes of Superheavies and even light skimmers vulnerable to these payloads.

Unfortunately, the introduction of these weapons makes this specific Land Raider to lose its transportation capability. Being able to only have a transport capacity of 5. Would still make a nice pimpmobile for a kitted out Wolf Lord and small retinue or Rune Priest to buff it.

{{Clear}}

===Solemnus Aggressor Pattern (Chapter Approved, only for Open Play)===
[[File:LRAggressor.jpg|280px|right|thumb|The Solemnus Aggressor, making the Land Raider Prometheus feel useless for 1,000 years and counting.]]
Think Land Raider Crusader on steroids.

The [[Dark Angels|brooding, secretive organization]] saw the [[Heresy|heretical]] things the Space Wolves were doing with their Land Raiders and decided their 'friendly' rivalry will not be concluded in the Furries' favor. Not to be outdone, the Dark Angels released their own version of the Land Raider to one-up them in a show of [[Lulz|absolute hilarity.]] The Solemnus Aggressor is born.

It is not known whether this thing was a relic discovered and kept by the Dark Angels or a piece of tech-heresy that will rile up even the most tightly screwed pants of a Mechanicum Magos. What is known is that this thing is every blob and tarpit armies worst nightmare (The Blood Angel's Angel Infernus is [[Skub|arguably/maybe better]]). Why is it so rapetastic? Well, because this monster packs quite the punch. Its main armaments are twin Assault Cannons, two Heavy bolters and two Hurricane bolters, which gives the Solemnus Aggressor the firepower to shatter an infantry advance in a single volley.

Seriously, [[Dakka|16 guns on almost all sides.]] I don't care how many [[Termagaunt|Termagaunts]] you have, they're all gonna turn into mince meat on the first turn.

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===Angel Infernus Pattern (Chapter Approved, only for Open Play)===
[[File:LRInfernus.jpg|280px|right|thumb|If you are not wearing fully enclosed ceramite armor that is at minimum, 15 centimeters thick. Consider yourself quite boned.]]
The close range assault dakka to the Solemnus Aggressor's long range assault dakka. It's every [[Sisters of Battle|Sister's]] wet dream (not personally involving [[Sanguinius]] that is) come true and a vehicle that would be more appropriate with the [[Salamanders]] than the [[Blood Angels]].

Like the Solemnus Aggressor, it is not known whether this thing was a relic discovered and kept by the Blood Angels on Baal's somewhat heretical underground tech caves. But what is ''definitely'' known is that this Land Raider focuses mainly on flamers. Kind of a reverse Wrath of Mjalnar if you count the twin-linked Helfrost cannon as a reverse flamer. Its armament is the perfect ingredient in cooking blob armies to medium rare.

Its main armaments are twin Assault Cannons, two Heavy Flamers and two Flamestorm Cannons as well as a pintle-mounted Multi-Melta just to be sure. Essentially, 8 barrels of <u>'''Hell'''</u>. These weapons allow the Angel Infernus to unleash firestorms so intense, that even the most dug-in defenders are reduced to ashes in a heartbeat, Tarpitters would melt ''literally''. It is gobsmacking that the Blood Angels did not use more of these during the Devastation of Baal fiasco.

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===Hades Diabolus Pattern (Chapter Approved, only for Open Play)===
A Chaos only Land Raider variant, equipped with a hull mounted Reaper Autocannon, Sponson Twin Lascannons and Sponson Heavy Bolters. Created and used by the [[Black Legion]] during the Fall of Cadia to turn Cadians Infantry and Tanks into chunks, and it started gaining popularity within the Chaos Marines forces ever since.

Just as some of the loyalist Space Marine Chapters have adapted their Land Raiders to suit their particular styles of warfare, so some especially well-resourced or innovative Heretic Astartes factions have done the same. Perhaps the most enduring traitor Land Raider variant so far recorded is the Hades Diabolus, which was developed by the [[Black Legion]].

===Anvilarum Pattern===
An obscure pattern of Land Raider only mentioned offhand in one of the Black Library novels. Its weapon loadout is unknown, but it is said to have been open-topped, uplink-modified, and capable of carrying [[Dreadnought]]s into battle. It is said they were made in rememberance of ancient Terra's chariots. Imagine a tank being ridden by another tank. That is about the level of [[rape]] to be expected if it ever gets a model.

==={{anchor|Variants}} [[Looted]] Land Raider===
[[File:Looted_Land_Raider_Battlewagon.jpg|280px|thumb|right|OI! WE'Z GOT DA MOST DAKKA TANK FROM DA UMIES BOSS!]]
Every once in a while, an [[Ork]] [[Looted|gets it into his head]] to [[Blood Ravens|capture, rather than blow up, a Land Raider]], or [[Adeptus Mechanicus|salvage one from a bombed-out husk]]. Once the thing's been made suitably [[Ork]]y, it makes for a great Battlewagon, and though most Orks extensively modify the design until little of the vehicle's original shape remains, a few enterprising Orks like the boxy design of the Land Raider, and modify their vehicle accordingly. [[Counts As|Though it can no longer be considered a true Land Raider]] due to the various modifications the Orks have made to it, it's still killy and flash.

Certain ambitious/filthy rich Orks can also turn the Land Raider into a supped up [[Battlefortress]]. They just replaced the main cargo transport capacity and use that empty space to mount a [[Dakka|giant fucking gun on the top.]] It is also noted that such Land Raiders are converted into the Rokkitspitta variant of the Battlefortress or the anti-air Flakk Battlefortress. The amount of things you can mount on a empty troop compartment bay is endless

Just don't expect its [[Machine Spirit]] [[Rage|to go too swimmingly well with its new makeover.]] Chances of malfunctioning and exploding: Too damned high for the cost, but it's always good for a larf.

{{clear}}

===Grav-Raider===
While it's never gotten a model, the existence of a Land Raider even larger than a Spartan Assault Tank fitted with anti-gravitic plates that allowed it to function as a skimmer has been mentioned in the Horus Heresy novels. Quite notably, Arkham Land used one as his personal transport (the appropriately named ''Land's Raider''), which was equipped with a turret-mounted [[Volkite Weaponry|quad- Volkite Caliver]] array. Incidentally, this also makes it the only known model of Land Raider with a turret-mounted weapon.

==External Links==
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvdD50nSISs Forge World talks about the history of the vehicle]
* [http://www.chamber42.com/files/datasheets/Ares/Archive/Ares_Final_4th_ED.pdf Original 4th Edition Land Raider Ares Datasheet from the original creator]
* [http://chamber42.com/blog/archives/251 Updated 8th Edition Land Raider Ares Datasheet from the original creator]

==Gallery==
<gallery>
image:99590101236 ArmouredProteusLandRaider02.jpg|<center>Armoured Proteus Variant</center>
Image:ChaosRaider.jpg|A [[Chaos]] Land Raider, impressively modded.
File:Party Raider.jpg|Another modded out Chaos Land Raider, belonging to the [[Emperor's Children]]. It functions as an assault transport and mobile crack party.
Image:RaiderCrusader.jpg|A [[Ultramarines|Smurf]] Land Raider Crusader. This design originated with the [[Black Templars]].
Image:RaiderRedeemer.jpg|A Land Raider Redeemer, widely known for being one of the only things that can scare Tyranids.
Image:RaiderAres.png|A [[Dark Angels]] Land Raider Ares
Image:TerminusUltra.jpg|A [[Salamanders]] Terminus Ultra, in all of its Las-cannony glory. (IMMA FIRIN' MAH LAZORS!!!!!)
Image:RaiderAchilles.jpg|A [[Minotaurs]] Land Raider Achilles. Fielding one may inspire [[Rage|fury]].
Image:RaiderHelios.jpg|A [[Space Wolves]] Land Raider Helios. Aim away from eyes and face.
Image:Looted_Land_Raider.jpg|WE'Z GOT DA BEST [[METAL BOXES|BOX]] ON DA FIELD!
</gallery>

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{{Marines-Forces}}
{{Blood Angels}}
{{Dark Angels}}
{{Deathwatch}}
{{Grey Knights}}
{{Space Wolves}}
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{{Custodes}}
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{{Chaos Space Marines}}
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Land Raider

2019-09-25T15:39:01Z

2600:1006:B105:8611:58CC:338D:D9D2:B1D4: /* {{anchor|Ares}} Ares Pattern (Chapter Approved) */

{{Topquote|Scorch the earth and all who stand upon it!|[[Dawn of War 2|Land Raider pilots doing what they do best.]]}}

[[File:LandRaider.jpg|500px|right|thumb|A Land Raider assaulting a position. Calling or playing it as a front line tank or a Baneblade knockoff is a [[Rage|sure way of getting your]] [[Anal Circumference|ass shredded]] [[Space Marines|by SM players.]]]]
Sometimes the only solution to a problem is a complete lack of anything resembling subtlety.

A [[Rhino Transport]] grown several orders of magnitude too large, the mighty Land Raider is one of the biggest available tanks that [[Space Marines]] and [[Chaos Space Marines]] can field. Its firepower is incredible, and its armor betrays no weakpoints: it has maximum armor (14) for ''every side'', something that only the [[Monolith#Warhammer_40.2C000|Necron Monolith]], [[Necron Pylon]], and [[Spartan Assault Tank]] share with the Land Raider; not even [[Baneblade|Baneblades]] have this. Its armor is pretty much only beaten by [[Warlord Battle Titan|Warlord Class battle titans]]. It can also transport Terminators. This is the [[METAL BOXES|Metalboxiest]] of all the [[Metal Boxes|METAHL BAWKSES]].

==Overview==
[[File:Land_Raider_Insides.png|500px|right]]
The Land Raider has always been a somewhat insane beast, owing to its large weapon load and the fact that only part of this load can usually fire at a given time, making it so that it's of questionable value - this is because there are almost always better choices to do what the Land Raider can do for cost - Predators generally do better at vehicle busting or infantry killing, and the main use of the Land Raider is as a transport vehicle for Terminators and getting them right into the heart of the battle, which is kind of lopsided with its heavy armament.

Even with this, the Land Raider is still something of a good combat vehicle, if only because of the changes to the 5th edition vehicle weaponry rules. Stationary, the Land Raider can fire off all its weaponry in a salvo, which is especially good for the Chaos version, which can mount a Havoc Launcher to add a little extra infantry-raping punch. The Grey Knight version is also notable (Psycannon Bolts help this thing a lot) since it's pretty much the only heavy tank Daemonhunters get.

Make no mistake: It may be inefficient, large, and points-heavy, but the Land Raider is ''still'' a powerful force and should not be underestimated under any circumstances. Virtually any form of Land Raider is a daunting foe if it sticks around, whether it has troops in it or not. AV14 all around makes it a tough nut to crack without dedicated anti-armor weapons, and the Land Raider still is likely to survive the opening salvo, especially if it has extra armor. However, keep your Land Raider away from dedicated anti-heavy armor (Railguns, melta), or you will very quickly feel the pain of losing all those points.

And before you say it, a Land Raider is not a main battle tank or an armored personnel carrier; it is an infantry fighting vehicle like the Razorback, since it can carry people inside and provide heavy fire support (hence Infantry and Fighting). A Baneblade is a main battle tank (well, it is if you don't accept the term heavy or superheavy battle tank), a Rhino is an an armored personnel carrier, a Land Raider is an Infantry Fighting vehicle (though perhaps you could throw in heavy into that term). Well, that is unless you can actually get the Ares and Terminus Ultra pattern models, who traded their transport capabilities for even more and bigger guns, where they're pretty much <s>MBTs</s> an assault gun and a tank destroyer respectively...Okay, now that that's over, the original Land Raider was designated an MBT by the man who found the STC and whom the vehicle is named after, Arkhan Land. If the theory that the Land Raider Proteus is actually the default/original variant of the Land Raider is correct, then the Land Raider IS an MBT, it's just that the variants that permitted honest troop capacity were utilized more often by the Assault-happy Astartes to the point that Land Raiders are now known by the more common offspring of the original pattern. Except it’s not. An MBT requires the armored fighting vehicle to be fully capable of engaging armor and infantry with its primary weapon(s), keeping pace with mechanized infantry and other vehicle forces, and possessing enough armor and firepower to rival heavy tank threats. Some patterns fulfill this to varying degrees. However, the Land Raider is simply too slow and rare to be classified as a Main Battle Tank. If anything, its most common varients are a form of Infantry Tank with troop carrying capability. A slow armored fighting vehicle capable of defending infantry against vehicles and helping infantry against enemy infantry and suppressing or destroying defensive positions. This is also why a Leman Russ standard is an MBT. It can use different shells to destroy infantry, light vehicles, and heavy vehicles all from a platform easily capable of keeping up with mechanized elements and dueling heavy tanks. It is also far more common, as an MBT is the primary and most numerous tank of a military, whereas the Land Raider is extremely rare. While the lascannons and heavy bolters working together could enable the Land Raider to serve as an MBT, the tank itself is far too slow and far too rare to qualify.

In terms of appearance, a Land Raider is basically a cross between giant World War I Mark series tank and a modern armored fighting vehicle. It's shaped more like the latter, but the exposed treads on the entire front of the tank and the sponson-mounted guns resemble the former. Oddly, the placement of sponson mounted guns on the Mark series tank was a feature implemented so the tanks could fire into enemy trenches more easily while also keeping them from becoming too tall and unstable; after the war, that design was scrapped in favor of rotating turrets that gave an entire 360 degree firing arc (cannons on a Mark tank could only be pointed at things in front of them or to the side, they could not aim behind it).. Why GW decided to model something after this is a mystery, but they seem to have a thing for giving the Imperium of Man pre-<s>Cold War</s>World War II vehicle designs. Isn't it obvious? The Mark I was a British invention! And now for the low price of $110 a piece! Holy shit. They do have an excuse, though. Most Imperial vehicles were either meant for exploration or utility and had guns and armor more as a “just in case”. So, there was no reason for them to be designed with combat practicality or effectiveness in mind. Heck, the Baneblade’s STC data says it is a light scout tank and it actually walks the walk of a true tank and its oddly tall frame makes sense for mounting anti-infantry/anti-vehicle supplementary weapons. Which it does and to great effect. The Land Raider is in the same boat and also uses its defensive armament effectively but its height is probably for transportation capacity.

Now in 8th edition, the Land Raider is a much more fearsome beast, being able to fire all of its weapons at different targets, and benefiting greatly from the new twin-linked rules. It's also T8 with 16 wounds and one of the very few 2+ armour saves on vehicles. It basically went from schizophrenic IFV to being a very effective IFV.

=={{anchor|Variants}} Variants and Such==
The Land Raider has a ton of variants. Some of the more noteworthy ones are listed below.

==={{anchor|Phobos}} Phobos Pattern===
[[File:StandardRaider.jpg|280px|thumb|right|A [[Ultramarines|Smurf]] Land Raider. AKA the Godhammer Pattern.]]
The basic one has two [[Twin-Linked]] Lascannons in sponsons (called "Godhammer" pattern, [[Sigmar|for some odd reason]]) and a twin-linked [[Heavy Bolter]], making it some kind of heavy infantry fighting vehicle derpfish. It's very flexible, but ultimately rather inefficient. The Predator Annihilator is better at tankbusting, as it can unleash 3 lascannon beams, one of which is twin-linked, plus a Hunter-killer missile if you've taken one, whereas the Land Raider only has 2 twin-linked Lascannon (though the Land Raider can take a pintle-mounted Multi-Melta, which can one-shot almost any tank). The Predator Destructor is better at killing infantry; 2 shots from an Autocannon and 6 more from Heavy Bolters shred all kinds of medium/light infantry, plus two more shots if you choose to add a Storm Bolter, whereas the Land Raider only has the single twin-linked Heavy Bolter to fight infantry (plus an optional Storm Bolter). The Rhino is generally a better transport for its price, only falling short in its inability to carry Terminators. The Land Raider stands apart from the Predator and Rhino because it can fill multiple duties at once (it's recommended that you add a Storm Bolter/Multi-Melta, extra-armor, and Hunter-Killer missile to help in this task), and is the only vehicle in many armies that allow a unit to disembark and assault in the same turn. It may be schizophrenic, but it is ''effective'', especially if you use it right. Now in 7e, put 3 in the Land Raider Spearhead Formation for 750 points stock and you got a lethal counter to those super-heavies, gargantuan creatures, and buildings with Mighty Bulwark thanks to the re-roll failed to wound/armor penetration.

As of 8th, it's far more potent, benefiting not only from the generally-increased durability of vehicles in 8th and the elimination of firing arcs, it now has greater firepower than either predator variant (in fact, it's close to being tied with both of them put together), and the change to rhino prices means that while the Land Raider is still expensive, it's not as point-inefficient as it was.

{{clear}}

===Venerable Land Raider===
[[File:99120101061 CustodianLandraider01.jpg|280px|thumb|right|The 'Venerable' sub-variant of the Godhammer Pattern. Deadly not because of its weapons, [[Custodian Guard|but the cargo it is holding.]]]]
The [[Adeptus Custodes]] also have their own sub-variant of the Phobos/Godhammer Pattern Land Raider called the aptly named '''Venerable Land Raider''' which is a Land Raider bristling in gold to blind the enemies of men with the superiority of the <u>BLING</u>. Venerable Land Raiders ignore shaken and stunned results and also comes with some pretty cool upgrades as well now like a 5+ invulnerable save from the aegis ability, and a 6+ FNP (yes, it has both an Invulnerable and a FNP because ''of course it does''), all for mega mucho points. Other than that there is very little difference armament wise other then being a 'cheap' (for Custodes standards anyway) replacement to the vastly superior [[Coronus Grav Carrier]], [[promotions|which is faster, inflicts a -1 to hit in melee, and is actually designed for Custodians (transports capacity of 6 means that it can carry two MSU guard squads, or a 5-man with Shield-Captain, at the cost of having a 3+ armour save)]]. Still, don't try to underestimate this sub-variant as the cargo it's holding just so happens to be [[Custodian Guard|dudes who can]] [[Rape|tear your Riptide a new asshole.]]

In terms of fluff, Venerable Land Raiders have a enhanced <s>AI</s> Machine Spirit, more so than conventional Land Raiders. Many Venerable Land Raiders can trace their history back to the earliest years of the Imperium and fought in the [[Great Crusade]] and [[Horus Heresy]]. As you can imagine, such engines of war was considered as a secondhand watered down version of the [[Coronus Grav Carrier|type]] [[Pallas Grav-Attack|of]] [[Gyrfalcon Pattern Jetbike|shit]] [[Caladius Grav-Tank|the]] [[Adeptus Custodes|Custodes]] [[Telemon Heavy Dreadnought|used]] [[Contemptor-Galatus Dreadnought|to]] [[Orion Gunship |have,]] or rather still have but have been mothballed for...[[Derp|reasons.]]

Still, these dauntless war engines have now served for ten thousand years and each has built a legend every bit as magnificent as those possessed by the greatest Imperial champions. They have also developed Magos-class machine spirits and these noble and aggressive entities can independently aim and fire the vehicle's guns and coordinate its auto-repair rituals when circumstances require it. In extreme circumstances these amazing war engines have even been teleported directly onto the battlefield, through the use of ancient [[Just As Planned|Godstrike-pattern teleportariums.]] [[Rape|Deepstriking teleporting Land Raiders full of golden demigods?]] [[Cheese|Oh...all of the yes.]]

{{clear}}

==={{anchor|Chaos}} Chaos Land Raider===
[[File:99120102052 CSMLandRaiderRepack01.jpg|280px|thumb|right|Chaos Land Raiders are now at a reasonable price of a 100,000 Chaos Credits! Call your local [[Dark Mechanicum]] today!]]
Functionally identical to the Phobos Pattern Land Raider, the Chaos version has a number of small changes that actually make it quite a bit better than its standard counterpart. It has Assault Vehicle like the loyalist, meaning that troops exiting it can assault the same turn, and it can be further specialized as an assault transport with Daemonic Possession, Extra Armor, and Dirge Caster. It can also be turned into a better combat vehicle due to its ability to pack on a Havoc Launcher; this gives it the ability to fire a few clusters of blast templates downrange for those using it as a heavy offensive vehicle. You can alternately pack on a Combi-Bolter and Combi-Flamer/Melta, and they're even comparable with [[Havoc Launcher]] in current codex.

It's usually a bit more valuable to Chaos than it is to the Loyalists as a result. However, unfortunately for Chaos; this is the only kind of Land Raider they get, and compared to some of the other things on this list, it's out-specialized by other Land Raiders - the Crusader does Assault Transport (arguably; Daemonic Possession does a LOT to make this thing more dangerous, or DID before the rules change made Daemonic Possession cause the Chaos Raider to randomly eat passengers) better, and the Ares, Redeemer, and Achilles handle massed infantry better, whilst the Terminus Ultra is basically a tank destroyer. Add to this that the Chaos Land Raider doesn't have Power of the Machine Spirit rule that loyalist Land Raiders have, and the Chaos Land Raider is more limited in the ways it can shoot.

However, like the Godhammer, the Chaos Land Raider can handle [[Indrick Boreale|multiple simultaneous]] roles as needed, which, paired with the Chaos Land Raider's generally-better utility makes it something of a decent deal. Worth using if you have the points to spend, or if you have some big nasty close-combat squad that absolutely MUST get into close-combat.

{{clear}}

==={{anchor|Crusader}} Crusader Pattern===
[[File:LandRaiderCrusader.gif|280px|thumb|right|PURGING WITH MY KIIIIIIIIIN!]]
Once upon a time, during a Crusade to bring the Emperor's Light to some foul heretics, the Black Templars' Techmarines considered that Twin-linked Lascannons weren't particularly useful when rushing forward to disgorge Sword Brethren [[rape|right where it hurts the most]], so they decided to [[heresy|tinker a bit]] with one of their Land Raiders and swap out its Mars-sanctioned weapon loadout... and thus the Crusader Pattern Land Raider was born. It forgoes long-range firepower in favor of a dedicated role as an assault transport/infantry fighting vehicle, generally making it a bit more effective at getting into the enemy's face and spewing out a truly immense amount of dakka just before its passengers double up on the beating in melee. Armed with a pair of Hurricane Bolter sponsons, an optional Multi-Melta (just in case a vehicle/fortification would think of getting in the way) and twin-linked Assault Cannons, the Crusader Pattern basically delivers a truly beautiful amount of dakka at (twelve Bolters, and two assault cannons=some 272+ rounds per second) close range (with the Multi-Melta being there to deal with the errant vehicle threat) before disgorging its troops into the heart of enemy forces. Making it even better, the Crusader holds more men and has Frag Assault Launchers, ensuring that the disembarking troops gain the benefits of Frag Grenades (which Terminators normally lack). This vehicle was so effective that it spread, to some of the other Marine chapters, including the [[Grey Knights]], who were given a few for helping the Templars out once, and eventually even got official recognition from Mars.

If you play Dark Angels, you owe it to yourself to play at least one game where this beast is boosted by a Banner of Devastation and some power fields, for an utterly hilarious TWENTY FOUR twin linked Bolter shots all protected by an AV 14 4 HP 4++ monster of a vehicle. All of this, however, comes at the price of the baseline Land Raider's raw offensive punch (unless you're fighting guard/cultist/Ork/Tyranid blobs, then you will eat people) - fight accordingly.

{{clear}}

==={{anchor|Redeemer}} Redeemer Pattern===
[[File:LandRaiderRedeemer.jpg|280px|thumb|right|I like my [[Tyranid|Tyranids]] nicely minced and cooked well-done.]]
The Redeemer is designed to maximize close-range punch. Whilst it's not the balls-out dedicated infantry-fighting vehicle/assault transport that the Crusader is, the Redeemer packs on considerably heavier '''fire'''power. It maintains the Assault Cannons, Frag Assault Launcher, and optional Multi-Melta, but replaces the sponson-mounted Hurricane Bolters with a pair of Flamestorm Cannons - functionally improved Flamers with S6, AP3, the only drawback to them being that since they're sponson mounted they can't hit targets that are too close to the front or back of the Redeemer.

Cheaper than the other Land Raiders, this is one of the more popular Land Raiders due to its slightly lower points-cost. Tends to annihilate infantry by the dozens once in-close and makes tyranblob crap itself in sheer terror, but seriously needs Extra Armor. Using these when facing Tyranids or bikes-heavy lists (Ravenwing) is highly recommended since they don't have any vehicles or anything with more than toughness 6. Flamers ignore any armour but 2+ saves and ALL cover saves, meaning you'll be BBQing nids and bikers negating their Venomthrope/bullshit rerollable jink save.

Interestingly the Redeemer was invented by the Fire Lords Space marine chapter, and they wanted to name the pattern "Prometheus" after the titan who gave fire to man, but the name was already taken by the actual Land raider Prometheus designed by the Salamanders, so instead it was named the Redeemer.

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==={{anchor|Vortimer Redeemer}} Vortimer Redeemer Pattern===
[[File:99590107034_GREYKNIGHTSLANDRAIDERREDEEMER1.jpg|280px|thumb|right|The proverbial daemon steamroller.]]
A [[Grey Knights]] exclusive variant of the Land Raider Redeemer that replaces the assault cannons with psycannons and frag assault launchers with psyk-out assault launchers. These Land Raiders are a bane to [[Daemon]] players everywhere due to its armaments and the fact that it safely carries a detachment of [[Grey Knight Paladin|prolific Daemon rapists]] [[Purifier|and molesters.]] Because it is a more specialized version of the regular Redeemer Pattern and the rarity of the weapons it carries, the Vortimer is both a rare and expensive vehicle to produce, not to mention an utterly secret weapon from the general public.

Because of its psycannons, the Vortimer could mulch Warp creatures into dog food, that includes and up to even greater daemons if the dice gods are in your favor. Hell, because it carries not one, but two psycannons, it could just as easily chew up light to medium vehicles as well. The Vortimer not doing enough in clearing out those pesky ethereal creatures from the Warp? No problem, you can just mount [[Rape|two heavy incinerator sponsons]] [[Cheese|for quadruple the fun.]] [[Troll|Watch and see]] [[Butthurt|Chaos players weep bitter tears]] as this machine proceeds to unload its cargo of holy retribution and cleanse their heretical armies into smoking cinders.

This vehicle was best seen during the Dawn of War 2 Elite Mod as the ultimate unit for the Grey Knights. Just as expected from the fluff, this thing was an [[Powergamer|overpowered train wreck,]] able to lay down massive suppressive fire whilst protecting its precious cargo of [[Mary Sue|Mary Sues]] to the frontlines. It would have been broken if it wasn't so damned expensive in an already expensive army.

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==={{anchor|Ares}} Ares Pattern (Chapter Approved)===
[[File:LandRaiderAres000.png|280px|thumb|right|The Ares is like the discount [[Typhon Heavy Siege Tank|Typhon.]]]]
Decides to say ''"Fuck that shit"'' regarding transporting and seeks to become the most destructive linebreaker around, trying to eclipse even the dreaded [[Leman Russ Battle Tank|Leman Russ Demolisher]] and [[Vindicator]]. No transport capability, and costs about 50 points more than the standard Land Raider, but you get what you pay for; Twin-Linked Heavy Flamer Sponsons, Twin-Linked Assault Cannons and a fucking ''Demolisher Cannon'' make this thing filthy rape to anything with the misfortune of getting anywhere near it. This tank lacks tactical flexibility, as none of its weapons has a range of more than 24"(although due to power of the machine spirit its demolisher cannon actually has a threat range of 36"), but what it lacks in versatility it more than makes up for in close-range balls-out power, it concentrates on applying overwhelming fire-power to a single point in the enemy battle line. If your opponents weren't shitting bricks trying to kill/escape your Vindicators, they most assuredly will at the sight of this fucking thing. Tyranid players tend to weep tears of blood, piss themselves, and crap their pants all at the same time when these show up. Now if only Chaos had them so we could toss on a Havoc Launcher and make it possessed. Now that would be the ''ultimate'' blob destroyer.

Basically, blow a hole in the enemy’s attempt to stop you, roll into it and spew fire and bullets until everything is dead. Rinse, repeat, lulz.

With the release of the Typhon you could spend fifty more points to get two more hull points and upgrade your gun to 7" blast Ignores Cover, but with the Ares people might actually play you.

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=== {{anchor|Terminus Ultra}} Terminus Ultra Pattern ===
[[File:Terminus.jpg|280px|thumb||right|Shouting "420 BLAZE IT!" or "IMMA' FIRIN MA LASER!" will be met with disciplinary action.]]
Now available as a free upgrade for a Land Raider formation in Apocalypse, but only as the exclusive ride of [[Antaro Chronus]]. The Yang to the Ares's Yin, and the second of the ''"[[Commissar Fuklaw|fuck transporting]]!"'' Land Raiders, which lack transport capability and anything resembling subtlety, the Terminus Ultra is designed as a dedicated vehicle-killer, armed with a hilariously over-the-top three twin-linked Lascannons and two single lascannons, the Terminus Ultra can overheat and explode if it fires the bulk of its Lascannon payload ''(you should know however, that the chances of this happening are tiny, you need to roll FOUR 1's when rolling to hit, or 1 in 1296)''.

Known for making Vehicle units shit bricks, and for destroying [[Titan]]s on its own. Beam spam and Shoop Da whoop indeed. There aren't many other vehicles that are better at the role of tank destroyer than this. Plop these in a nice easily defended spot where your enemy will have to bring his vehicles, super-heavy vehicles, high value HQ units, monstrous creatures, and gargantuan through and turn their most valuable units into swiss cheese. Make a note, however, that it's generally inefficient for the role, is a huge target and becomes 100% useless if facing blob armies of any sort - fight accordingly.

It made it's way into the offical Index as of 8th, though still exclusively for the Ultramarines and as Lord of War for no clearly defined reason. It's chance of blowing itself up has increased now that's firing 8 lascannons a turn, but it's far less likely to kill itself when doing so, and keeping a captain or rhino primaris nearby can mitigate that risk. While inferior to other LoWs in regards to raw firepower (the fellblade can match it's number of shots and packs more firepower on top of that, with no risk of blowing itself up), the Terminus stands out with it's lower cost and ability to fire at 5 separate targets every round. As of Chapter Approved 2017, the Terminus Ultra is now available to chapters other than Ultramarines as well - but only in open play!

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==={{anchor|Achilles}} Achilles Pattern (Forge World)===
[[File:Achilles_Pattern.jpg|280px|right|thumb|It's like [[Rogal Dorn]] thinking to himself, "Hmmmm...fortifying a Land Raider? Challenge accepted."]]
The Achilles Pattern is the most heavily armored Land Raider, and was originally-created by the Imperial Fists. The Achilles Pattern is a giant derpy hunk of metal, bristling with guns and designed to get in close, firing off heavy firepower before discharging its payload of troops right into enemy formations. In other words, it is exactly the sort of thing that comes to mind when you hear the words "land raider". Its armor is impervious to the Lance and Melta special rules and most other weapons suffer a -1 on armor penetration rolls (essentially its armor is the same as a Necron Monolith's prior to the 5th Edition codex, it's just that the rules are given different names). The only things killing it are heavy-bore anti-vehicle weapons like the Leman Russ Vanquisher outside of lucky shots with high-strength armor-piercing weapons, like a Baneblade or Terminus Ultra firing all of its weapons (thus using the law of averages to help in its attempt to pierce the armor), or anti-vehicle Titan guns (like those used by a Shadowsword or like the epic beamspam that can be unleashed by a Reaver or Warhound dual wielding Turbo-laser Destructors), or some weird shit like haywire, gauss, entropic touch and so on (because xenos are dirty cheaters). It mounts a devastating [[Thunderfire Cannon]] (which is a massive quad-barreled mortar that can cause several flavors of infantry death) and twin-linked Multi-Melta sponsons, but it carries only 6 people (that means only three termies), have no assault ramp and costs more than Ares and Terminus Ultra - generally those 6 places are for techmarine and his servitor retinue, or for command squad loaded with Plasmaguns. The earlier Achilles Alpha prototype swapped the Thunderfire Cannon for a Quad Mortar and was equipped with twin-linked Volkite Culverins as sponson weapons.

Chaos Space Marines recently got access to this version of Land Raider as well through [[Imperial Armour]] volume 13. Along with access to all the typical upgrades for Chaos Space Marine vehicles, the Chaos Achilles swaps out the Thunderfire Cannon for a Quad Mortar, which is weaker and less capable of penetrating armor but compensates with the Pinning rule- and as a bonus, its pinning tests are made with a -1 penalty. On top of that, the Quad Mortar's Strength, AP, and Pinning test penalty all increase as the Chaos Achilles loses hull points, making it more and more deadly as it takes damage. This is of course assuming it isn't killed in one turn like most vehicles do in the current meta when they draw the ire of the nearest D-strength weapon. God fucking damn it.

As of 8th, it's gotten far nastier, with a pair of heavy 2 multimeltas and the quad launcher now has access to shatter shells, a set of short range shots with [[Rape|performance similar to battle cannon shells]]. It's armor has received the same buff, as it's previous collection of special rules have been removed and replaced with a blanket [[Awesome|4+ invul save]].

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==={{anchor|Helios}} Helios Pattern (Forge World)===
[[File:Helios4dwje6q4no3.jpg|280px|right|thumb|The [[Whirlwind|Whirlwind's]] bigger and badder brother.]]
The Helios Pattern Land Raider is designed for fire support, replacing the usual [[Heavy Bolter]]s with a pair of twin-linked [[Lascannon]]s and sacrificing ten transport spaces for a missile battery from a [[Whirlwind]]. This allows it to provide heavy fire support at long ranges and with minimal opportunities for retaliation, though it's quite points-intensive for what it does, whilst the Achilles does it better. If you do use one, be sure to employ it with a [[shooty]] force that can actually use the damned thing, like a Devastator Squad.

It was originally designed by the [[Red Scorpions]], who didn't trust the Imperial Guard to provide them with artillery support. Of course, this means that you're probably going to use it as an artillery tank, meaning you still have transport space. And a lot of armor. That will probably go to waste because you didn't just get a Whirlwind instead. It also has the option of taking an anti-air [[Whirlwind#Hyperios|Hyperios]] launcher, just in case you just want to equally pepper the skies in flak and falling plane bits hitting the ground at full speed. Although in terms of pound-per-points cost, it is still more efficient to just get a couple of Hyperios Missile Launchers themselves to fit the bill rather than wasting the points to put on a fucking Land Raider.

It lost the Hyperios launcher in 8th, but it's missiles were reworked to be a decent combination of the whirlwind's two missile types and the buff to twin linked weapons upped it's firepower considerably. It's now effectively a combination of the predator annihilator and the whirlwind, but with 2+ armor, T8, and transport capability, all for only a small increase in the point cost over a predator and whirlwind. If you want a fun toy for your command squad, or have the points for more heavy support units and not the slots, the Helios is a worthwhile choice.

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==={{anchor|Prometheus}} Prometheus Pattern (Forge World)===
[[File:RaiderPrometheus.jpg|280px|thumb|right|A [[Ultramarines|Smurf]] Land Raider Prometheus. It's like staring at an open cesspool.]]
20 points more than a standard Land Raider, this variant loses a few transport spaces (it has 10, so no IC with your terminators) for two quad Heavy Bolters (because FUCK hordes) and some interesting abilities: you get to subtract one from your enemy's cover save (because fuck hordes, again) and you also get to choose whether or not to add 1 to your reserve rolls. Essentially, you get to choose whether or not something comes in if you roll a 2. Not bad, does its job fairly well. It's the only Land Raider that can't penetrate the armour of another Land Raider, so keep it away from tanks.

In fluffy terms, [[Skub|there has been some debates on the true exact origins of this particular Land Raider.]] The exact origins of the 'Prometheus' pattern Land Raider remains a mystery. Some Tech-adepts believe it to be a variant of the 'Tartarus' pattern Land Raider, due to the striking similarities between the two. Although no clear evidence has been found to support this claim there is at least one archival report that depicts the vehicle, or else one that closely resembles it, that fought on the side of the Loyalists during the early period of the [[Horus Heresy]]. Others believe that it was the Salamanders which first produced it as they retain more Prometheus models, than any other Chapter and because they are often the go-to guys for 'super ornate shit with vague origins' (strangely however, the Salamanders deny this claim which is completely out of character... [[Alpha Legion|unless]]...). In any case, the number of Chapters which do have a Prometheus within their Armories is unknown. For example, the White Scars only have four of these Land Raiders. There is even another version that the origins of 'Prometheus' where in fact founded by the Landites - followers of the famous Arkhan Land.

In 8th, it remains largely similar to its 7th edition version. It's guns now [[Awesome|ignore cover entirely]], and the buff to reserve rolls has been changed to make one stratagem you use cost one fewer command point (to a minimum of one), so long as your warlord is embarked inside. This tank offers a lot of tactical choices now, such as the choice between using your warlord as the beatstick he most likely is, and keeping him inside the tank to buff the army.

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==={{anchor|Proteus}} Proteus Pattern (Forge World)===
[[File:LandRaiderProteus.png|280px|right|thumb|The Proteus which is a Land Raider equivalent of [[Old Man Henderson]].]]
The Proteus pattern is the latest in the long line-up of Forge World turning its sucky job of covering for GW's old models and fluff into a glorious winblob of [[Awesome]]. This is the old, goofy-looking [[Rogue Trader]] Raider, all grown up. Barely even considered a Land Raider, it doesn't even use the same Phobos-pattern chassis as all of the other Land Raiders do. This thing is so old that [[Eldar]] consider it old. This thing is so old it was a mysterious, time-shrouded relic when the [[Horus Heresy]] took place; i.e. the time from whence on all things made before that moment were mysterious, time-shrouded relics. This self-contained vehicle was supposedly used as a universal Main Battle Tank during humanity's first expansion, similar to the Leman Russ or Predator today; which just goes to show you how awesome things were back during the Dark Age of Technology. It was designed to combat all kinds of new and evolving enemies, as well as do exploratory recon work on unexplored worlds.

So, on the wargame side of things, this thing is the metal-est box on the battlefield. It works like a normal Raider, with the option to switch out the Lascannons for Heavy Bolters or Heavy Flamers. But now, it gets the Scout rule, it can screw with enemy reserves rolling or buff your own rolls, it can get the Achilles' anti-melta armor (but not the anti-Lance), and no Infiltrators can get within 24" of it. You can get a pintle-mounted Multi-Melta, Heavy Bolter, or Storm Bolter. But that isn't the best part. The best part is that Chaos gets it too. Finally, the [[Chaos Space Marines]] get to [[meme|FIRE THEIR LAZORZ]] at multiple targets! And, Chaos gets to put on a pintle-mounted Havoc Launcher on top (so do loyal space marines as well if used in Horus Heresy and time span after that). And that thing is right next to the twin-linked Bolter, Heavy Bolter, or Multimelta we can put it too! The only downside to the Proteus is that it only has an 8 model transport capacity (assuming you take the Explorator Augury Web or the Ark of Unnameable Horror described below) due to its role as a universal tank, not a dedicated infantry ferry/weaponspam platform. It also lacks the frontal assault ramp and the Assault Vehicle rule, so don't even think about using this to drop termies. Loyalists should use it like a spearhead linebreaker, systematically killing tanks while screwing with reserves, and to safely transport some plasma gunners to rapid fire range.

The Chaos version doesn't get to use the Explorator Augury Web; instead, it gets Fear and a nasty toy called the Ark of Unnameable Horror. Whatever is in it is so horrible that anyone shooting at it has to take a pinning test before they attack- failing the test means the shooter must forfeit their attack and go to ground immediately. Although artillery, Fearless units, and units with no Ld score are exempt from this effect, it gives the Chaos Proteus an extra degree of protection against shooty foes, encouraging them to be used in a far more aggressive manner than their Loyalist counterparts. Of course, using it to ferry a few Havocs or Chosen to where they need to be is a good idea as well.

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===Excelsior Pattern (Warhammer World exclusive)===
[[File:Space-Marine-Land-Raider-Exelsior-Command-Tank.jpg|280px|thumb|right|The Land Raider Exelsior. For when you both need to lead and destroy.]]
The Excelsior is a command vehicle, equipped with augur and communications arrays to effectively deliver orders on the battlefield. Due to the equipment and weapons it carries, it is quite the rare piece of tech to field.

A newly announced variant of Land Raider described as a command tank, the ridiculously named Excelsior, (which means "high" so, highest landraider) has the Phobos' Lascannon sponsons but replaces the hull Heavy Bolters with a [[Grav-Weaponry|Grav-Cannon and Grav-Amp]], and it can take a Combi-Plasma as a pintle-mounted weapon instead of the standard Storm Bolter. Basically a Rhino Primaris on too much hormonal growth, if anything it pairs quite well with the Rhino.

It comes with a 6++ invulnerable save and built-in immunity to Crew Shaken and Crew Stunned, but that's not its main draw. That would be its Tactical Authority rule- at the start of each shooting phase, any model of the same faction as the Excelsior within 12" (18" with the right upgrade) gets their choice of Counter-Attack, Fearless, Hit and Run, Interceptor, Skyfire, Preferred Enemy, and Tank Hunters. Finally, it gains an extra +1 BS as long as it's within 24" of a [[Rhino|Rhino Primaris]].

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===Wrath of Mjalnar Pattern (Chapter Approved, only for Open Play)===
[[File:LRMjalnar.jpg|280px|thumb|right|The Wrath of Mjalnar. A more practical way to mount a freeze-ray in contrast to the [[Stormfang|flying cargo container.]]]]
Because of course the [[Space Wolves|Furries]] need another special vehicle to suit their [[Mary Sue|special snowflake needs.]]

The Land Raider Wrath of Mjalnar is a variant of the Land Raider, that was created by the Space Wolves Chapter. What makes it unique among normal Land Raider is its main armaments, which are twin [[Helfrost Weaponry|Helfrost Cannons]] and two twin Lascannons. Whilst the Lascannons are pretty standards, the introduction of not one but <u>two</u> Helfrost Cannons makes it a pretty special looking Land Raider. How the Yiffers manage to do such unsanctioned modification without starting a war with the Mechanicus for [[Heresy|obvious reasons]] is unknown. Although it could be explain via the aftermath of the First War for Armageddon and the Cold War between the Wolves and the Inquisition.

Anyways, because of its Helfrost weapons, the Wrath of Mjalnar is a dedicated anti-tank vehicle as the Helfrost Cannons instantly turn the strongest of armor into brittle and immobile targets for the ensuing Lascannon fire. These makes the likes of Superheavies and even light skimmers vulnerable to these payloads.

Unfortunately, the introduction of these weapons makes this specific Land Raider to lose its transportation capability. Being able to only have a transport capacity of 5. Would still make a nice pimpmobile for a kitted out Wolf Lord and small retinue or Rune Priest to buff it.

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===Solemnus Aggressor Pattern (Chapter Approved, only for Open Play)===
[[File:LRAggressor.jpg|280px|right|thumb|The Solemnus Aggressor, making the Land Raider Prometheus feel useless for 1,000 years and counting.]]
Think Land Raider Crusader on steroids.

The [[Dark Angels|brooding, secretive organization]] saw the [[Heresy|heretical]] things the Space Wolves were doing with their Land Raiders and decided their 'friendly' rivalry will not be concluded in the Furries' favor. Not to be outdone, the Dark Angels released their own version of the Land Raider to one-up them in a show of [[Lulz|absolute hilarity.]] The Solemnus Aggressor is born.

It is not known whether this thing was a relic discovered and kept by the Dark Angels or a piece of tech-heresy that will rile up even the most tightly screwed pants of a Mechanicum Magos. What is known is that this thing is every blob and tarpit armies worst nightmare (The Blood Angel's Angel Infernus is [[Skub|arguably/maybe better]]). Why is it so rapetastic? Well, because this monster packs quite the punch. Its main armaments are twin Assault Cannons, two Heavy bolters and two Hurricane bolters, which gives the Solemnus Aggressor the firepower to shatter an infantry advance in a single volley.

Seriously, [[Dakka|16 guns on almost all sides.]] I don't care how many [[Termagaunt|Termagaunts]] you have, they're all gonna turn into mince meat on the first turn.

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===Angel Infernus Pattern (Chapter Approved, only for Open Play)===
[[File:LRInfernus.jpg|280px|right|thumb|If you are not wearing fully enclosed ceramite armor that is at minimum, 15 centimeters thick. Consider yourself quite boned.]]
The close range assault dakka to the Solemnus Aggressor's long range assault dakka. It's every [[Sisters of Battle|Sister's]] wet dream (not personally involving [[Sanguinius]] that is) come true and a vehicle that would be more appropriate with the [[Salamanders]] than the [[Blood Angels]].

Like the Solemnus Aggressor, it is not known whether this thing was a relic discovered and kept by the Blood Angels on Baal's somewhat heretical underground tech caves. But what is ''definitely'' known is that this Land Raider focuses mainly on flamers. Kind of a reverse Wrath of Mjalnar if you count the twin-linked Helfrost cannon as a reverse flamer. Its armament is the perfect ingredient in cooking blob armies to medium rare.

Its main armaments are twin Assault Cannons, two Heavy Flamers and two Flamestorm Cannons as well as a pintle-mounted Multi-Melta just to be sure. Essentially, 8 barrels of <u>'''Hell'''</u>. These weapons allow the Angel Infernus to unleash firestorms so intense, that even the most dug-in defenders are reduced to ashes in a heartbeat, Tarpitters would melt ''literally''. It is gobsmacking that the Blood Angels did not use more of these during the Devastation of Baal fiasco.

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===Hades Diabolus Pattern (Chapter Approved, only for Open Play)===
A Chaos only Land Raider variant, equipped with a hull mounted Reaper Autocannon, Sponson Twin Lascannons and Sponson Heavy Bolters. Created and used by the [[Black Legion]] during the Fall of Cadia to turn Cadians Infantry and Tanks into chunks, and it started gaining popularity within the Chaos Marines forces ever since.

Just as some of the loyalist Space Marine Chapters have adapted their Land Raiders to suit their particular styles of warfare, so some especially well-resourced or innovative Heretic Astartes factions have done the same. Perhaps the most enduring traitor Land Raider variant so far recorded is the Hades Diabolus, which was developed by the [[Black Legion]].

===Anvilarum Pattern===
An obscure pattern of Land Raider only mentioned offhand in one of the Black Library novels. Its weapon loadout is unknown, but it is said to have been open-topped, uplink-modified, and capable of carrying [[Dreadnought]]s into battle. It is said they were made in rememberance of ancient Terra's chariots. Imagine a tank being ridden by another tank. That is about the level of [[rape]] to be expected if it ever gets a model.

==={{anchor|Variants}} [[Looted]] Land Raider===
[[File:Looted_Land_Raider_Battlewagon.jpg|280px|thumb|right|OI! WE'Z GOT DA MOST DAKKA TANK FROM DA UMIES BOSS!]]
Every once in a while, an [[Ork]] [[Looted|gets it into his head]] to [[Blood Ravens|capture, rather than blow up, a Land Raider]], or [[Adeptus Mechanicus|salvage one from a bombed-out husk]]. Once the thing's been made suitably [[Ork]]y, it makes for a great Battlewagon, and though most Orks extensively modify the design until little of the vehicle's original shape remains, a few enterprising Orks like the boxy design of the Land Raider, and modify their vehicle accordingly. [[Counts As|Though it can no longer be considered a true Land Raider]] due to the various modifications the Orks have made to it, it's still killy and flash.

Certain ambitious/filthy rich Orks can also turn the Land Raider into a supped up [[Battlefortress]]. They just replaced the main cargo transport capacity and use that empty space to mount a [[Dakka|giant fucking gun on the top.]] It is also noted that such Land Raiders are converted into the Rokkitspitta variant of the Battlefortress or the anti-air Flakk Battlefortress. The amount of things you can mount on a empty troop compartment bay is endless

Just don't expect its [[Machine Spirit]] [[Rage|to go too swimmingly well with its new makeover.]] Chances of malfunctioning and exploding: Too damned high for the cost, but it's always good for a larf.

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===Grav-Raider===
While it's never gotten a model, the existence of a Land Raider even larger than a Spartan Assault Tank fitted with anti-gravitic plates that allowed it to function as a skimmer has been mentioned in the Horus Heresy novels. Quite notably, Arkham Land used one as his personal transport (the appropriately named ''Land's Raider''), which was equipped with a turret-mounted [[Volkite Weaponry|quad- Volkite Caliver]] array. Incidentally, this also makes it the only known model of Land Raider with a turret-mounted weapon.

==External Links==
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvdD50nSISs Forge World talks about the history of the vehicle]
* [http://www.chamber42.com/files/datasheets/Ares/Archive/Ares_Final_4th_ED.pdf Original 4th Edition Land Raider Ares Datasheet from the original creator]
* [http://chamber42.com/blog/archives/251 Updated 8th Edition Land Raider Ares Datasheet from the original creator]

==Gallery==
<gallery>
image:99590101236 ArmouredProteusLandRaider02.jpg|<center>Armoured Proteus Variant</center>
Image:ChaosRaider.jpg|A [[Chaos]] Land Raider, impressively modded.
File:Party Raider.jpg|Another modded out Chaos Land Raider, belonging to the [[Emperor's Children]]. It functions as an assault transport and mobile crack party.
Image:RaiderCrusader.jpg|A [[Ultramarines|Smurf]] Land Raider Crusader. This design originated with the [[Black Templars]].
Image:RaiderRedeemer.jpg|A Land Raider Redeemer, widely known for being one of the only things that can scare Tyranids.
Image:RaiderAres.png|A [[Dark Angels]] Land Raider Ares
Image:TerminusUltra.jpg|A [[Salamanders]] Terminus Ultra, in all of its Las-cannony glory. (IMMA FIRIN' MAH LAZORS!!!!!)
Image:RaiderAchilles.jpg|A [[Minotaurs]] Land Raider Achilles. Fielding one may inspire [[Rage|fury]].
Image:RaiderHelios.jpg|A [[Space Wolves]] Land Raider Helios. Aim away from eyes and face.
Image:Looted_Land_Raider.jpg|WE'Z GOT DA BEST [[METAL BOXES|BOX]] ON DA FIELD!
</gallery>

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{{Marines-Forces}}
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Leman Russ Battle Tank

2019-09-25T15:06:43Z

2600:1006:B105:8611:58CC:338D:D9D2:B1D4: /* {{anchor|Executioner}}Leman Russ Executioner */

''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.]]
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{{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 and the product of a drunken three-way between an old [[Wikipedia:Mark V tank|British Mark-V]], a [[Wikipedia:Char B1|Char B1]], and a [[Wikipedia:T-34|T-34]] [[awesome|that can go as fast as 70 kilometers per hour ungoverned]] ([[Fail|Or 35]], though that may just be its top speed for Grinding Advance).

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 (to be fair, they’re not tank designs and were shoehorned into that role by the Mechanicus, the only known tank designs of the Imperium are the Baneblade and Felblade chassis, everything else is an adaptation of whoknowswhat), yet they're significantly more modern than the [[Imperial Navy|Imperium's quasi-Napoleonic navy.]] To be fair, you can pack more firepower into broadsides than relying on dorsal and ventral turrets. Especially since the turrets would take up so much room your broadsides would be largely wasted. Imperial ships due extensively use dorsal and ventral turrets and spinal weapons and broadsides all at the same time and rotating a ship is quick and easy.

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). This isn’t really a drawback as it is a specialized tank. Trying to make it multirole is like trying to use Eldar Guardians as Swooping Hawks: it doesn’t work out and for the same, obvious reasons.

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 (to be fair to the Imperium, even it does have lots of safety features and protocols for its mooks; it just doesn’t care when those fail). 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. Interesting how they’re “rare” yet given to green crews apparently often. Vanquishers are rare, too, but only given to the best crews.

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>

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

Leman Russ Battle Tank

2019-09-25T15:03:46Z

2600:1006:B105:8611:58CC:338D:D9D2:B1D4: /* {{anchor|Executioner}}Leman Russ Executioner */

''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 and the product of a drunken three-way between an old [[Wikipedia:Mark V tank|British Mark-V]], a [[Wikipedia:Char B1|Char B1]], and a [[Wikipedia:T-34|T-34]] [[awesome|that can go as fast as 70 kilometers per hour ungoverned]] ([[Fail|Or 35]], though that may just be its top speed for Grinding Advance).

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 (to be fair, they’re not tank designs and were shoehorned into that role by the Mechanicus, the only known tank designs of the Imperium are the Baneblade and Felblade chassis, everything else is an adaptation of whoknowswhat), yet they're significantly more modern than the [[Imperial Navy|Imperium's quasi-Napoleonic navy.]] To be fair, you can pack more firepower into broadsides than relying on dorsal and ventral turrets. Especially since the turrets would take up so much room your broadsides would be largely wasted. Imperial ships due extensively use dorsal and ventral turrets and spinal weapons and broadsides all at the same time and rotating a ship is quick and easy.

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). This isn’t really a drawback as it is a specialized tank. Trying to make it multirole is like trying to use Eldar Guardians as Swooping Hawks: it doesn’t work out and for the same, obvious reasons.

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 (to be fair to the Imperium, even it does have lots of safety features and protocols for its mooks; it just doesn’t care when those fail). 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]]

Leman Russ Battle Tank

2019-09-25T14:56:09Z

2600:1006:B105:8611:58CC:338D:D9D2:B1D4: /* {{anchor|Exterminator}}Leman Russ Exterminator */

''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 and the product of a drunken three-way between an old [[Wikipedia:Mark V tank|British Mark-V]], a [[Wikipedia:Char B1|Char B1]], and a [[Wikipedia:T-34|T-34]] [[awesome|that can go as fast as 70 kilometers per hour ungoverned]] ([[Fail|Or 35]], though that may just be its top speed for Grinding Advance).

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 (to be fair, they’re not tank designs and were shoehorned into that role by the Mechanicus, the only known tank designs of the Imperium are the Baneblade and Felblade chassis, everything else is an adaptation of whoknowswhat), yet they're significantly more modern than the [[Imperial Navy|Imperium's quasi-Napoleonic navy.]] To be fair, you can pack more firepower into broadsides than relying on dorsal and ventral turrets. Especially since the turrets would take up so much room your broadsides would be largely wasted. Imperial ships due extensively use dorsal and ventral turrets and spinal weapons and broadsides all at the same time and rotating a ship is quick and easy.

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). This isn’t really a drawback as it is a specialized tank. Trying to make it multirole is like trying to use Eldar Guardians as Swooping Hawks: it doesn’t work out and for the same, obvious reasons.

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]]

Leman Russ Battle Tank

2019-09-25T14:27:09Z

2600:1006:B105:8611:58CC:338D:D9D2:B1D4:

''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 and the product of a drunken three-way between an old [[Wikipedia:Mark V tank|British Mark-V]], a [[Wikipedia:Char B1|Char B1]], and a [[Wikipedia:T-34|T-34]] [[awesome|that can go as fast as 70 kilometers per hour ungoverned]] ([[Fail|Or 35]], though that may just be its top speed for Grinding Advance).

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 (to be fair, they’re not tank designs and were shoehorned into that role by the Mechanicus, the only known tank designs of the Imperium are the Baneblade and Felblade chassis, everything else is an adaptation of whoknowswhat), yet they're significantly more modern than the [[Imperial Navy|Imperium's quasi-Napoleonic navy.]] To be fair, you can pack more firepower into broadsides than relying on dorsal and ventral turrets. Especially since the turrets would take up so much room your broadsides would be largely wasted. Imperial ships due extensively use dorsal and ventral turrets and spinal weapons and broadsides all at the same time and rotating a ship is quick and easy.

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==
{{Template:40k-Imperial-Vehicles}}
{{Template:Imperial-Guard}}
{{Template:Lost-and-Damned}}
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[[Category:Warhammer 40,000]][[Category:Imperial]][[Category:Vehicles]]

Battlesuit

2019-09-25T13:34:50Z

2600:1006:B105:8611:58CC:338D:D9D2:B1D4: /* {{anchor|XV02|XV-02}} XV02 Pilot Battlesuit */

{{Heresy}}
[[File:Stitch16.jpg|right|thumb|500px|From Cool to absolute godless [[cheese]]. And also [[Longstrike]].]]

'''Battlesuits''' are powered combat exoskeletons used by the forces of the [[Tau|Tau Empire]] to fill a number of tactical roles on the battlefield. The Tau have developed several different battlesuit models, each equipped with different technologies and weapons pertaining to the suit's purpose in battle. [[Stealthsuit|Some]] are built to be [[Just As Planned|small, stealthy and precise]], while [[Riptide|others]] are built to be [[RAPE|lumbering battlemechs that ionize everything in their paths]] while soaking up weapons fire like they're being pelted with [[Lasgun|spitballs]].

Each model's designation is usually preceded by the letters "XV", which derives from the Tau term "Her'Ex'Vre", meaning "Mantle of the Hero". Note that some sources place a hyphen between the "XV" and the numbers, and others don't. The first (or only) number in designation indicates a weight class of the suit, while the last indicates its purpose:
# Still in development model
# Undergoing field testing
# Custom-built model
# Command and control-compatible model
# Outfitted with stealth technology
# Suit, designed for a void operations
# Suit, designed for infiltration
# Suit, designed for long range fire support
# Suit, designed for shock assault and close range firefights
Sometimes there's a secondary numerical designation separated from the first with a hyphen. Those are just number assigned to a specific loadout for heavily customizable models. Sometimes they fit with a primary purpose designation (like XV-8-06 being designed for void operations or XV-46-4 being command and control model), and sometimes they don't (XV-8-05 is not even compatible with stealth technology, XV-9-01 is a finished mass-produced model). The largest variants use either KV or KX; what they stand for is currently unknown.
==Role on the Battlefield==

Tau battlesuits are not like [[Imperial]] [[power armor]] in their roles. They serve as command platforms for 'Vre, 'El, and 'O level officers as well as heavy mobile weapons platforms, able to swiftly relocate from firing position to firing position while laying down constant barrages of long range firepower. Most of them are outfitted with [[jetpack]]s for this purpose. All battlesuit pilots are veteran soldiers that have at least four years of combat experience and have passed their first trial by fire. Most [[Fire Warrior|Fire Warriors]] accept the honor of piloting these revered machines for the [[Greater Good]], although there are some traditional crazies who shun the use of battlesuits and instead choose to continue to lead their Shas'la as front-line field commanders, and some refuse the option of ranking up to Ui or higher ranks altogether in order to pilot tanks and speeders.

Culturally, there are two major things associated with Battlesuits. First is known as ''"battlesuit psychosis"'', which happens when particularly young and insufficiently <s>brainwashed</s> dedicated Fire Warrior were to pilot a suit. It manifests as sudden bursts of delusion of invincibility and selfishness, and is one of the reasons suits are only issued to veterans who passed their second Trial by Fire. A less extreme version of this phenomenon is recognized to happen with humans when we wear armor, we become more aggressive and convinced of 'invincibility', it's well documented among European knights. Second is known as ''"monat syndrome"'', which happens when a blood-bonded suit team is reduced to a single survivor. With Ta'Li'Sera bond being about as important as family is to humans among Fire Warriors, some survivors mentally break and become brooding loners, which can end with them either needlessly throwing their lives in the next battle by doing something tremendously brave but stupid or going full <s>Rambo</s> Marbo, and transforming themselves into methodical living killing machines who do nothing but train in between missions, that freak out other more sociable Tau. In a society as hellbent on collectivism as Tau empire these loners stick out, and there's a lot of controversy around them, although official propaganda spin paints them as "tragic (anti)heroes".

==Models==
[[File:XV02.png|thumb|right|200px|Trying to roleplay for Top Gun is often a recommendation.]]
=== {{anchor|XV02|XV-02}} XV02 Pilot Battlesuit===
For all intents and purposes.[[Mary Sue| Its a super special armor for a super special boy.]]

An experimental model made for vehicle pilots (obviously) currently undergoing field testing; although it provides less protection than even Fire Warrior armor, it compensates by allowing pilots to interface more effectively with their vehicles, negating the need for multiple crew members. This works in tandem with the vehicle's A.I. by processing the cadre tactical network and incoming data quickly so that the pilot can react extremely rapidly (by Tau reflexes standards) to enemies attacking his vehicle or nearby units.

The only one known to exist is in the possession of [[Longstrike|Shas'la T'au Sha'ng (a.k.a. Longstrike)]], who was selected for his reputation as a peerless [[Hammerhead Gunship|Hammerhead]] pilot. The battlesuit also features a multitude of specialised systems, plug sockets, vents, a wrist-mounted control panel and other technobabble shenanigans that all allow Longstrike to pilot his personal tank without the need of those pesky annoyances called people.

Tau scientists have been working on producing more after the success of the original, but all other candidate pilots thus far have either been incompatible with its neural interface or became brain-dead due to information overload frying their brains.

The battlesuit also incorporates a Blacksun Filter, but nobody cares for that.

=== {{anchor|XV15|XV-15}} XV15 Stealthsuit ===
[[File:XV15.png|thumb|right|200px|XV25's rented cousin.]]
Little more than [[Awesome|modified Fire Warrior armor]], the XV15 was outfitted with stealth systems allowing it to infiltrate, jetpacks for mobility, and burst cannons for firepower. It also carried [[markerlight]]s. These older units are being phased out in favor of the XV25 series after the Imperium got their hands on an intact helmet from one, and the Tau fear it will be reverse-engineered and countered by the humans.

In a surprisingly unlikely move that somehow did not cause the AdMech to lobotomize everyone involved in the project with a siege drill for associating with xeno-tech, the Imperium did actually manage to reverse engineer the suits and learn about the technology, although the Tau were two steps ahead of them by rolling out the more advanced XV25 stealth suits as their new recon platform.

The meta reason both these and the XV25's exist is because these were metal kits, and were replaced by the later plastic kits which were designed to look more like a mecha (AKA the shit that makes people buy Tau models) and less like a Fire Warrior with some extra equipment. Crunchwise, they're the same unless you consider the crunch changes between editions to be the difference. Use the models you like and have access to. (Pull a Dawn of War and use XV25s for the squad leader and XV15s for the chumps)

=== {{anchor|XV22|XV-22}} XV22 Command Suit ===
[[File:ShadowsunNov.jpg|200px|thumb|right|0% blueberry edition.]]

Officially part of the stealthsuit line, this heavier unit is quite expensive to produce; as such, it is limited in use to commanders (like [[Shadowsun|Commander Shadowsun]], [[Commander Or'es'Ka|Shas'o Or'es'Ka]], and [[Shas'o Kais]], who as you can see above have different versions of the suit; Shadowsun's has a unique helmet that resemble the later XV95, while Kais' resembles a Crisis Suit). With the right equipment and abilities you can make it go three times faster than a normal stealthsuit ([[Ork|red paint optional]]).

This was originally built as a prototype design for a next-generation stealthsuit pattern, but finding ways to mass-produce the required components proved more difficult than anticipated. After the Imperium managed to reverse-engineer some of the XV15 suits ([[Advancing the Storyline|which, for some reason, doesn't cause the Inquisition to foam at the mouth anymore]]) recovered from the battlefield, the Tau had to compromise by moving forward with the less advanced but easier to manufacture XV25.
<gallery>
File:XV22.jpg|The addition of partner drones is always a guarantee.
</gallery>

=== {{anchor|XV25|XV-22}} XV25 Stealthsuit ===
[[File:StealthSuit.jpg|200px|thumb|right|Citadel exclusive "Tau Stealth" paint. Order it now.]]

''Main article: [[Stealthsuit Team]]''

An improvement over the XV15 which is larger, heavier and better armored while still retaining the maneuverability and subtlety of the XV15 series. Development and deployment of the XV25 was largely due to the fact that the Imperium managed to acquire a functioning sample of the old XV15 stealth suit during the [[Damocles Crusade]], compromising its use as a recon platform. Larger and more powerful reactor allows XV25 to be outfitted with a fusion blaster instead of it's basic burst cannon, and the suit also have one hard point on it's back for an additional support system, although those are usually issued only to squad leaders.

The main wearers of these suits are of course the Stealthsuit Team, whose battleline roles include assasinations, sniping, sabotage and ambushes.
<gallery>
File:XV25.png|Now in camo edition!
</gallery>

=== {{anchor|XV46|XV-46}} XV46 Vanguard Void Suit ===
[[File:Tumblr Tauman Void Suit Vangard.jpg|190px|right|thumb|Fan art of what the Void Suit would look like, courtesy from Tau Man and ''[[Tumblr]]'' [[Derp|of all things.]]]]

Basically a Tau version of [[Terminator|Terminator armor]], bigger than the XV2 series, smaller than the XV8 and as heavily armoured as XV88 while still light enough to have jetpacks. It is designed solely for operating in spaceborn situations at (unusually for the Tau) close quarters, which means boarding action and [[Space Hulk]]-type investigation missions.

The XV46 is highly effective against [[Genestealers|certain xenos species]] that are famous for slaughtering Terminators like they are nothing. With a fuckton of burst cannons, flamers and fusion guns on each of the suits, the little buggers would have a hard enough time getting close, but then there are electroshocks, grav-repulsors, and photon grenades to zap any fuckers lucky enough to break through the walls of fire, all triggered automatically.

To make the Tau version of Space Hulk even less [[grimdark]], these suits are even equipped with smart ejection systems which are programmed to deliver the pilot back on board his ship if his suit gets wrecked. How this works without [[warp]] based tech is a crapshoot. Being both niche equipment and difficult to manufacture critical parts for, XV46s are rarely seen outside of Space Hulk missions. Even rarer is the XV-46-4 Commander variant.

The XV46 doesn't appear in the tabletop wargame; [[Fantasy Flight Games]] made it up for the [[Deathwatch (RPG)|Deathwatch RPG]]. As a result, there's no images of it. It how ever is used in [[Battlefleet Gothic Armada]], in which the Tau load them up in the cargo bay of their Mantas before letting them get dropped along with the payload onto enemy ships through their shields.

Which suggests that the Tau in some extent would have capabilities to play a serious game of blue gremlin on the wing with other species, this combination is also particularly enraging for eldar who have little to no defense against such an unusually bold action from the Tau. Since GW took forever to get the [[Deathwatch]] 7E Codex out. It would be a miracle for other FFG IP to get official rules and a model at all.

=== {{anchor|XV8|XV-8}} XV8 Crisis Battlesuit ===
[[File:Tau Crisis Suit Close Up.jpg|300px|thumb|right|"Keep trying, Gue'La. You have a 1 in 18 chance of actually wounding me." (Last words of a Tau pilot who forgot lasguns can penetrate armor at close range. This ain't crunch, bluie.)]]
'' Main Article: [[XV-8 Crisis Battlesuit]]''
<gallery>
Image:XV8.jpg|XV8 Team
Image:XV81.jpg|XV-81
Image:XV84.png|XV-84
Image:XV89.png|XV-89</gallery><br><gallery>
Image:XV8-05.jpg|XV-8-05 Enforcer
Image:XV-8-02.png|XV-8-02 Iridium
Image:Coldstar.png|XV-8-06 Coldstar
Image:Shas'o R'Myr.png|R'Myr's special XV8.
</gallery>

XV8 Crisis Battlesuits are the Tau Empire's general-purpose combat battlesuits, capable of being equipped for a variety of combat situations. Due to the large amount of variants they have, check the main article for more information.

=== {{anchor|XV88|XV-88}} XV88 Broadside Battlesuit===
[[File:XV88.jpg|thumb|right|370px|Battlesuit evolution.]]
''Main article: [[XV88 Broadside Battlesuit]]''

XV88 Broadside Battlesuits are fire support platforms outfitted with either a large Heavy Rail Rifle or a massive array of missiles to [[Dakka|lay waste]] to the enemies of the Greater Good from afar.

They are basically the Tau's quintessential heavy weapons team/light artillery/anti-tank/ect, ect you know what I am talking about. Understandably strong at range, but absolutely shit up close. Dont expect your walking self-propelled gun to last too long in a arty fight with the [[Imperial Guard|Guard]] either. As good as these guns are, they still can't compete with the literal manifestation of the rain of [[rape]] known as the [[Basilisk Artillery Gun]].

=== {{anchor|XV9|XV-9}} XV9 Hazard Battlesuit ===
[[File:XV9 smug face.jpg|200px|thumb|right|I'll tell you what's a hazard: being hostile and near this motherfucker.]]
Another Forgeworld blessing. Unlike most Tau battlesuits, the XV9 Hazard model is designed solely for fast and hard close-range engagements rather than having the option of going either close or long, or being cloaked while engaging the enemy up close, which is quite odd since this is a bit of a deviation from traditional Tau combat doctrine, which is all about far away [[Shooty|shootiness]]. Being a dedicated spear-tip suit, Hazard is designed with close combat in mind, with it's frame being more agile than other suits (which is represented by less horrible WS and Initiative on the tabletop), photon grenades to halt enemy charges and vectored retro thrusters to jump out of meat grinder.

XV-9 have three hard points, with two generally being equipped with a matching pair of guns (leaving only one for support systems) compared to Crisis' four, although given it have in-built retro-thrusters and photon grenade launchers it can and usually does have up to 5 systems with enough reactor capacity to power them all, even though weapon options available to Hazard suit are generally more devastating and power-hungry. Since it's main weapons are Twin-linked Burst cannons, which take up two hardpoints on conventional suits and the other options would likely count as two hard points if crisis suits could take them, the Hazard has the equivalent of 7! Crisis suit hard points:
::'''Twin-linked burst cannons''' are for mulching down infantry with enough dakka to make Orks jealous.
::'''Fusion cascades''', which are melta miniguns, less powerful than basic fusion blasters and more short-ranged but with a higher rate of fire, so they're more effective against light/medium vehicles, monsters and terminators rather than heavy tanks.
::'''Phased ion guns''' which were supposed to be "assault cannons-lite", and are more "well rounded" choice, being decent against both light and heavy infantry or light vehicles, though heavily outclassed by the previous two gun options.
::'''Pulse Submunition Rifles''', commonly referred by a player base as "shotguns", these are the most long ranged and expensive guns available to Hazard. They cover a huge area with a cover-ignoring blasts to root out heavy cover campers.

It should be noted that the number 9 is a significant number to the Tau given that they count in an octal numeral system (there is no 8 or 9; 10 comes immediately after 7), as opposed to [[humanity]]'s decimal system. [[Awesome|This means that to the Tau, the XV9 is literally cranked up to 11.]]

Shas'o R'alai has his own XV9 equipped with a shield and experimental next-gen PSR that fires in bursts and is loaded with a wide range extra-powerful (but unstable) experimental ammo.
<gallery>
File:XV9.jpg|XV9 AKA We are getting into Gundam territory now.
</gallery>

=== {{anchor|XV95|XV-95}} XV95 Ghostkeel Battlesuit ===
[[File:XV95.jpeg|200px|thumb|right|<center>Striking hard and fast.</center>]]
[[File:XV95 2.png|thumb|left|200px|Blitzkrieg, Mecha style.]]
The Ghostkeel is a <s>[[Creed|tactical genius]]</s> really big and powerful stealth suit that can and would fight well in a straight fight rather than relying on flanking maneuvers and infiltration to hit vulnerable flanks and retreat out of harms way like your regular Stealth teams. It's the same weight class and size as Hazard, but has extensive armour plating for nearly double the survivability. Unlike the XV15 and XV25, the XV95 doesn't have full stealth system on itself, but rather its parts are spread between the battlesuit and its stealth drones, meaning only with a combination of both can the team becomes nigh-invisible, while separately they appear to be only slightly camouflaged, which, combined with an exceptional tankiness of the Ghostkeel, and mediocre survivability of his drones makes the XV-95 one of the few battlesuits that would take hits for its drones instead of drones shielding him with their cold, expendable, mechanical bodies. But being nigh-invisible is not enough for XV-95 - it carries an electronic warfare equipment in its left hand like a gun, and use it to fuck up enemy targeting systems even more, unless they are at point-blank range, and can overcharge it to shock-and-awe any opponent trying to gun them down, ensuring it can't hit shit, although it's a one-use trick, as the suit need to recharge for a while to deliver this sensory shock again.

On the offense, the Ghostkeel has a set of twin-linked standard battlesuit guns on its back (sadly, only limited to flamers, burst cannons and fusion blasters), and a single BFG in its right hand, which could be a fusion collider, which is an extra bigger fusion blaster with extra barrel that shoots small blasts, or an ion raker, which looks and fires like bigger badder cyclic ion blaster with double the normal mode firing rate (for SIX autocannon-grade shots per burst), double overcharge blast size and slightly higher range. On top of that, Ghostkeel also have two extra hard points for supporting systems (meaning up to five hard points total) for extra customization options.

Lastly, much like Hazard suits, the XV-95 isn't half terrible in close combat. While the Ghostkeel may lack the speed, agility, counter-charge systems and vector thrusters of an XV-9, what it have is a sheer brutal strength - your typical five-man space marine demi-squad would quickly find out the hard way that a single Ghostkeel is not easy prey in close combat, as its single punch is enough to turn a marine into a screaming pile of meat paste flavored with broken bones and ceramite shards. Hell it's not that hard for a Ghostkeel to kick (quite literally) through a tank's armour or even fortification walls. This is another instance of the Tau combining a bunch of things which usually cannot be combined by other races. Overall the Ghostkeel is another example of Tau ignoring typical unit tropes. Stealthy tanky ranged/melee is not something you see often - Imperial Knights aren't typically invisible, nor do Vindicare assassins usually uppercut tanks in half.

=== {{anchor|XV104|XV-104}} XV104 Riptide Battlesuit ===
''Main article:[[XV104 Riptide Battlesuit]]''
[[File:XV104.jpg|thumb|right|300px|The most spammable and rage inducing walker, second only to the Wraithknight.]]
[[File:Nova Reactor Energy.jpg|200px|thumb|left|"So this is the power of the Nova Reactor... Not bad, not bad at all..."]]
A new, extra-large battlesuit (at twice the size of the XV8) that made its first appearance in the 6th edition codex, the Riptide resembles the bastard offspring of a Gundam (specifically the ZZ Gundam, what with its XBAWKS HUEG build, optional missile system and destructive but stupidly risky energy weapon) and a Metal Gear. Arguably more of a vehicle than a suit of armor, the Riptide's primary weapon can be either a heavy burst cannon or an ion accelerator (with twin smart missile systems, fusion blasters or plasma rifles as backup weapons), while its defensive prowess is supplemented by a portable shield generator. All of these can be made significantly more powerful if the prototype Nova reactor built into the suit is used to charge the weapon or shield; however, doing so runs the risk of overloading the generator, releasing deadly radiation that can injure or kill the pilot.

While incredibly powerful, the Riptide's primary drawback ([[fluff]]-wise) is that the materials used to manufacture it are rare. Thus, their numbers remain fairly small within the Tau Empire's forces. Not that you'd know since every goddamn Tau list has them flying out of their asses. Then again, every Imperial Guard force on the tabletop is full of elite veterans, heavy tanks and flyers instead of swarms of regular Guardsmen...

An extremely [[Rape|cheesetastic tactic]] on the tabletop with this fella is to model it to be as low as possible (like crouching forward) and then put it behind a piece of very big cover, like a bastion. It moves out during the movement phase, revs the Nova reactor, blasts nearby enemies into oblivion, then jet boosts back behind the bastion during the assault phase to block enemy LoS.

Then came 8th edition... and the Riptide was nerfed to utter oblivion. It costs about 400 points to field, and provides very little firepower or durability compared to its cost, but the Tau codex did a good deal to fix its cost and its firepower and offers Stratagems to make using its Nova Reactor more viable.

=== {{anchor|XV107|XV-107}} XV107 R'varna Battlesuit ===

[[File:XV107.png|right|thumb|300px|When you gotta take care of those 'Nids. Accept no substitudes.]]
Essentially a Riptide (made by [[Forge World]] of all folks) that threw mobility away for more armour and two exceedingly huge pulse submunition cannons (think plasma cluster bomb) for the purpose of fucking everything up for the enemy. Its Nova Reactor also grants some unusual properties like a turn with Fleet, an electromagnetic shockwave that hits everyone around it, or double-firing weapons, but is no less risky to use. The fluff behind this involves an Earth Caste engineer from Sept Ke'lshan, called Sho'Aun, who managed to go behind the Ethereals' backs by building something so huge, expensive (even in in-universe terms), and lethal when he was supposed to make more stealthsuits. One [[Tyranids|Tyranid]] swarm later, however, he revealed this behemoth and with it helped dumpster all of the 'Nids and save the Sept.

One interesting note of mention is that in the early days of the R'varna's conception, before it was officially announced, there was indeed a rumor floating around that Forgeworld was actually designing a new stealthsuit. This was before 6th Edition Tau were even released, so it makes sense that nobody even knew about the Riptide aside from the weeks preceding the new codex, but what is interesting is that, given the fluff behind the R'varna, it's almost as though Forgeworld chuckled at the rumors and used those as a basis for their fluff, going so far as to craft the rumors of a stealthsuit into the XV107's fundamental history. '''The more you know!''' The X7 designation this suit has means it's supposed to be an infiltration unit (even though every other stealthsuit has been an X5 of some sort), which is the exact opposite of what R'Varna actually does - this is likely the result of it being developed as a part of Stealth Suit program.

Unlike plenty of other things in lore, the R'varna, with its big-ass pulse submunitions cannons, is as big a rape machine on the table as it is in the fluff. With the ability to fire two pie plates a turn at AP4 and S6 (and FOUR plates using the Nova Reactor) the thing turns [[Tyranids]] to garden mulch, and [[Orks]] to fertilizer. The cannons have Cluster Fire, which means that, the bigger the target the more hits it receives and at higher strength. Thus, while anything with Very Bulky, Bike, Jetbike, Cavalry or Beast takes two hits at +1S, MCs Buildings and Vehicles take THREE S8 hits per hit. Kinda feels [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScmfbOwRreU like this] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBC1Qob27sM more like this]. All in all, the R'varna is considered to be horribly, horribly, horribly broken by non-Tau players, and by Tau players still using it to be the most [[cheese|deliciously cheddar]] thing since [[Fish of Fury|Fish of Fury]].

8th Edition has made the R'varna a considerably more specialized TEQ/Monster/Light Vehicle killer than it used to be: it's lost its ability to scale its strength and inflict multiple hits on larger units, but deals 3 damage for every successful wound. The removal of blast weapons has made it less viable as an anti-horde unit, but it does crank out 6d3 S6 AP-2 shots. Its Nova Reactor abilities have been retooled as well: it's kept the electromagnetic shockwave (Which now deals mortal wounds!), but can now choose to either boost its invulnerable save to 3++ or re-roll any dice rolled to determine the number of shots it fires.
<gallery>
File:Xv-107-rvarna-battlesuit.jpg|That's a nice gargantuan creature you have there…it'd be a shame if something were to happen to it...
</gallery>

=== {{anchor|XV109|XV-109}} XV109 Y'Vahra Battlesuit===

[[File:XV109.jpg|200px|thumb|right|Bringing the Greater Good close and personal]]

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3lrhPeK6gU ''Hi, it's Sho'Aun with the Y'vahra, you'll be saying "wow" everytime you use this Tau'']. A regular Riptide doesn't do well too close to an enemy, this one does well at close or medium range. This is for the blobs, the Deathwing, the Armoured Ceramite'd AV14. Made in Ke'lshan Sept by Sho'Aun, you know that guy always makes good stuff.

This is a Riptide that embraces its mobility and gets a super-flamer, a mega-haywire gun and has super-jetpacks able to turn it into a flying monstrous creature once each two turns. This one was made with the opposite goal of a Riptide: to jump in close and take the fight to the enemy, fling a burst of flechettes as it lands and then jump back out before it can be overwhelmed. With its S6 Torrent (at 6") Plasma Flamer that goes either AP3 Heavy 1 or AP2 Heavy 2 Gets Hot, and its S8 AP3 Haywire Cannon that also blinds, it can effectively total entire enemy units in one volley, and even more so with the Nova Reactor on (which gives it some more tricks, like the ability to Jink or move back into reserves while in close combat).

As a trade off, however, it is a little bit more fragile than Riptide, and it's Nova Reactor options are also weaker, more focused on extra mobility and surviving/escaping close combat rather than blasting shit to death or, you know, the ever frustrating for your opponent 3++ against everything. Combined with extremely uncomfortable range of all of it's weapons Y'Vahra tends to go down much quicker than the Riptide.

Then 8th edition came along and hiked up the points of the Riptide and varients to roughly 400 points. At launch this made the Riptide total shit, but the Y'vahra however is worth every single one of them. Toughness 7, 14 wounds and an 18" movement range make this one durable and fast mo fo. The changes to flamer and AP rules now give you 2d6 strength 6 ap-2 autohits dealing 3 DAMAGE APIECE. Terminators? Melt them. Centurions? Kindling. A certain [[Spiritual Liege]]? Just 3 failed saves and he's charcoal. The Ionic Discharge Cannon is nothing to sneeze at either with strength 8 and -3 AP. Even the shield is better, granting a 4+ invuln when within 12" (Which it will be, given the loadout). The Nova Reactor effects are where this baby really shines though. You can either give it the usual 3+ invuln, the ability to move it off the table and deep strike it (Not recommended for anyone but Bor'kan sept players) and buffs to the weapons. The last one is what you'll be using most of the time, the flamer is bumped up to 3d6 autohits while the Discharge cannon gains a whopping 3d3 shots, 10 strength and 3 points of damage per shot. It wasn't uncommon to see Tau players use their Riptides as proxies for the Y'vahra given how overpriced and underpowered the former used to be. After the codex dropped Riptides got buffs in the form of a price decrease and a new stratagem that gives 2 nova reactor abilities for one turn. While the Y'vahra does not benefit from either buff... they're still used as frequently as they ever were. they are just that damn strong.

In a nutshell, it is the only unit from the Tau that goes all fire and glory.

=== {{anchor|KV128|KV-128}} KV128 Stormsurge Ballistic Suit===
[[File:Stompin on marines.jpeg|200px|thumbnail|right|Teaching [[Abaddon|certain spiky gue-la]], how to be cool despite the lack of arms]]
[[File:KV128.jpg|thumb|left|200px|Teaching the Imperial Guard that they too, can utilise missile spam.]]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUnjxftU6r0&feature=youtu.be&t=96 <strike>A WEAPON TO SURPASS METAL GEAR</strike>] <strike>Literally just a walking giant laser cannon.</strike>The new and improved chicken walkers!

The Tau have decided the Riptide still wasn't big enough and made an even larger battlesuit. The Stormsurge is armed with a one of two giant pulse cannons: the first is much like AdMech eradication beamer in that it gets stronger but loses the blast radius as the target comes closer, except it starts at 30" with S9 AP5 large blast and finishes with the almighty D at almost point-blank range; and the other variant of the cannon is pretty much just a railgun with a large blast. Its hilariously large pair of missile pods, combined with an SMS on its back and a pair of airbursting frag projectors it can get, would vomit out so much anti-infantry firepower across half of the board in one volley you'd probably need to buy double the number of dice you already have to just resolve its shooting: entire armies of GEQs would melt the moment this thing opens fire, and even terminators or monstrous creatures would be hard pressed to survive once they start failing their saves under that hail of wounds. It also houses four Destroyer missiles, which are AP1 Seeker Missiles which become strength D when guided by a marker light, and as all four could be fired simultaneously (if you had scored enough ML tokens), could easily kill four regular vehicles or almost any other superheavy/gargantuan on turn one from across the board. But there's more! The stabilizing rods on its legs aren't just for cool looks: KV128 can stabilize itself, losing ability to move and stomp for firing EVERY FUCKING GUN IT HAS TWICE. This rape train, however, ''does'' have brakes, as the Stormsurge is extremely squishy for its size and firepower, basically being as survivable as two Carnifexes; it's pretty much a heavy artillery piece that needs to stay way back and be protected in order to take its points back, and is the one more geared for anti-infantry, so if you're looking for something to deal with Knights and Titans, look below for a proper front line Tau titan. Its squishiness probably has something to do with it being the only Battlesuit so far that has its pilots (or gun operators, looks like it has a couple of these) sitting without any cover over their heads.

Fun fact: If tank shock is used against an anchored Stormsurge, the Stormsurge is [[Awesome|destroyed]].

=== KX139 Ta'Unar Supremacy Armour ===
[[File:KX139.jpg|200px|thumbnail|right|<center>[https://youtu.be/2vKz7WnU83E?t=46 To fight monsters, we created monsters of our own]</center>]]

A new super-heavy Overcompensator Class battlesuit, massive enough to claim the title of Tau [[Titan]]. After multiple run-ins with Imperial Knights and Tyranid bio-titans, the Ethereals were forced to admit the necessity of Titan-sized static defenses to deal with counter-expansion attempts into their own territory and asked the same Earth Caste nutter who made the R'varna and the Y'varha, Sho'Aun, to make something capable of fending off super-heavy assault forces too strong for their bombers to deal with. A bunker on legs in other words?

[[Awesome|He did not disappoint.]]

Yes, it lacks jet packs (much like its brother the R'varna), but you won't need one, you gave it to your enemy so they can RUN. FAR. AWAY. Which, would not work because with its long legs Ta'Unar is actually about as fast as jet and jump infantry. The Ta'Unar is armed to the teeth and damn hard to kill with T:9 and 10 wounds. Although it's a Gargantuan Creature like the [[Wraithknight]], it can fire Overwatch at BS2 with its two smart missile systems and two twin-linked burst cannons. Its main guns are no less effective- for arm weapons, it can equip either a Heavy 5 multimelta or an ion cannon that can fire either 6 shots at S7 AP3 or 3 shots at S9 AP2. The back-mounted Pulse Ordnance Multi-Driver can fire either a Strength D Massive Blast with 72" range or a S8 AP3 Apocalyptic Barrage (3) with Pinning and Ignores Cover with a range of 12-120". Defensively, it has a 2+/5++ save that improves to 4++ against shooting attacks, and it can sacrifice the invulnerable save for a turn to cut the number of wounds suffered from a "Deathblow" result on the Destroyer table in half. Its only real flaws are that it's expensive as all hell to field (both points-wise and in real-world costs, being a Forge World exclusive and all).

In the place of the Pulse Ordnance Multi-Driver, it can instead take a Nexus Meteor Missile System or a Heavy Rail Cannon Array for free. The Nexus Meteor Missile System is a [[Rape|Blinding Apocalyptic Mega-Blast with 24-120" range with S 10/7/5 and AP 1/4/5]], because fuck that guy and everyone remotely close to him. The latter on the other hand is technically two weapons, which can be fired simultaneously. It incorporates a Cluster Shell Launcher (a 36" range Apocalyptic Barrage (4) weapon with S6 AP4 and pinning meant to lock down anyone in relatively close range) and the Heavy Rail Cannon itself, a 120" ranged monster with the almighty D, AP1, a 3" blast, and the nasty rule "Mass Induction Targeting"- when using it to attack any superheavy or GMC, you roll twice on the Destroyer table and pick the higher result, therefore doubling your chances of getting that 6. Perfect for ruining any Titan's day!

For what you get, 600 points is very cheap, for the '[[That Guy|that guy]]' out there, ask a beginner for a 600 point game, [[Rage|this will do you nicely ;)]]

{{Tau}}
[[Category:Vehicles]]

Barracuda

2019-09-25T13:05:13Z

2600:1006:B105:8611:58CC:338D:D9D2:B1D4:

[[File:NewBarracuda.jpg|300px|thumb|right|The newer model.]]
The '''Barracuda''' is the [[Tau]] Empire's air superiority fighter, roughly equivalent to the [[Imperial Navy]]'s [[Lightning Fighter]]. In the [[lore]], the Barracuda is supposed to be slower than the Lightning and [[Thunderbolt Fighter|Thunderbolt]], while being more maneuverable (than the latter, at least). However, in the rules, all three are exactly as fast as each other and the Lightning and the Barracuda are equally agile and armored. The Imperial and Tau vehicles do differ in one major respect: Imperial flyers have armored cockpits, while Tau cockpits also function as escape pods. Truly, the <s>cowardice</s> basic rationality and actual fucking concern for soldiers' lives of the [[xenos|alien]] knows no bounds.

* The Barracuda is getting a new model, as of May '16. Look into the new model before you purchase china-forge or older painted models. A face-lift, in addition to increased customization, makes for a very exciting next few months for the interceptor. [http://www.belloflostsouls.net/2016/05/forge-world-new-tau-barracua-spotted.html| Here is a link.]
*As of July 23, the new Barracuda (now labeled the AX-5-2) has been released. On top of the aforementioned facelift and increased customization options, Forge World has realized that people that fork over a unicorn's soul for their models also generally want to get the most out of the kit, and the new Barracuda model is [[awesome|designed specifically with magnetization in mind, complete with detailed instructions]].

The Barracuda's primary air-to-air weapon is a heavy [[ion cannon]] as long as the fuselage. This is supported by a pair of auto-targeting [[burst cannon]]s in the wingtips, and supplemented with [[missile pod]]s in the wings for ground attack. It can also take up to four [[seeker missile]]s to lend additional anti-armor support to [[markerlight]]-equipped ground forces. Kinda like a Lightning’s long autocannon, missiles, and lascannons, even their arrangement. Once it eliminates all flying targets, Barracuda can start bombarding ground-pounders with overcharged ion cannon blasts and hails of missile and pulse fire, vaporizing everything that isn't AV13-14 or Sv2+. Tau usually avoid using it as a dedicated strafing runner though because of it's limited survivability compared to their regular bombers like Tiger Shark or Sun Shark.
[[Image:Taubarracuda.jpg|300px|thumb|left|The old barracuda model.]]
The new [https://www.forgeworld.co.uk/resources/PDF/fw_warscrolls//Tau%20Barracuda%20AX%205%202%20Exp%20Rules.pdf| Barracuda AX-5-2] update also adds the ability to replace the ion cannon with either a short range heavy burst cannon, or a short range railgun. All of these weapons lack the alternate fire and range of their traditional counterparts, Riptide and Hammerheads respectively, but are otherwise identical. The Barracuda may also replace its auto-targeting long-barreled burst cannon with auto-targeting cyclic ion blasters. On top of the new firepower, the AX-5-2 also gets an invulnerable save against glancing and a weaker save against penetrating hits, as well as being able to boost its Jink save by +1.

Barracudas also serve as interceptors of the Tau space fleet, and have been proven quite capable of going toe-to-hoof with the likes of Fury. The fact that Mantas rarely need interceptor escort to fight off enemy interceptors means Tau may focus their Barracuda wings on defense against enemy ordinance, and if you know anything about Battlefleet Gothic, the one who wins the ordinance game while fleets are closing usually wins a battle.

{{Tau}}

[[Category:Vehicles]]

Manta

2019-09-25T13:01:49Z

2600:1006:B105:8611:58CC:338D:D9D2:B1D4:

[[Image:Manta.jpg|300px|thumb|right|I am become death, destroyer of wallets. [[Warlord Titan|I supposed we all thought that one way or another.]]]]
You play [[Tau]] and are in an [[Apocalypse]] game. You need firepower. You need to get your troops into battle without them being shot up by that [[Reaver Battle Titan]] your opponent fields. You need big. You have a LOT of disposable income and incredible modeling skills. You, my dear [[neckbeard]], need a '''Manta'''.

The Manta is one of the largest, heaviest, [[dakka]]est and most expensive model ever made by [[Games Workshop]], [[Warlord Battle Titan|second only to a particular walking rape machine that could solo an entire apocalypse formation.]] Sold at £1050 (or roughly $1385 for those from Glorious Nation of Americaland, or €1200 for blessed citizens of sacred Europolis Union (may it last thousand, or more likely, thirty years, give or take {{BLAM|HERESY!}}{{BLAM}})) it is prohibitively expensive even by [[Forge World]] standards. Seriously, you could get yourself a good laptop, next generation console and desktop for this kind of money. It is notably the only model in the game that has a gun that can't reach the other end of the model. It is roughly as wide as two [[Thunderhawk|Thunderhawks]] are long and one and a half time as long, sports enough weapons to lay waste to entire armies and is able to carry an army on its own. Intended as a superheavy drop ship, it can pull double duty as a small spacecraft to defend Tau capital ships from enemy action and can be employed as a [[Titans 40k|Titan]] hunter. The funny part? It's the size of a [[Fury Interceptor]]. Makes you feel sorry for the "fighters" launched by Tau starships against other warships, doesn't it? Despite that, a single Manta is equal in firepower with most other factions bomber ''wing'', and quite capable of ''destroying an escort ship on its own'' with a lucky roll. Furthermore, it EATS enemy interceptor ''wings'' thrown at it on 4+. Makes you wonder just how low-tech the Imperium's small spacecraft are if something equal in size is outperforming ''dozens'' of them by that much. Its more likely that GW is really really shitty at keeping scales consistent between different books, let alone different game systems. Not that it matters since they’re outnumbered hundreds-to-one by the Furies regardless. And their main guns are basically the Tau equivalent of lances.

Interesting enough it comes with quite a few models on its own: 2 [[Devilfish]], 2 [[Hammerhead Gunship]]s, 8 [[Battlesuit]]s, FOUR DOZEN seated (and therefore useless in a regular game) [[Fire Warrior]]s, eight Drones, and one seated [[Ethereal]] (also useless unless you make a floating space pope throne). So you could theoretically subtract the cost of those models (between 450 and 500 dollars). The cost is still absurd.

==On the Tabletop==
Want to field a Manta? That'll be well over 1800 points. The guns increase the cost by nearly 600 points, for a grand total of 2469 points for the entire thing. What do you get for this, aside a massive resin paper press? For starters, a T8 3+ beast with '''60 wounds'''. It deteriorates over time, but you have to lose half your wounds to start noticing anything. And paired with a 4++ save, your life expectancy just went up a lot. And with 20"-60" Supersonic movement, it can be wherever it wants to be during a battle. And with BS2+ that won't drop to 4+ until you have less than 10 wounds, it remains effective in combat. Hilariously it also has 5 attacks at WS5+ S8, so while it's not very effective in combat it can hold its own in a fight. The Manta can also opt to hover, getting a 20" speed and stops being a flyer. It also has the odd rule that it adds 12" to the measured distance of weapons used against non-flyers, to symbolize how high up it is.

The Manta carries an entire army's worth of heavy weapons:
*It comes with a pair of Heavy Rail Cannons. Two shots of S18 AP-5 D2D6 that deal an additional D3 Mortal Wounds on a 6+ Wound roll, and deal double damage against Buildings and Titanic targets, this will really ruin the day of any Titanic unit it hits. Sure, with only 2 shots a single miss will really hamper your damage output, but with S18 you'll need T10 to not get wounded on a 2+. If both hit you're looking at an average of 14 wounds, discounting the extra Mortal Wounds from rolling sixes. Powerful against vehicles and other large units, but nigh useless against blobs. And as a Macro weapon the Manta can move and shoot with the thing.
*Six long-barreled Ion Cannons make up for the Manta's secondary armament. Clocking in at 18 S7 AP-2 D2 shots this will really ruin the day of any [[TEQ]] that gets hit by it through sheer attrition alone. While you could opt to overcharge them to turn the weapon into a Heavy D3 gun which is 2D3 against units with 10 or more models, units that are the prime target of the Ion Cannons rarely come in those sizes. And while you could easily tank the Mortal Wounds suffered from rolling ones it's not really worth it.
*'''Sixteen''' Long-barreled Burst Cannons bring the pain in the form of a grand total of 64 S5 AP0 D1 shots. This can eat several units of [[GEQ]]s in one turn, so assign your shots carefully and don't forget you don't have to blow your entire load in one turn. Aim at the right targets and they'll serve you well. If you're feeling ballsy they could even turn them against vehicles: a tank with less than T10 and with a 3+ save can expect to eat 6 wounds on average. Not your preferred targets, but it can be done.
*Two Missile Pods. Nothing special here: four shots of S7 AP-1 DD3 can support your Ion Cannons against targets with worse saves than 2+ and could be used to finish up tanks.
*Ten Seeker Missiles. Using them is simple: slap 2+ Markerlights on any tanks with a maximum of 8 Wounds, and no matter how tough it is you can evaporate it with a single salvo. You can do this only once per battle, but it's worth it.

Another draw of the Manta is that it's also a transport. If you can somehow still afford an army after this, it can carry 55 models in its upper deck and 145 in its lower deck. 55 models for the upper deck translates into 3 Strike Teams with 2 Drones each and a Pathfinder team with 2 drones as well. The final spot can be filled by an Ethereal, a [[Cadre Fireblade]], an additional Drone for the Pathfinders or, by technicality, [[Shadowsun]].

The lower deck can transport 145 models who are Infantry or Drones. This is a total of 12 Fire Warrior squads with 2 drones each, or a variety of Pathfinders, Stealth Battlesuits (which is allowed) and sniper teams, as well as Ethereals and Fireblades. It can also transport [[Kroot]] Carnivores and Shapers, but no Riders or Hounds. It can additionally carry eight XV8 or XV9 Battlesuits, so no Broadsides or Ghostkeels. Coldstars are allowed however, as is Shadowsun. Because of poor wording it can additionally transport four Devilfish or Hammerheads, on top of the 145 Infantry/Drone units and Battlesuits, meaning that you can fit more than an entire army in there.

As for tactics: plonk it down and watch your opponent bring everything they have to bear in a failed attempt to kill it. Devour chunks of his army with it, then use the rest of yours to finish the battle. Big targets die first, with units that pose a threat to the rest of your army going next so your other forces are more difficult to deal with.
[[Image:Foam-manta.jpg|300px|thumb|right|For Tau to scratch build, it will be so.]]
===Power Ratings===
The Manta has a nice round 100 Power, which makes it an army in its own right. Tactics remain the same: plonk it down and let 'er rip.

==Verdict==
If you field a Manta, you are automatically [[That Guy]]. Nobody else would buy, paint and field this mothermucker. While having a staggering amount of [[Dakka]], it is hardly the most cost-effective way to get it. If you want the Titan-killing power of Heavy Railguns, field the [[Tiger Shark]] AX-1-0 instead: it costs only a third of the points and a sixth of the cash. Use the rest of the points and money elsewhere, stuff your Fire Warriors and Battlesuits in an [[Orca]] and drop them from there. Even just fielding this thing is a pain in the ass due to its HUEGness, and collectors would be better off spending money on cheaper models. The Manta is so ridiculous that in [[Battlefleet Gothic]] it gets a 4+ save because fuck you, that's why.

'''Alternative Take''':Yes, the Manta is defintely a That Guy move. But is a sweet looking model nonetheless, so worth saving up for to buy someday. Also, Orcas are no longer in production so fuck anyone who says take an Orca instead.

==Scratch-built Manta==
Whenever monetary resources are not available, sheer skill and enthusiasm can allow a dedicated 40k fan to get his/her own Tau manta, as shown by some awesome people who have managed to build their own mantas using foam, cardboard, etc. The example shown to your right used only $40 of foam plus required tools and extra materials. Of course this is hard work, but hey! You are a smar/tg/uy! You get shit done! And because Forgeworld wouldn't let a filthy xenos aircraft be the costliest thing they ever sell, [https://www.forgeworld.co.uk/en-US/Warlord-Titan-Builder?_requestid=8747261|enter the Imperium's Warlord Titan!]

{{Tau}}

[[Category:Vehicles]]

Hammerhead Gunship

2019-09-25T12:58:42Z

2600:1006:B105:8611:58CC:338D:D9D2:B1D4: /* 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 (not to mention it’s a massive net gain for the Guard anyway given the numbers they can spew out). 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 for its range. At least in open terrain. At which point you use artillery or missiles to kill the bastard. Also, in non-open terrain, use the right tank for the job: Annihilator or Vanquisher.

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''. Followed by return fire from either Vanquishers, Heavy Vanquisher cannons, or Earthshaker artillery (since artillery is one of the best counters to tanks in real life).

Design-wise, it's interesting to note that while the Russ looks like (as the [[Leman Russ Battle Tank|Russ's 1d4chan article]] says) "A drunken three-way between an old [[Wikipedia:Mark V tank|British Mark-V]], a [[Wikipedia:M3 Lee|M3 Lee]], and a [[Wikipedia:T-34|T-34]]", the Hammerhead looks more like the love child conceived after a night of red wine between an [[M1 Abrams]] and the [[Wikipedia:Railgun#U.S._Navy_tests|U.S. Navy rail gun program]]. And then the child was spoiled rotten by Grandma [[Wikipedia:Attack helicopter|Attack Helicopter]].

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. Actually, the US strategy (and in the modern day) was to use artillery and anti-tank aircraft to destroy enemy tanks while powerful US tanks laid waste to everything those tanks would have protected. The US never intended for tank-on-tank warfare and any strength in such combat is a side effect of making their tanks extra effective to capitalize on openings made by artillery and airpower. This is also why the Abrams has not been replaced despite Russian and Chinese tanks being significantly superior: US combat aircraft and pilots are of much higher quality and outnumber theirs around ten-to-one, so those better tanks are just targets. 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

2019-09-25T12:54:12Z

2600:1006:B105:8611:58CC:338D:D9D2:B1D4:

[[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 (not to mention it’s a massive net gain for the Guard anyway given the numbers they can spew out). 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 for its range. At least in open terrain. At which point you use artillery or missiles to kill the bastard. Also, in non-open terrain, use the right tank for the job: Annihilator or Vanquisher.

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''. Followed by return fire from either Vanquishers, Heavy Vanquisher cannons, or Earthshaker artillery (since artillery is one of the best counters to tanks in real life).

Design-wise, it's interesting to note that while the Russ looks like (as the [[Leman Russ Battle Tank|Russ's 1d4chan article]] says) "A drunken three-way between an old [[Wikipedia:Mark V tank|British Mark-V]], a [[Wikipedia:M3 Lee|M3 Lee]], and a [[Wikipedia:T-34|T-34]]", the Hammerhead looks more like the love child conceived after a night of red wine between an [[M1 Abrams]] and the [[Wikipedia:Railgun#U.S._Navy_tests|U.S. Navy rail gun program]]. And then the child was spoiled rotten by Grandma [[Wikipedia:Attack helicopter|Attack Helicopter]].

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

2019-09-25T12:52:55Z

2600:1006:B105:8611:58CC:338D:D9D2:B1D4: /* 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 (not to mention it’s a massive net gain for the Guard anyway given the numbers they can spew out). 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 for its range. At least in open terrain. At which point you bring a Vanquisher or Annihilator and win anyway.

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''. Followed by return fire from either Vanquishers, Heavy Vanquisher cannons, or Earthshaker artillery (since artillery is one of the best counters to tanks in real life).

Design-wise, it's interesting to note that while the Russ looks like (as the [[Leman Russ Battle Tank|Russ's 1d4chan article]] says) "A drunken three-way between an old [[Wikipedia:Mark V tank|British Mark-V]], a [[Wikipedia:M3 Lee|M3 Lee]], and a [[Wikipedia:T-34|T-34]]", the Hammerhead looks more like the love child conceived after a night of red wine between an [[M1 Abrams]] and the [[Wikipedia:Railgun#U.S._Navy_tests|U.S. Navy rail gun program]]. And then the child was spoiled rotten by Grandma [[Wikipedia:Attack helicopter|Attack Helicopter]].

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

2019-09-25T12:50:45Z

2600:1006:B105:8611:58CC:338D:D9D2:B1D4:

[[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 (not to mention it’s a massive net gain for the Guard anyway given the numbers they can spew out). 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 for its range. At least in open terrain. At which point you bring a Vanquisher or Annihilator and win anyway.

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''

Design-wise, it's interesting to note that while the Russ looks like (as the [[Leman Russ Battle Tank|Russ's 1d4chan article]] says) "A drunken three-way between an old [[Wikipedia:Mark V tank|British Mark-V]], a [[Wikipedia:M3 Lee|M3 Lee]], and a [[Wikipedia:T-34|T-34]]", the Hammerhead looks more like the love child conceived after a night of red wine between an [[M1 Abrams]] and the [[Wikipedia:Railgun#U.S._Navy_tests|U.S. Navy rail gun program]]. And then the child was spoiled rotten by Grandma [[Wikipedia:Attack helicopter|Attack Helicopter]].

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

2019-09-25T12:50:18Z

2600:1006:B105:8611:58CC:338D:D9D2:B1D4:

[[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 (not to mention it’s a massive net gain for the Guard anyway given the numbers they can spew out). 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 for its range. At least in open terrain. At which point you bring a Vanquished or Annihilator and win anyway.

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''

Design-wise, it's interesting to note that while the Russ looks like (as the [[Leman Russ Battle Tank|Russ's 1d4chan article]] says) "A drunken three-way between an old [[Wikipedia:Mark V tank|British Mark-V]], a [[Wikipedia:M3 Lee|M3 Lee]], and a [[Wikipedia:T-34|T-34]]", the Hammerhead looks more like the love child conceived after a night of red wine between an [[M1 Abrams]] and the [[Wikipedia:Railgun#U.S._Navy_tests|U.S. Navy rail gun program]]. And then the child was spoiled rotten by Grandma [[Wikipedia:Attack helicopter|Attack Helicopter]].

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]]

XV104 Riptide Battlesuit

2019-09-25T12:47:35Z

2600:1006:B105:8611:58CC:338D:D9D2:B1D4: /* Fluff */

[[File:XV104.jpg|400px|thumb|right|Two versions of the XV104, each with one of its primary weapons.]]
The '''XV-104 Riptide''' is what would happen if the [[Tau]] found a old DVD of Gundam and got a hard-on. A [[battlesuit]] "equivalent" (read: inferior) to the Imperial Knight, it was the Tau's largest Battlesuit outside of [[Forge World]] until the [[KV128 Stormsurge Ballistic Suit|stormsurge]] was released (some don't consider it to be a battlesuit because it lacks the keyword) . Resembling the lovechild of a [[XV-8 Crisis Battlesuit]] and the ZZ Gundam (from the Mobile Suit Gundam series of the same name), this mecha was once pure [[awesome]]! While it was nerfed hard in the initial Indexes of 8e, the Codex is set to help it make a comeback.

==Fluff==
The XV104 Riptide was first introduced during the Third Sphere Expansion of the Tau Empire. When the Tau needed to break the siege at a pair of [[Hive City|Hive Cities]] that the Tau were having trouble with. When everyone's favourite waifu [[Shadowsun]] was told of the failure to breakthrough, she decided to break out her new toys. This was the introduction of the ZZ Gund... sorry, the XV104 Riptide Battlesuit. Striding onto the battlefield undeterred by the shitload of [[dakka]] that was coming their way, the new battlesuits basically ripped the Imperial defenders a new one. When the Imperial troops sent <s>guided missiles</s> '''Deathstrike Missiles''' their way, the riptides were [[What|unscathed]], [[Cheese|protected by their Riptide Shield Generators]]. They approached the Imperial defences and blasted holes in them with their High Mega Canno... sorry, Ion Accelerators.

The Riptide soon spread through the Tau Empire, being the lure for thoudsands of preteen GW customers with too much money and not enough playtime. It soon reigned supreme over the fluff battlefield and the meta one. The reason given for its ludicrous $130 Australian Dollars price tag is that the Riptide's extremely tough and "impenetrable" armor is made from a super-rare material called <s>Fio'tak</s> Gundanium. The real-life reason for the cost is that GeeDubs are just screwing with you to get your money. They use a super-powerful engine called the Nova Reactor to overdrive their capabilities to the max, allowing them several things on the tabletop, most notable the ability to overpower their two weapons.

==On the Tabletop==
As of 8th Edition GeeDubs decided that they couldn't have the Riptide spam of 7e. So, as with all good things, it came to a end when they decided to make the Riptide take a Mortal Wound every time it uses it's Nova Reactor. Back in 7e they had a 1/3 chance to take a wound every time a Riptide used its Nova Reactor, but in 8e the damage is assured. The only way to avoid it is taking the Stimulant Injector upgrade, which gives Feel No Pain. This allows you a 1/6 chance to avoid losing damage, which is substantially less than what it was in 7e, and also costs a few extra points, which would be otherwise better spent on another of what should be two upgrade hardpoints.

In addition, the Heavy Burst Cannon is weak as hell. It gives a increase of one strength from the standard Burst Cannon found on [[XV-8 Crisis Battlesuit]]s and more shots. The Ion Accelerator (which is arguably the better weapons choice) costs 104 points on top of the already expensive unit. This means that you'll mainly be using your huge-ass suit in a anti-infantry role, and not actually blowing holes in enemy [[Imperial Knight]]s. In fact, this relegation to a inferior and already-redundant role means you'd be better off spending the absurd amount of money on a unit like the [[Hammerhead Gunship]], which can put some dents in a enemy Titan for a cheaper price.

It is also rumoured to be greatly reducing the points cost of both the suit and its weapon options. So don't leave them on the shelves just yet. #

'''*UPDATE*''' As of now, post Codex and Chapter Approved 2018 the Riptide has all but returned completely to its former glory. For starters it went down to 185 points base. The Heavy Burst cannon chews through GEQs and MEQs like they were tissue paper for only 35 points, thanks to both its healthy 12 shots '''base''' and 2 damage per shot. All for a '''decrease''' of 20 points! Hell with Nova Charging and/or the Command and Control Node Stratagem (Reroll wounds) you can rip through vehicles with the sheer number of shots fired. Meanwhile the Ion accelerator has been tweaked too, what used to be its overcharge profile is now its base while the former nova charge is now the overcharge. And it dropped a whopping '''54''' points! There's been a change to the nova reactor on top of these. Nova Charging ramps up the Heavy Burst Cannon to 18 shots and gives the Ion Accelerator the maximum number of shots instead of another redundant stat profile. Overall you'll be set back between 262-283 points (Assuming the pretty much mandatory target lock and the fact that you have no reason to ever put Plasma Rifles on it) base for a single Riptide as compared to the Index's 316-362, making them ''far'' more spammable than they were at launch. It's perfectly reasonable and even fairly competitive to field 2 of them. Did we mention there is also a stratagem that grants you 2 Nova Reactor effects for only 1 CP? 3+++ Invulnerable and boosted weapons? Yes please! Overall, the Riptide has returned to its proper place in the Tau army. So feel free to dust them off and enjoy the hatred they bring your way once again.

{{Tau}}

[[Category:Tau]]

Tau

2019-09-25T12:42:39Z

2600:1006:B105:8611:58CC:338D:D9D2:B1D4:

{{heresy}}
{{awesome}}
[[Image:TAUSYMBOL.gif|center]]
{{Infobox 40k Nations
|name= T'au Empire
|image=[[Image:Tau_Empire_Flag.jpg|300px|center]]
|bgcolor=
|fgcolor=
|Capital= T'au
|Official Languages=Tau Lexicon
|Power= Minor Power
|Size=Approximately 36 Planets
|Head of State=Ethereal Supreme
|Head of Government= Ethereal Council
|Governmental Structure=Caste-Based Authoritarian Federation
|State Religion/Ideology=[[Greater Good]]
|Demographic=[[Tau]], [[Kroot]], [[Vespid]], [[Gue'vesa|Humans]], [[Nicassar]], [[Tarellian]], Nagi, Hrenians and other minor [[Xenos]] races
|Military Force=[[Tau]] Fire Caste, Tau Air Caste, [[Kroot]] and [[Vespid]] Forces, The Deathsworn, Hrenian Light Infantry, [[Demiurg]] Forces, [[Nicassar]] Forces, Gue'vesa Forces and other minor Xenos armies
}}
[[File:9jfnqeaplhexx.jpg|right|thumb|450px|Get the fuck out of the way, [[Imperium|Oldfag]]. (Vior'la Sept Fire Warriors)]]
{{Topquote|Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?|Luke 6:41}}
{{Topquote|Ce qui constitue une République, c'est l'extermination totale de tout ce qui lui est opposé. - What constitutes a Republic is the total destruction of that which is opposed to it.|Louis Antoine de Saint-Just}}
{{Topquote|The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.|Sun Tzu}}

Tau (τ) is the 19th letter of the Greek alphabet, 300 in Greek numerals, and also the name for 2π.

It is also the name of the Warhammer 40K race known as the '''Tau''' (or "bluies", as the Valhallan 597th call them)(or "Space Communists" as anyone on /tg/ will tell you), (or "T'au" as GW copyright lawyers call them) are a playable race and a minor and overall insignificant power in ''[[Warhammer 40,000]]''. When first discovered by humanity, the Tau were a barbaric and primitive people. Their planet was then trapped in a warp storm for a few thousand years and they emerged from the other side as a unified species, led by the [[Druids|mysterious]] Ethereal caste and devoted to the concept of the "[[Greater Good]]". Their new empire supposedly has around 115 worlds, although only 36 of those have any sort of activity on them and the rest are either useless rocks or not shown/mentioned at all. They were growing until recently, when the Imperium sent a large invading force to counter them.

Although a dystopian society in its own right, the Tau Empire is noted for being one of the LEAST awful places in all the galaxy of 40k. It's also [[Derp|not really an empire]]; the Tau government, the Ethereal caste, is essentially an edifice of meritocracy and nepotism-Tau leaders are appointed to their position by even higher ranking leaders and/or a council of their future peers; the highest ranking Tau, the Aun'O, is elected by his future underlings, much like the Catholic pope, but is still simply considered the weightiest voice of a group (like a prime minister), not an Emperor with absolute power. While Tau civilization has the behavioral tendencies of many empires throughout history (expansionism, military conquest of weaker states, forcible integration of the conquered peoples, etc.), it is the government structure of a state that makes it an empire, not foreign policies. Essentially, they are ''imperialist,'' but not an ''empire''. That said, an imperialistic nation is an empire, not the form of government. So, it is an empire without an imperial government. Like the United States during its Westward expansion.

The Tau started as a classic case of successful design-based [[Troll|trolling]] on the part of [[Games Workshop]]. They were originally developed because GW felt that their setting needed an optimistic race and that their wallets needed more money, which they could get by selling shedloads of 40k to the robot-obsessed Japanese. The Tau, therefore, are the least [[grimdark]] faction in the game; [[Tau Diplomacy|they're the dudes willing to negotiate when they've beaten their enemies]] ([[The Beast|we cannot forget the green skinned diplomats our boy sent out during his siege of terra]]) while all the others are either too [[Chaos Space Marines| murderously psychotic in ways incomprehensible to anyone who does not share the same batshit insanity]], [[Imperium|religiously overzealous]], [[Eldar|arrogantly indifferent]], [[Orks|simplemindedly violent]], [[Necron|murderously enigmatic]], [[Tyranid|more interested in eating you than anything]], or [[Dark Eldar|all of the above]] to offer such courtesies.

This began to change in the 6th edition. For all the claims that GW doesn't listen to its fans, someone seemed to have heard the incessant bitching many fa/tg/uys made over the Tau [[Belisarius Cawl|being shoehorned into the setting]] [[Primaris Marines|in the worst way possible.]] As a result, the Tau began to take on an Orwellian flavor and Imperium-esque elements, with the Ethereals being totalitarian autocrats performing acts of ruthless indifference towards their subjects, including [[Nazi|eugenics]] or up to [[Exterminatus]] of lost races (e.g. Orks and Tyranids), in the guise of being for the Greater Good.

Twelve year old [[fluff]] (from ''[[Dawn of War]]'', supported by [[Deathwatch]] supplements describing Achillus Crusade) has them <s>arbitrarily sterilizing the rebelling humans on Kronus once they come under the rule of the Tau Empire</s> sterilizing a group of humans attempting to revolt and distract Tau forces in the middle of a planet-wide, 6-way free-for-all (to be fair though, had it been anyone else they were revolting against, including the Imperials, those humans would be dead, [[Grimdark|most likely the slow and painful way, or even suffer such a terrible fate as to wish for death]]).

The Tau Codex leaves ambiguous the question of just how much of their success is due to various forms of indoctrination, caste-based conditioning, and subtle mind control. This has only been exacerbated by the recent Farsight Enclaves supplement, which makes the Ethereals come off as mustache-twirling, Saturday-morning-cartoon villains. It speaks volumes about the 40k setting that in spite of all this they're ''still'' the friendliest race in the galaxy.

Also, the Tau have twenty planets after a handful were eaten by Tyranids (discounting allied held worlds and worlds with little to no inhabitants on them). Despite this, fanfiction writers who somehow got hired by GW and Tau fans alike have this strange habit of treating them like a major faction. For instance, a galaxy ruling combined empire with the Imperum and Eldar usually includes the Tau because the writer doesn't realize the Tau are one of the smallest, most insignificant minor species in the galaxy. This isn't to insult them, they can always get stronger; it's just the plain truth, currently that is. The setting stretches millennia, so who knows how far they can go, hopefully they'll become more and grow experienced as time goes on assuming the setting doesn't fall into constant grind never proceeding to the next year for decades ''again''.

One of the more hateful aspects of the Tau is that Games Workshop feels the need to make them seem viable as an army by having their power fluctuate wildly, for example, the Tau can easily subjugate Imperial Hive Worlds and deport its population so easily that it doesn't even get a footnote. You know, those planets in which the population of a single city shocked an Tau ambassador because ''the city's population was greater than the entirety of the Tau species''? Imagine entire planets of those cities, cities in which everyone is an experienced killer (which is why Space Marines love recruiting from Hive Worlds), armed and ready to fling themselves at any invading xenos to purge them with extreme prejudice. These are the same worlds whose PDF is large enough to enforce Imperial rule, and so contribute massive numbers of Imperial Guard (on top of having their own substantial forces).

As an example of this, take the Battle of Mu'gulath Bay, known as the Battle of Agrellan to the Imperium. This was a fight over a Hive World which the Tau won, how? Using Riptide Battlesuits. According to GW, the Riptide's armor was impervious to nearly all anti-armor weaponry (lascannons, krak missiles, and heavy meltas are a threat to Baneblades and knights and heavier stuff can even threaten Titans, so we know this is bullshit). The kicker though, is that '''''Deathstrike Missiles''''' ''did nothing'' when its shields were active. You know, the missiles '''''Titans are afraid of''''' and can vaporize armies? And can use Titan-killer warheads? '''Those Missiles'''. This is but one example, another goes back to the Taros campaign in which a Tau stronghold was mysteriously unable to be blown to hell by sustained bombardment from Colossus mortars and then the Tau ''sallied out'' to engage the Imperial forces and won. In addition, a lot of fights are won by their opponents being uncharacteristically stupid, for example in both the Taros Campaign and the Battle of Agrellan the Imperium suddenly forgets how to defend itself, its supply lines and in the second Damocles Gulf Crusade, engages the Tau using formations and tactics that cater to the Tau in the extreme (this is especially egregious in the finale), [[wat|and even has an assassin forget to use her gun to instantly kill her target]]. Even the Marines aren't immune to this sudden stupefying aura, as we have Space Marine Terminators wielding storm shields were shot and killed because they were too busy telling each other to raise their shields up to block the Tau's shots [[derp|instead of raising their shields up to block the fucking shots.]]

There were like three or four of these suits, by the way.

=="Naive Weeaboo Space Communists"==
[[Image:Tau Weeaboo.png|thumb|right|Cue hotblooded music by [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-r6xYnFDoV0 JAM Project].]]
The Tau's naiveté might seem at odds with the GRIMDARK-ness of the setting (and to a degree, a lot of it is), but the thing is, Games Workshop specifically plays this straight FOR the [[grimdark]] and ''knows'' that the seeming futility of the Tau's optimism only further accentuates the general hellishness of the rest of the galaxy - and dear [[Emperor|god]] do they play this up for maximum effect. In the 41st millennium, the Tau come across as ''more'' than a little naive to the other races; the Imperium sees any contact with aliens as heretical and will shoot them with [[bolter]] rounds as soon as they look at them; the [[Ork]]s just want to kick the shit out of things; and the [[Eldar]] see the Tau as young and powerful because of their technology but also as a race in its infancy, just staggering out of its borders for the first time and wandering into a pond full of [[Saharduin|sh]][[Dark Eldar|ar]][[Chaos|ks]].

In older fluff, the Tau were implied to have been secretly uplifted by the Eldar through the creation and subtle control of the Etherals (especially the mind-influencing pheromone secreting gland at the base of Etherals’ spines) and guiding them through reverse-engineering Imperial technology from the ruined colony ships. Eventually the Eldar abandoned them because the Tau never accomplished anything notable on their own due to a crippling lack of creativity. Humans must be in physical contact with an Ethereal or perhaps subjected to heavy doses of the pheromone in other ways to be sufficiently affected but aliens are affected merely by being in the vicinity of an Ethereal. Whether this is canon or not now is uncertain. It all probably is, seeing as it hasn’t been retconned/overwritten. Or GW forgot about it.

Putting it simply, there's an ongoing joke that the Tau are some of the most successful trolling performed in the history of mankind just by ''existing''; a case of the company installing them just to mix things up whilst at the same time keeping them surprisingly on-level.

The combination of the above fluff, however, paired with their highly advanced technology, generally "Asian" feel (their Fire Caste's combat doctrine is often reminiscent of Sun Tzu's "''Art of War''" - but derived from two distinct Tau hunting methods), use of [[Mecha|battlesuits]] (just [[Imperial Knight|like]] [[Dreadnought|the]] [[Titan (Warhammer 40,000)|Imperium]]), [[Hammerhead Gunship|heavy firepower]] which rivals that of the Imperial Guard, and one of the [[Fish of Fury|most broken tactics in tabletop 40K until it was finally fixed an edition later]] has conspired to make them very much hated (and by that we mean a source of butthurt) by a reasonable-sized population of the [[/tg/|40K fan populace]], and /tg/ has rightly dubbed the Tau [[Weeaboo]] (as much due to their Asian-ness as anything else) as a result (even when people can use the same logic to point to the Imperium's xenophobia, the fanatical worship of the God-Emperor, extensive use of Mecha and suicide attacks, use of suicide attacks as punishment for dishonour, and fondness for over-the-top dialogue in general and conclude that the Imperium of Man is Imperial Japan in Space). As a dark twist on this inherent Asian-ness, a thread concerning lack of grimdark fan fluff on Tau led to the creation of [[Sept V'iet]], the Viet Cong Tau.
[[Image:Tau fire warriors.jpg|490px|thumb|left|The [[Greater Good]]: translatable as [[Deal with it|"if you want to make an omelette, you gotta break some eggs."]]]]

And again in a case of much cultural confusion, the Tau are often considered [[Communism|communists]] (despite being a rigorous, hierarchical, near-eugenicist class society that would drive Marx into [[RAGE]]) due to their central philosophy of casting aside the self in favour of the Greater Good. This is partly because it's a nearly twenty year old meme by this point and memes that old are very stubborn about dying... and partly because we're a bunch of ignorant fucks. If anything the Tau more resemble the class system of Plato's ''Republic'' crossed with the caste system of India and [[Star_Trek#The_Federation|Star Trek's Federation]], and a little bit of facism as well (because they're the only ones in the entire galaxy who bother to try diplomacy with xenos rather than [[Exterminatus|exterminate]] them (partly because all but a few alien species are horrific space monsters that only a complete idiot would try to negotiate with)).

Even then, the Tau has more in common with the Imperium than the noblebright space hippie Feds; they adhere to a highly strict doctrine of eugenics, as [[Love Can Bloom|all forms of love, sex or breeding between different castes]] are, translated from Tau lexicon into Gothic, '''[[HERESY]]'''. The Tau also have an explicit merchant caste as well as a single unified currency which is something that the Imperium of man very much does not have along with a system of standardised wage labour which makes them actually more Capitalist than the still stuck in Feudal Economics Imperium. Contrast to the Craftworld Eldar who's society of post-scarcity voluntary labour actually is fully Communist, albeit there's still nobles entitled to bigger houses.

As well, the Tau treat their [[Tau#Tau_Member_Races|non-Tau comrades]] as second-class citizens with no say in the Tau government, and demand them to abandon their old culture and conform to a Tau Empire, basically becoming like everyone else. Ergo, the Tau, despite not being the exterminate-all-other-species kind of racist, are still an ethnocentric, aristocratic empire pretending to be a Federation, not unlike Britain during their 'tenure' as the rulers of India.

To double the weebiness but to greatly decrease the communism connection, the Tau are remarkably similar to war-time era Imperial Japan. Not in terms of military doctrine but in terms of its geopolitics. Like Imperial Japan they're a young power situated in the east, relatively far from most of their possible rivals' centres of power. Like Imperial Japan they have a seemingly nice enough doctrine in terms of rhetoric; "Greater Good" and "Co-Prosperity Sphere"; but in terms of practise what it means is that they want to replace the old empires in the region with their own. Like Imperial Japan they're at a significant disadvantage in terms of production power compared to their most serious rivals in the region, and hope to compensate for that by tactical superiority and winning big decisive battles to topple the old powers.

To further solidify the connections to Japan in the early 20th century, the Tau Empire even borrows some terminology, such as "spheres" of expansion, a firm belief that despite their grotesque material inferiority to their primary enemies the power of their ideals and their superior willpower shall overcome their enemies all, and a dogged insistence on picking fights it probably can't win. Imperial Japan knew that America alone had nearly twelve times the industrial power, with Britain having thrice Japan's military-industrial might, France just about matching theirs, and the Soviets having four times that, and even China; despite being a wartorn barely functional shithole, could be a quagmire for it. But Japan didn't give a shit because they thought that they were so awesome they could somehow get all these people to surrender through a combination of being better at war than their soft, mewling enemies and that they simply believed in their destiny to rule the waves more than anyone else did. Much like how the Tau is fully aware that the Imperium, the Orks, the Necrons, and the Tyranids could all squash them flat in a stand up fight, but believe this is immaterial because their belief in the greater good shall overcome all and they have mastered the ways of war while their foes are mired in ignorance.

What is for sure though is that, whatever part of the terribly suited to analysing politics outside of the modern era one-dimensional spectrum of political agenda they are on (probably wherever you'd put Imperial Japan during world war two), the Tau government is mainly oligarchical, with the vast majority of political power concentrated in the Ethereal caste. This is further driven home by the fact there is a Tau splinter faction led by one of their two best generals alive, Commander [[Farsight]] of the Farsight Enclaves, whose government is a non-caste society seemingly devoid of merchants, meritocratic semi-democracy. The problem is, until people stop dragging him out of his self-imposed exile to fight Tyranids, Orks, and other Tau, he's a dictator the way Optimus Prime is sometimes depicted. Farsight's government is one most certainly [[RAGE|NOT recognized by the Tau Empire]], who have finally gotten around to dispatching a fleet to silence them. <s>This, of course, is [[Advancing_the_Storyline|imminent plot stuff that will never happen]] because it's always the 41st millennium.</s> nope, GeeDubs ''finally'' decided to move the plot forward, thankfully. We still have yet to see the outcome of this fleet dispatch, though.

However, the new codex has HEAVILY downplayed their naiveté, bringing back the original codex mention that the Ethereals have officially declared some species "[[Exterminatus|lost causes]]" and that the [[Greater Good]] demands they be killed to the last.
*[[Orks]] were the first of the big players of 40k to get this treatment. They pretty much were the only serious competition Tau had before they discovered the Imperium, and it only took them a few weeks of study to realize the fact that Orks are beyond reason or sanity. They still have not realized that their encounters with Orks have merely been minute numbers of stragglers.
*[[Tyranids]] unsurprisingly ended up on "shoot on sight" list pretty much after the first contact. Like with Orks, the Tau are unaware of the small force of Tyranids they have experienced and that the main fleet they "destroyed" has since come back stronger.
*[[Eldar]] briefly were on the list too, owning this to the first contact being made by the Commorites, and not just any, but [[Urien Rakarth]] himself. It took some nuked Exodite world and Craftworld intervention for tau to realize that not all space-elves are insane rapists and scratch them off the list. Probably more encouraged by the Eldar effortlessly curbstomping them than actually carring that they shot the wrong Spelves.
*[[Space Marines]] seem to be entering the list as of the second Damocles war. The reason is not because it's impossible to reason with them, but because after some intense Water caste psychoanalysis and Nagi "mind-[[rape|ripping]]" they pretty much declared that astartes aren't ''people'' but merely a ''weapon'' and as such have no place in Tau'Va. Since this means they ignore the [[Blood Angels|artistic]], [[Thousand Sons|scholarly]], [[Word Bearers|philosophical]], and [[Ultramarines|administrative]] aspects of being Astartes intended to give them purpose after the Great Crusade ended the Tau are probably just scared shitless of Space Marines and the sheer inspiration their presence brings even off the battlefield.

To sum it up, the Tau Empire is still an expansionist empire prone to using military force, but far better than almost every other polity in the setting, as it permits others to exist with rather lenient standards, and isn't dedicated to the purposeful extinction of all other life in the galaxy. On the other hand, they don’t care if you’re some primitive feral species or a peaceful member of a species they have decided to be a lost cause. Also, as a result of surviving attacks from the major factions in the galaxy yet being blissfully unaware that those were merely tiny brushes or stragglers of vastly larger forces, the Tau believe they have proven they can truly hold their own in the galaxy against all the major players. As of Eighth Edition they were corrected quite painfully due to the opening of the Great Rift and the loss of most of their Fourth Sphere Expansion forces to a Warp rift, and following a massive Chaos invasion they have been forced to face the possibility that their empire might have bitten off more than it can chew.

Ironically, if their tech really is reverse-engineered Imperial tech (science-wise), it might not be heresy to... take it back.

==Military Doctrine==
[[Image:TauTyr2.jpg|right|500px|thumb|Close-quarters painting [[Drawfag|strikes again.]]]]
The Tau disdain [[Choppy|melee]] [[Rip and tear|combat]] in favour of [[Shooty|ranged combat]], which renders them instantaneously [[Matt Ward|less manly]] in the eyes of most of /tg/'s playerbase. The reasons behind this are complicated. Generally, Tau see hand to hand combat in warfare as an anachronism, which makes sense, considering their basic guns can rip apart tank side armour, and compared to almost all other major races Tau have less muscle strength and reaction speed, which makes them ineffective in melee even if they are trained.

Even the last reason alone is enough to avoid close combat, seeing as [[Necrons]] use similar logic, despite their [[Necron Warrior|Warriors]] and [[Necron Immortal|Immortals]] being much stronger and tougher, and actually highly trained in close combat, but equally as slow, though if the Necrons do want to get into melee, they're certainly not lacking in specialists. That said, Tau do practice martial arts, but only for ritual purposes - Fire Warrior trials and rites involve knives and swords, while Ethereals have a tradition of fighting non-lethal duels to settle disputes, using sharp bladed weapons no less, so they are often quite good with their fencing style, as [[Aun'Shi]] has shown to some unfortunate Orks.

Some people think Tau military doctrine has been hit hard with the same [[grimdark|stupidity]] nerf bat as every other fieldable army; every other faction has some reason for their material to be as limited as they would be in a fantasy setting, but the Tau have widespread education, unlike Men and Orks; reasonable access to production facilities relative to their population, unlike Necrons and Eldar; and are capable of coherent research and development, unlike Tyranids and Daemons.

For fluff reasons which have never been explained (the crunch reason is obvious), they have the same motif as every other army of equipment often being more valuable than the person wielding it, leading to most personnel being fielded with "inferior" equipment. The most obvious example of this is that they always, under whatever circumstance, field infantry in simple combat armour rather than some sort of battlesuit - its only advantage is having less bulk, as the Tau have a reason not to build larger transports to cope with the shitloads of battlesuits they could deploy instead.

This argument is analogous to saying that real-world militaries should only use armored vehicles and not have infantry, and says more about fa/tg/uy ignorance than Tau doctrine. The Tau likely practice economy of force, which has consequences both on and off the battlefield. Sending excessive amounts of force at a target is wasteful, as the excess firepower would be more useful elsewhere. If one only has a XV8 Battlesuits and no infantry, but a swarm of grots in a nearby pass needs to be taken out, they have no choice but to commit a very valuable unit to a task far beneath its worth. This is also an economic matter, as lower power units are cheaper and the Tau do not have an infinite supply of the rare materials needed to produce the strongest Battlesuits.

One could easily field a number of fire warriors for far less than the cost of a single battlesuit, and considering many foes will fall beneath "mere" infantry, any cost-aware faction would prefer the infantry's use over an expensive battlesuit. Similarly, when it comes to occupying or garrisoning territory, numbers of soldiers is significantly more important than quality of soldiers as they need to cover ground and establish a presence. In other words, they are the army who most resemble modern forces in terms of strategy, and mixed armies of infantry, armor and support elements are a good combination. And who the fuck can with a straight face call a pulse rifle and carapace grade armour "inferior equipment"? The view their equipment or doctrine is nerfed also ignores that armies have to replace lost and damaged equipment as well as actually get that equipment to the troops or they're absolutely fucked. An expensive army of battlesuits is lovely right until combat losses alongside wear and tear reach a point where the empires production can't keep up with losses or supply problems mean they don't reach the front (armies in 40k have been shown running low on ammo something far easier to produce and transport in large numbers than battlesuits). A army based around soldiers armed with "cheap" rifles and armour is a lot easier to produce and keep in the field even in the face of casualties or supply problems.

The Tau's superior [[Dakka|firepower]] is similar to that of the [[Imperial Guard]], but their strategy is different in that they tend to rely less on mass warfare and more on sophisticated technical support (drones, stealth technology, railguns), with an emphasis on tactical precision, mobility, and the initiative of individual squads of units, much like how modern warfare is waged (apparently if the Imperial Guard learned from Tau tacticians and fought with modern tactics instead of zergrushing everything then they would have been the most powerful army in the galaxy, but no, that ain't GRIMDARK and AWESOME enough [unless you're [[Lord Solar Macharius|Macharius]]]). Their military doctrine is not based on winning by attrition and/or throwing out quality tactics in favour of absorbing and dishing out heavy shocks in bloody epic clusterfucks like the Imperials, Orks and early World War II-era Soviet Russia. (Unless you count the later war "deep warfare", which is actually the combat doctrine the Tau ripped off. 40k really seems to like the Russians...)

Rather, they use infiltration and their sophisticated battlesuits to [[Anal Circumference|bypass enemy strong points and launch deep into their rear]], cutting supply lines and logistics, destroying headquarters and support units, leaving enemies cut off and functionally helpless. There are numerous examples of Tau literally starving and/or thirsting entire armies to death by cutting out their supply lines, while simultaneously harassing them with night raids, ambushes and air strikes to the point the survivors are leaderless, demoralized, out of ammo and fuel, and can barely stand due to exhaustion. The [[Imperial_Armour_Volume_Three:_The_Taros_Campaign#Volume_Three_-_The_Taros_Campaign|Taros]] campaign is a prime example of these tactics (and of the Imperium's strategic stupidity).

Of course, these kinds of tactics only work fine against more convenient armies like the Imperial Guard or Orks. When it comes to Space Marines and Eldar, who sport mostly aerial/warp/webway supply lines, operate as elite armies without obvious weak spots to exploit, have similar or superior tactical mobility and badass officers that can survive most assassination attempts, Tau lose huge parts of their usual advantages (but get the numerical superiority in return). Against utterly unconventional foes, like Tyranids, Daemons or Necrons... well, all times they faced such foes, Tau either devised some entirely new strategies, or lost horribly.

[[File:TauTyr.jpg|thumb|left|300px|90% of Tau [[dakka]] comes in the form of [[Plasma|pretty blue lights.]]]]
The Tau, again, boast some of the most powerful ranged weaponry on the tabletop game, and can crank out more concentrated firepower than any other faction with the lone exception of the Imperial Guard and maybe the orks if you only count number of bullets in the air, and even then, the Tau's weapons hit quite a bit harder. They have pathetic hand-to-hand combat skills, however, and so the Tau bolster this by using several inducted races (the [[Kroot]], Vespid, and even some [[Gue'vesa|humans cut off from the Imperium during the Damocles Crusade]]) to act as buffers against assault troops to allow Tau Fire Warrior teams and their heavy, long-ranged firepower to tear enemies apart. The most pivotal, and perhaps most infamous, part of the Tau army are their [[Battlesuit|Battlesuits]], which can mount multiple heavy weapon systems and provide excellent mobility to their pilots, all on a fairly durable unit.

They also have an extremely powerful navy, though not quite as formidable as the Imperium's, if largely because of number differences. Tau air units are among the best in the game, with aircraft superior or equal to Imperial Guard equivalents, including a stealth fighter, multipurpose heavy fighter, a superheavy fighter with guns that can one-shot a Titan, and their own [[Manta|Titan-equivalent]] (which is a small starship). Unlike the Imperium, they usually deploy swarms upon swarms of flyers, with only Orks, Tyranids, and Necrons able to rival them in numbers when things come to dogfights—kind of the way the Imperial fleets' atmospheric support craft were supposed to work if fleet officers weren't a bunch of assholes who do everything they can to provide as little air support as possible.

On defense, the Tau are a bit unusual: they leave only token garrisons at their colonies to protect them. These garrisons are intended for scouting rather than combat, avoiding engagement in order to observe and report on invaders using Pathfinders, scanning towers, and drones. Because the Tau have fairly powerful spacefleets and usually keep their forces within reasoned distance of potential hotspots, any potential threat can be quickly dealt with by organizing a hunter cadre to be sent to deal with the situation. For those of you who don't get it, it's Frederick the Great's "he who tries to protect everything protects nothing" strategy.

Of course, this strategy means Tau must have some worlds actually being heavily defended - and in fact they do. Sept worlds tend to be guarded by some nasty space stations and garrisoned by an unreasonable amounts of hunter cadres and auxiliary troops, which allows them to act as major defensive nodes from which response fleets are dispatched and to which evacuation fleets rally (think feudal Japan style castles from which commanders would send trained garrisons out to protect the lands around it from encroaching armies), and in case some really scary shit like an Imperial crusade or a Tyranid hive-fleet comes into the sept, it is on the sept world where the decisive battle is fought (See the First Damocles Crusade for an example of this tactic in action).

This has, however, backfired on occasion, since it does mean that the Tau garrisons are very vulnerable in the initial stages of an attack. It also makes them very vulnerable to Orphean War style rapid assaults where the attacker is advancing so quickly the defender doesn't even have time to relay the news that they're under attack to the rest of their army. While the Tau haven't yet faced something like the Maynarkh Dynasty, they are awfully close to the Sautekh Dynasty and Imotekh is a noted cantankerous asshole and egotistical conqueror.

A rare advantage the Tau have is their willingness to change military strategy. As examples, look at how they changed tactics in reaction to the [[Damocles Crusade]] by the Imperium of Man, and even built an entirely new space fleet to match humans in straight-on space fights, or their unusual but effective choice of switching to older weapons when dealing with [[Hive Fleet Gorgon]].

==Fleet==
In the old fluff, Tau used to have a reverse-engineered imperial warp drives, tuned to only skim the surface of the warp and bounce back to materium after a short while. New fluff on the other hand retconned that, by giving them what is called "slingshot drive" for their FTL, and from what little fluff we have on it, it looks like the actual warp drive (in the modern physics meaning, i.e. warped time-space bubble). The practical applications, however, are the same in both new and old fluff - Tau FTL is much slower than the Imperium's, but is predictable, reliable, and not affected by warp storms (a big deal, given Tau spent half of their history inside one). As a result, Tau are capable of building proper interstellar logistics lines, ones the Administratum can only dream of, but their strategic mobility is <s>lacking functionally superior to</s>...different compared to pretty much every other faction (even the non-Warp drive using FTL factions are different; the Necrons and Eldar teleport while the Tyranids bring their production power with them).

Additionally, Slingshot drives are rather big, heavy and power-hungry, even compared to the Warp drive (which takes up a 1/3rd of a smaller imperial ships). As a result, escort-class Tau spacecraft are built without FTL drives and are hooked to bigger ships for the purpose of interstellar travel, which basically make them equivalents of the Imperium's system monitor ships, with the same benefits (cheap, compact and too fast, powerful or durable for their size) without their major downside (being incapable of FTL flight). The Tau also have to concentrate their forces on an interplanetary scale; they can't throw a bunch of ships into a warzone from halfway across the galaxy as orks and humans can.
Tau empire have two fleets:
*Kor'Vatra, or "merchant fleet", is made of older modular ships that double as merchant and colony vessels (hence the name). One of their main shticks is huge arcs of fire for most gun batteries, with side batteries easily covering front arc, and nose batteries covering all but the stern - as a result, while Kor'vatra Ships may not have as much firepower as Imperial or Ork ones, they can focus more of it on one target. On the flip side, merchant ships while decently fast at sub-light, are not very agile, and must rely on escort wings and auxiliary fleets against more maneuverable foes. Even after the founding of Kor'Or'Vesh, Kor'Vatra still see a lot of military use, especially against the Imperium, <i>precisely</i> because it's regarded as non-military fleet, so Tau diplomats could tell their imperial colleagues "What battle cruisers on your orbit are you talking about? It's just our merchant vessels, moving goods to and from our trade missions".
*Kor'Or'Vesh, or "combat fleet" is a newer fleet, made for battling Imperium's fleet in straight up battle, after Kor'Vatra get run over during Damocles crusade. Made out of more compact, maneuverable and better armored ships, it may lack Kor'Vatra's wide arks of fire, but is superior in every other regard, and as Taros and second Damocles campaigns showed it is more then capable of fighting off humans even if outnumbered.
Both fleets use largely the same technologies - railguns as (by tau standard) short-ranged high damage gun batteries, ion cannons as long range beams (lance equivalent), and above all, their brokenly-powerful ordinance second only to Eldar ones (and available in far greater numbers) - Mantas, Barracudas and EMP drone-torpedoes reign supreme at extreme ranges, gaining Tau navy the same reputation their ground armies have. Because their ordinance is so powerful, most Tau ships tend towards carrier and torpedo boat archetype, and suffer horribly if enemy comes within macro-cannon or god-forbid boarding range (that is IF they manage to come that close).

==Non-combat Fluff==
[[File:Tau city.jpg|450px|thumb|right|Contrary to what [[Imperium of Man|some]] believe, what this picture shows might just be the future for the entire galaxy if the Tau [[Great Crusade|get their way.]]]]
The Tau were a new race/culture found by the Imperium of Man during their "slash and burn" exploration of their galactic neighborhood. The Tau were still pastoral, had just discovered flint tools and charcoal, and the Imperium had them scheduled for "[[Grimdark|routine cleansing]]" (Low Gothic for “ruthless genocide”) to make sure they never got off-world and developed into an entity capable of threatening humanity. Needless to say, that plan was promptly [[derp|fucked up]]. By an unfortunate (or fortunate, depending on your feelings towards a species' right to not be mercilessly exterminated for no reason whatsoever) coincidence which almost certainly involved the dickery of [[Tzeentch]] or [[Cegorach]] or [[The Deceiver|something]], a warp storm occluded the Tau homeworld, so nobody could get in or out. Since the Tau were virtually invisible in the warp, the warp storm didn't have much of an effect on them as they were immune to the influences of Chaos.

[[FAIL|The sector was labeled "lost to Chaos,"]] and cleansing was [[What|deferred indefinitely]]. Then [[Age of Apostasy|this shit]] happened, and almost all records about Tau were lost in the ensuring [[Rape|clusterfuck]] of civil war. Only the Adeptus Mechanicus still had records of this first contact when the storm died down 6,000 years later. The Damocles Crusade relocated the Tau, who were completely untouched by the warp storm and now using interstellar colony ships and pulse rifles. The extermination order still stood—it was just going to be much more difficult than the Imperium expected, seeing as the Tau, instead of [[C.S. Goto|throwing spears and rocks at their tanks]] and Space Marines, were now throwing [[ion cannon|ion charges]], [[plasma|plasma blasts]], and [[railgun|electromagnetically-accelerated hypervelocity projectiles]] at their tanks and Space Marines.

Tau history is pretty typical up through the iron-age: a knack for engineering, warfare between "urban" farmers and "barbarian" nomads, and unrestrained growth causing a series of plagues, leading to a dark age. Here's where things go sideways, though the Tau see it as the start of their endless Golden Age: the arrival of the Ethereals. Legend tells of a five-year siege at the castle of Fio'taun, with both sides starving and succumbing to disease, when two foreign Tau entered the battlefield. One went to the castle, the other to the barbarian tribes. Each of these Tau had a quiet grace and irresistible authority. In just a few hours, the castle was persuaded to open their gates, and the barbarians laid down their weapons, and both parties met to parley a truce.

These strange Tau called themselves "Ethereals," and stressed the importance of peace and understanding between all Tau. They described a "Greater Good" that each Tau must strive towards. Soon after, soon enough to seem simultaneous, more of these strange new Tau emerged across the continent with their message of peace and co-operation for all Tau. Their quiet authority was always respected, and their message of harmony was universally embraced. Wait a minute, [[God-Emperor of Mankind|I've seen this]] [[Great Crusade|historical pattern before]]....

Perhaps uniquely for the setting, Tau-human interactions bear the whiff of realpolitik. On the one hand, the Imperium wants to exterminate them ''eventually'', but the upper management generally realizes that the Tau are going to be a giant drain of resources and manpower to get rid of, given the stiff resistance they put up in [[Damocles Crusade|previous campaigns]] and their [[Riptide|uniformly]] [[railgun|advanced]] [[battlesuit|technology]]. Furthermore, they serve as a useful buffer state against various threats on the Eastern Fringe, from Orks and Chaos raiders to Tyranid hive fleets to alien forces the Imperium hasn't had (recorded) contact with. Their existence deflects danger from Imperial space, and in a place and time when the Imperium is [[Time of Ending|coming under attack from all sides]], that's more important than dogma.

This strategy is not unique to the Tau only though, as the Imperium allows countless other (much more dangerous) xeno empires to prosper in the Eastern Fringe to serve as an ablative shield against much nastier shit. Amongst those is (for example) the Charadon ork empire, which is older than the Imperium and spawns a Waaagh! or two per millennium (even with the routine warboss assasination raids that the Ultramarines make). Even after the emergence of the genius warboss Snagrod and his Waagh on Rynn no one cared to issue a crusade against them. So yeah, the Tau empire is not even close to being spotted by the High Lords, not to mention recognized as a threat dangerous enough to actually do something about.

Conversely, the Tau have realized just how massive an undertaking expanding through the entire universe would really be, and are taking it slow. They mostly absorb Imperial buffer worlds stripped of manpower and armament in the face of massive redeployments to face other threats, offering the Empire's protection in return for annexation and outright conquering the places that don't take the deal. The Tau have claimed that they are engaging in this sort of aggressive behavior because ''someone's'' going to [[Tyranids|gobble]] those settlements up sooner or later, and if ''they'' don't do it, then whoever does won't be [[Exterminatus|nearly as nice about it]]. While baldly self-serving, that logic is...well, mostly correct, really.

There's no lost love between the Imperium and the Tau, but open full-scale war is probably unlikely in the near-future.

And then the Second Damocles Crusade happened.... even the imperium isn't that stupid, so this almost certainly involves that tricky dick Tzeench trying to stop the greater good from ruining all his plans. ...Or nurgle...or, well any of the ruinous powers really. Or that ancient scheming old sperg [[Eldrad]], for that matter.

Looking at the new galactic map, where the Tau are now sandwiched between their own eye of terror and a Necron dynasty, they are soon to be fucked.

=== Castes ===
[[File:Commander HawkEye.jpg|thumb|290px|right|<s>Join the Greater Good, lose your virginity to a hot alien babe!</s> Unapproved of sexual contact is an offence to the greater good Gue'La. Now get back to work or you won't get your overtime pay! ]]
Tau society after the arrival of Ethereals was organized into castes; everyone with a place, and a place for everyone. [[Love Can Bloom|Interbreeding between castes and Xenos races]] is one of the most severe crimes in the Empire, in other words, [[Heresy]]. This was outlawed by the [[Ethereal]]s presumably to preserve the biological differences between castes, and as part of this effort they have taken over the practice of sex entirely. Tau society has been manipulated so that Tau do not form romantic bonds of a long-lasting nature and do not even consider sex to be anything other than a state-mandated act meant only, like everything else, to serve society and the Greater Good. In essence, Tau are conditioned to never have sex until and unless their superiors say they are worth breeding.

Their superiors pick their breeding partners (the Tau get NO input into this) and the couple basically spends a few days off from work screwing around before going their separate ways to never see each other again. If a Tau did somehow get over their social conditioning and thought of sex as something more than a mandated duty, they'd be [[Blam|punished/killed for illegal activities/perversion]]. An Imperial genetor's report in the fourth edition Tau codex observes the presence of synthetic proteins in Tau internal organs and suggests them as evidence that their evolution has been accelerated, though he might have been confused by synthetic proteins that the Tau were given. [[/tg/]] seems to be under the strong impression that they are mammals, as you can see in the picture further down the page, despite the complete implausibility of this theory. The frequent [[/d/|sexualization]] of the Tau by fa/tg/uys is a mystery to many, but clearly not all. [[PROMOTIONS|Not nearly enough]], in fact.

==== {{anchor|Fire|Fire Caste}} Shas (Fire) ====
The '''Fire Caste''' consists of the various [[Fire Warrior|warriors]] of the Tau Empire. The miniatures of a Tau army in a [[Warhammer 40,000]] game are almost exclusively Fire Caste. Other castes think Shas are overly-aggressive hotheads due to their tendency to solve all problems by applying more plasma (when Tau encountered other sentient species, Fire Caste representatives immediately voted to hunt down and exterminate them, just like they hunted down dangerous local life forms on the other world they colonized), although for Humans and Eldar, who's history knows numerous [[Wyches|kinky]], [[Haemonculus|horrid]], [[World_Eaters|Earthshatteringly mad]], [[Night_Lords|batshit insane]], [[Blood Angels|bloodthirsty]] individuals and groups, mention of the "Aggressively Hotheaded" Tau would end up with them collectively pointing fingers and laughing at them. On the other hand, it also shows how calm and disciplined other castes are.

They are taller than Earth Caste Tau, and physically stronger than the Air and Water Castes, though still shorter and weaker than a typical Human. They pretty much compensate for this by giving their basic Fire Warrior a [[pulse rifle]], which is sort of like an automatic sniper-[[plasma]] gun, and employ heavily armed and sophisticated battlesuits for their elite infantry. Oh yeah, and [[Railgun]]s. Company -sized Tau forces are called "Hunter Cadres".

==== {{anchor|Earth|Earth Caste}} Fio (Earth) ====
The '''Earth Caste''' are the laborers and engineers; they are the "civilians" of Tau society. Their appearance can vary widely, though other Tau would describe them as "plain." They all have a stoic outlook, with little ambition other than to excel in their career of choice and work for the Greater Good. Unlike the Imperial worker classes, whose quality of life generally ''starts'' at working 14-hour days seven days a week while living off of dried, recycled dung chips and goes [[Such is life on Volg|''downhill from there'']], the Earth caste is mostly concerned with technological planning and engineering.

They have robots to do the grunt work. The Farsight Enclaves field some Earth Caste pilots for their battlesuits, demonstrating their more flexible caste systems and/or their desperation for manpower. Doing so makes them ''even worse'' in close-combat than Tau already are, but they make up for it with technical training and tweaks to the suits' software and mechanics, re-rolling missed shots and equipment failures.

==== {{anchor|Air|Air Caste}} Kor (Air) ====
The '''Air Caste''' are the intermediaries between Tau. In more primitive times they served as messengers and couriers, and sometimes scouts/explorers, gliding on membranous anatomical surfaces through T'au's atmosphere. When the Tau started exploring offworld, it was the Air Caste that took charge of the vessels traveling between the stars. Now the Air Caste are the Tau stellar navy/airforce/mailmen, piloting the Empire's various carriers, warships, and emissary cruisers. Air caste Tau tend to be tall and slender like runners or dancers, and this is frequently exaggerated by the years the Tau navy spends in low-gravity.

They are much less likely to be eaten by [[daemon]]s due to a faulty Geller Field than their Imperial equivalents, but only because their ships are much slower, using a "slingshot drive" to temporarily enter the Warp and bounce back into real space. Despite their slender stature and lack of muscle mass, Air caste pilots are extremely resistant to G-force, making them excellent void and atmospheric fighter pilots (simultaneously, as small Tau voidcraft also double as atmospheric craft).

==== {{anchor|Water|Water Caste}} Por (Water) ====
The '''Water Caste''' are the emissaries to non-Tau. They are diplomats, merchants, civil servants. The most open-minded Tau can be found among the Water caste, with some even showing individual ambition (but still for the greater good of the Tau Empire). When a new culture is encountered, the Water caste are sent in first to negotiate. If talks break down, the Water caste are withdrawn from the area and it's time for the Fire Caste to then start negotiating with pulse weapon fire. Also, unlike their Imperial equivalents in bureaucracy, the [[Administratum]], they are brisk, efficient, and very good at their jobs. No dumping valuable ammo on an uninhabited dust world because no one signed the paperwork not to.

It's a less known fact that Pors also run the Tau intelligence and espionage network, and Por'Os and Por'Els from this branch are pretty much Tau Inquisitors except more competent, much saner, and not nearly as good at kicking asses personally. As of the second Damocles Crusade the Imperium has designated the Water caste as a primary threat above any other Tau caste, as their subterfuge, diplomacy and propaganda has cost the Imperium more worlds and manpower than the Fire and Air caste's military prowess combined, and they even managed to totally outplay the Inquisition on its own field, which royally pissed them off.

==== {{anchor|Ethereal|Ethereal Caste}} Aun (Ethereal) ====
The '''Ethereal Caste''' are basically the philosopher-kings described by Plato in "The Republic". They are selfless and always focused on what is best for the Greater Good ("Tau'va") for all Tau and every Tau without exception. The Ethereals are inspirational to all Tau caste members, and merely being near one will inspire a Tau soldier, engineer, pilot, or diplomat to work harder.

In the case of the Fire Caste, some Ethereals accompany hunter cadres in battle during important deployments so as to better lead/inspire the troops, which works because all Tau in the combat zone will fight to their bitter deaths. They also seem to have semi-magical powers (don't ask how they work, none of the Tau know themselves) that allow Tau around them to do special things, like running while shooting. The [[Adeptus Mechanicus]] theorizes that the respect the Ethereal Caste gets from all other Tau is caused by a pheromone. <b>ALL GLORY TO THE HYPNOTAU......</b>.
Also, ''[[Xenology]]'' relates a story from a major, insectoid race called the [[Q'Orl]] which alleges that the [[Eldar]] stole one of their queens. Given that these queens have a magic, yellow, diamond-shaped sack that produces mind-control pheromones…well, let's just say the characters in the story figure it out quickly enough. There is a theory that the Ethereals themselves are also affected by their own pheromones, which could explain why they're so selfless and uncorrupted despite their absolute power (although being uncorrupted no longer seems to apply after 7th/8th edition).

This can also be supported by the (old as fuck and likely retconned) novelization of [[Warhammer_40,000:_Fire_Warrior|Fire Warrior]], where the Ethereal character has a pretty level head and chipper demeanor despite having been [[Anal_Circumference|repeatedly captured and tortured by both the Inquisition and Chaos, watching his diplomatic retinue chopped up by a Chaos Lord, and mind-raped by said Chaos Lord all in the span of roughly two days.]] Either he's a stoic old motherfucker, or he's just too busy tripping his blue balls on his own pheromones to give a shit.

8th ed has a particularly interesting story in it and it proves without a shadow of a doubt: the Ethereal caste does use some kind of mind-altering substance or influence on the Tau. During a meeting with Commander O'Ryn and Aun'Va (who is a solid hologram controlled by an AI at this point) in the planet of Junica, their location was ambushed by Chaos forces and Aun'Va (or the AI acting like Aun'Va) ordered O'Ryn to send her forces on what's essentially a suicide mission. O'Ryn, not seeing the point of throwing her and her soldiers' lives at such a hopeless battle, actually ''defied'' the command of an ethereal (and the space pope himself, no less) and retreated. It could've been an interesting and pretty terrifying critique of how manipulative a totalitarian system can be and that the Ethereals don't shy away from anything to keep the people in line. But no, it was explained with mind control, which is way lazier and honestly way less terrifying.

O'Ryn was eventually declared a renegade and Farsight took her in, but it does indeed prove that the unflinching and unquestioning loyalty and fanaticism that the ethereals' physical presence inspire on nearby Tau aren't due to their charisma or the Tau's indoctrination, and instead on something more sinister. To put this into perspective: O'Ryn has been the first Tau since Farsight to actively defy an ethereal's command and the main reason she was able to do so was because she was speaking to an AI-controlled drone, instead of the actual space pope.

===Tau Names===
Tau have ridiculously long, detailed and actually meaningful names. Their names contain their caste, rank, birth sept, and one or more nicknames earned by them through the course of their lives. Fluff does say that they ''do'' have birth names, but those are only used before tau earn at least one appropriate nickname, as a name given to them by comrades is considered more valuable than one just chosen by random at their birth. The nickname part and it's importance surprisingly is actually taken from the Roman culture, which is weird, given most Tau culture tend to be based on China and Japan (except for their social and government structures which are copied almost verbatim from Plato's Republic).

Also, do note the lack of last names, which is expected, since Tau society pretty much have no institute of a family, with children being raised in a centralized facilities apart from their parents. As tau grow, move through ranks and achieve respect of his comrades his name changes appropriately, switching the rank part, adding new nicknames and sometimes dropping the old and outdated ones. For example, when Farsight was still a lowly fire warrior, his name was '''Shas'La Vior'La Shoh''' (Fire Caste Private of the Hot-Blooded sept Inner Light), and at the "present days" '''Shas'O Vior'La Shovah Kais Mont'yr''' (Fire Caste Commander of the Hot-Blooded sept Farsight Skillful Blooded). How the fuck Tau bureaucracy is able to keep track of their population with their names constantly changing is a mystery, but it seems they have no problem with that, probably because they just track ID numbers when names are too much of an issue like most sane people who work with databases.

For the sake of convenience Tau often use shortened versions of names, almost always dropping the sept part and secondary nicknames, and if speaking within one caste the caste part too, so in the case of Farsight other fire warriors could refer to him as O'Shovah, while for example an Ethereal would call him Shas'O'Shovah (assuming Farsight allows this given his seething hatred of Ethereals, he's the type who'd force them to use his full name out of spite). Humans and other non-Tau often get this system wrong and shorten the names in a ways that make little sense: for example, Imperium's Taros invasion force thought the Taros' chief Ethereal's name was Aun'El, which was only his caste and rank, and as the book was mostly written from the Imperium's standpoint, we still don't know what was his actual name.

One final stroke of Tau naming, is that as they abandon their true (birth) names it makes them even more resistant to sorcery and daemonic powers that often require target's true name to amplify their effect or even make the spell work at all.

===Psychic/Chaos Defenses===
Tau are an entire race of psychic blunts, they cannot produce psykers and have limited innate resistance to some forms of psychic powers and daemonic bullshit. People often mistake this resistance to outright invulnerability, but in truth it's more akin to camouflage - Tau souls are so dim they are indistinguishable from the spirits of non-sapients at best, and at most times they even blend in the psychic background of inanimate objects. This may have something to do with how unemotional tau are, as some of the more passionate subjects in the fluff had been slightly affected by warp shenanigans like faint whispers and slight feelings of "wrongness" in places where humans creep out and try to run away immediately, while more calm and collected tau hadn't noticed anything strange. If for example a telepath tries to mind-rape a tau or a daemon tries to posses a tau he'd find it hard to find a soul to target, but if he manages to find it there would be even less resistance than with regular humans. Sadly while this trait is often shown in the fluff, it does not affect tau crunch in any way.

This innate defense is further strengthened by the Greater Good philosophy deeply indoctrinated into each Tau from childhood and (allegedly) reinforced by a subtle mind control. Tau'Va being the antithesis of all the creeds of Chaos makes Tau all but immune to its temptations, and only a single Tau has ever actually fallen to Chaos, the Water Caste member Water Spider who was possessed by a Daemon of Tzeentch. That being said, the Tau have only just been exposed to the more material horrors of the galaxy; should they become jaded and start losing faith in the Greater Good (as inferred with giving up on indoctrinating certain species), well, that would be an entirely different situation. Their allies, including the Kroot, have been known to go all-in with Chaos worship, although Tau seldom take culture from their allied races.

8th Ed is here, and has confirmed that the Tau aren't immune to Chaos, just slightly difficult for Daemons to spot. When the Tau started the 4th Sphere Expansion with their new warp drives: they didn't take a note from the Imperials' tech and failed to invent the [[Gellar Field]] too, meaning they were fully vulnerable to the Warp's denizens. The entire experience was hilarious. First was the unpredictability of their warp drives (known as "slipstream technology" to them) that caused most of their expeditionary fleet to be destroyed due to unleashing massive tears in the fabric of reality, [[lulz|while being broadcasted to the Tau sept worlds, causing the Ethereals to rapidly evacuate their bowels as they scramble to censor the event to the wider populace.]] Those that weren't immediately torn up by the warp rifts, were sucked into the Warp where a vast majority was either destroyed after drifting in the more unsavory parts of the Warp, or the various daemons mucking about.

Contact was lost, but the Tau managed to find the survivors later, nestled into several worlds that were the original target for conquest. The Tau that survived however, were acting weird. Some of them started shoving off the Greater Good, while some worshiped a voice that they claim to be the Greater Good itself (which may or may not be a warp entity), while some were outright driven insane. A disturbing trend about them however, is their total [[Imperium|xenophobia and brutality]]. Any non-Tau who wasn't driven off from the 4th Sphere colonies were murdered for [[Chaos God|something]] that was telling the survivors that the auxiliaries were the reason for their loss and torment due to their more powerful connection to the Warp, so killing all non-Tau was the only way to ensure the survival of the Greater Good.

That being said, they're still hard for Daemons to see, considering that the Fourth Sphere dove into the Warp unprotected and "merely" got off with plain Chaos corruption when most people who try that shit critfails their [[anal circumference]] roll and either gets torn apart by daemon cocks or becomes [[Chaos Spawn|an Unnameable Beast]]. But this event does still prove that the Chaos Gods can still influence the Tau with enough warp exposure, so it wouldn't be surprising if a few of them started going bughouse-nuts and began carving 8-pointed stars on their persons in the future. Especially with virtually the entire [[Death Guard]] and a large force of the [[Thousand Sons]] heading straight for the wormhole that links the Fourth Sphere colonies to the center of the Empire...

==Alliances==
{{MattWard}}
[[File:Illus4.jpg|280px|right|thumb|Unfortunately for some [[Slaanesh|deviants]] [[Extra Heresy|and heretical elements on]] [[/tg/]]. [[Not as Planned|This is what an actual canon Tau Female looks like.]] No boobs, no curves, no ass, no redeeming qualities other than having a face of your grandmother and the nose of a mutilated vag. Know the alien. Hate the alien. Purge the alien. The Emperor Protects! <s>This is an Ethereal though, so the other castes should be fair game.</s>]]
In 6th edition, Tau are notable for being one of two factions (the other being Imperial Guard) who can ally with anyone except for 'Nids. Yes, this includes both Chaos Space Marines and Chaos Daemons, although, according to the Farsight Enclaves supplement, <s>Farsight is one of the few Tau (maybe the only one ''period'') who actually understands the existence of Chaos, so the average Tau would consider them to be just another kind of alien.</s> Farsight rebelled because the Ethereals understand the existence of Chaos on some level, but keep it suppressed from the general populace so they're not entirely screwed. [[Emperor|Which sounds vaguely familiar]]. It is probably going to end [[Horus Heresy|about as well]], too (although due to cultural differences likely in it's own distinct way); all of this is, of course, assuming that the 'nids don't NOM everything before the Tau get the opportunity to fuck their own shit up.

Their current level of naïveté leads to a few... ''interesting'' alliances, to say the least.

First off, Tau ''can'' ally with [[Ork]]s, even though fluff-wise they are viewed as enemies of the Greater Good to be purged wherever encountered. Smaller Ork warbands (mostly [[Blood Axes]]) frequently act as mercenaries, of course, so the Tau might use them in that capacity. Plus, there might be fluff changes coming up (most notably, it was rumored that the [[Gretchin Revolutionary Committee]] would return in the new Orks codex; they, of course, would get along quite well with the Tau).

They are also battle brothers with both the Space Marines and Eldar, which has caused a large amount of headscratching on /tg/. The Eldar make a modicum of sense; after all, the Eldar most likely had a hand in their synthetic evolution and the creation of the Ethereals, and the Eldar are well known for being expert manipulators. A Tau-Space Marine alliance, though, would be odd, to say the least, since Tau and Space Marines are always going at it in the [[fluff]]. Of course, a minor [[Space Marine Chapter|chapter]] could always find an alliance with the Tau, or even [[Heresy|join the Greater Good]], but that seems far-fetched at best. Old fluff from back in the 3rd edition codex tells a story of a Tau commander letting an Apothecary remove the aul glands from dead Marines, establishing that the Tau are honourable warriors in the minds of this particular chapter. Isn't too hard to guess that someone at GW felt the battle brothers thing was a bit of a head-desk move, so they tried to fix it.

The weirdest part, though, is that Tau ''aren't'' Battle Brothers with the Imperial Guard, despite (or maybe because of) the existence of [[Gue'vesa]] (Imperial Guard defectors).

7th edition corrected all of this for the Tau, making them only battle brothers with themselves and certain allies of convenience, like Necrons and the Eldar, while the rest are desperate allies or, in the case of daemons and 'Nids, allies of the apocalypse. This effectively "fixes" the issue from the point of view of a butthurt puritan while still allowing for those who bought Tau models to include them as allies in their games.

8th edition totally destroyed any chance of Tau having allies in matched play games. Taudar is dead, thank fuck.

==Tau Member Races==
[[File:Dynamic entry by majesticchicken.jpg|right|thumb|550px|Look up fuckers! You're invited to the latest imperial party and we're not taking "no" for an answer!]]
The Tau are the only faction that willingly accept other races into their ranks. Typically, the races are extended a hand from the Water Caste first, and if they still pose a problem or otherwise refuse to be reasoned with, the Fire Warriors are sent in. It should be noted that tau usually are not in haste of annexing the world, and if the aliens don't want to join right now but aren't immediately hostile and open to trade, Water Caste would slowly but surely convert them into a Greater Good to the point that one day they themselves would ask to join the Empire. The species, when annexed or conquered, are usually allowed to keep their planet, but must answer to the authority of the local Ethereal and possibly the local Shas'o. Most of them are fluff and don't show up on the tabletop, but it would get a little ridiculous if you could purport to play a 'single' 40k race that included, like, twelve different races.

* Demiurg - <s>[[Squats]] reborn.</s> NOT ANYMORE the Squats are back and not Demiurg at all! They are a race of space-faring miners specializing in ionic weaponry who serve the Tau with their engineering and mining abilities. They also serve as an example of something the Imperium will never do: <s>save dead codex races (Well, okay, they're sort of saved...).</s> They make an appearance in Battlefleet Gothic: Armada though, so that's nice.
* Galgs - Frog/Toad People who are regularly hired as mercenaries. No other information available. Probably [[Lizardmen#Slann|Slann]] In Space.
* [[Gue'vesa]] - Humans who have not only defected to the Tau, but chosen to take up arms and fight alongside them to serve the Greater Good. Rules for them are found in [[Forge World|Forge World's]] Imperial Armour Volume 3. (If the current trend goes on we may see Sisters join up with the Tau, <s>which might be an improvement for the Sisters.)</s>{{BLAM}}{{BLAM|HERESY!}}
* Hrenian - Alien mercenaries employed for their skills as light infantry. No other information available. Probably [[Lizardmen#Skinks|Skinks]] In Space.
* Ji'atrix - A spacefaring race. No other information available. (Dammit, GW [[Writefag|writefags]].)
* [[Kroot]] - Predatory gene-assimilating avian humanoids. They are the first alien race to be actively recruited by the Tau as mercenaries, and are so regularly hired that they have officially progressed to being considered Auxiliaries of the Tau forces.
* [[Vespid|Mal'kor]] - Insectoid aliens, also known as Vespids, who are native to a gas giant planet within the Tau Empire. Serve as Auxiliaries.
* Morralian - Also known as "Deathsworn". No other information available.
* [[Nicassar]] - A voidfaring race of [[psyker]]s and the only psychically-gifted species in the Tau Empire. The Tau have carefully hidden them away from the Imperium due to their (actually justifiable) psyker-phobia. Were the second alien species to join the Greater Good.
* Ranghon - No information available.
* [[Tarellian]] - These guys are basically [[Lizardmen#Saurus|Saurus]] IIIIN SPAAAAACE!!!!!! Not really part of the Empire, but rather mercenaries who will gladly fight humans and Tyranids on the cheap since the Imperium virus-bombed their home world and the Tyranids nommed their biggest colony.
* Poctroon - The first sapient species to be found by the Tau, [[wikipedia:Siege of Fort Pitt|they were "accidentally" driven extinct by Tau smallpox]], and their planet just by coincidence was a great place to set a Sept World.
* Nagi - Brain worms that, due to their horrific appearance and inability to communicate, were attacked by the Fire Caste. They managed to sort it out, though, and now they work with the Ethereals as advisors (because having brain worms about as "advisors" isn't a bad idea or anything). They have been shown in a few books so far, and were involved in a "mind-rip" (guess outright calling it "rape" was too much) of a space marine POW, while being so self-righteous and smug about their mental superiority they could give Eldar a run for their money. Apparently they can also at least perceive the Warp (which they call "extra-dimensional space"), and probably manipulate it as well, and know enough about it to outright refuse to go anywhere near demonically-tainted Agrellan when the Tau invaded it.
* Ji'atrices, Morralians, or Ranghons are probably other Warhammer Fantasy Races In Space, such as [[Lizardmen#Kroxigor|Kroxigors]] or Trolls, given the overall tendency of the Tau to incorporate Fantasy races missing from 40k.

The usually genocidal actions of the other races, most notably the [[Imperium]], also serve as a motivating factor for less-powerful races to join the Tau. While the Tau do seem a minor threat to the Imperium now, if the current policy continues, there will be more and more races joining up with the them if for no other reason than avoiding [[Exterminatus|extermination]]. Of course, the Tau are just coming to realize how vast and powerful the Imperium really is, and while a lot of their member races really ''are'' the victims of crazy, evil, fascist extermination protocols, there's always the chance that someone responsible for a "Hell World" or "Nightmare World" might join up, and the damage might be done before they realize their mistake...,

==In a Nutshell==
;'''The Stated Reason Why People Hate Tau'''
Weeaboo space confucianists (Asian Commies)—not grimdark enough.
;'''The ''Real'' Reason Why People Hate Tau'''
Until the edition update, this would, most assuredly, be [[Fish of Fury]]. Fuck, even most Tau players felt this was bullshit. Post-edition update, it was that certain [[Matt Ward|undesirables]] felt that they were trying to take the mantle of the 40K universe's "rightful" Imperial protagonists. And because they are not [[Choppa|choppy]] enough. And then 6th Edition codex came, and Tau became one of the shootiest armies in the shootiest edition ever, not to mention their ability to bitchslap cheesmongers, having straight counters against any of the Wardex bullshit. When the 7th edition came out they became overpowered AF and they took the title as the chedder cheese of Warhammer.
More generally, the Tau battle philosophy is "deny your opponent the chance to interact with you," which is a good philosophy for real soldiers but can make for frustrating or uninteresting gameplay.
;'''A Real Reason Why People Like Tau'''
The one race that isn't being a wall of dicks. If the Tau are trolling done by Games Workshop, then the target of said trolling was any fatbeard that needs a constant supply of grimdark to stay alive. Of course, the mind-influencing pheromones they use to conquer new worlds and their psycho-indoctrination mass re-education facilities will just have to be ignored if you don't want destroy your wishful thinking for a half-way decent faction to exist in 40k. But people have always been good at ignoring shit that doesn't fit into their perceived image of something.
;'''Another Real Reason Why People Like Tau'''
Unlike many other Races in 40k the Tau are capable of fitting into many other Sci-fi Universes without much Problems. Such as Star trek where they would be at home along side other Peaceful yet also Tyrannical Factions like the Federation. Compared to the Necrons or Eldar which would be both Roflstomps and completely different from all other groups in that Universe. (Unless it [[Doctor Who|Doctor Who]]).
;'''The Real Reason Why People Play Tau'''
Arguably have the most powerful guns in the game. Often twin-linked. Often on cool-looking robot battlesuits. [[meme|Also markerlights]]. Also [[Riptide|RAPETIDE]]. Tau players may also have a tendency towards sadism.
;'''A Solid Reason People Don't Play Tau'''
They're fucking expensive. Seriously. On a points-per-pound level, they cost more than any other (plastic) army. This is doubly true if you like battlesuits, but of course you do because you're playing Tau.
;'''Helping Necrons? Or are they Necrontyr descendants?'''
An often overlooked issue is that Tau have almost no warp signatures, just like Necrons, hate Warpspawns and Warp in general (despite the fact that in 6E they can work with them...I just...I don't...WAAAARD!!!), just like Necrons, have the exact same skull shape, stature and short lives, and the overwhelming need for Technology and beam weapons, JUST LIKE NECRONS. [[GW]] may have planned a race that simply prepares a pacified, multiracial galaxy for Necrons to feast upon, supported by Ethereals that have a C'tan phase blade. Then there is a reference of "dark seed in east" by the Deceiver, so the tricky C'tan might give Tzeentch the finger in the [[JUST AS PLANNED]] competition. Or maybe GW just has so little creativity that they simply made a new civ conforming to an Old One's standards without knowing it. Given that recent murmurs have suggested that something absolutely massive is in the works at GW, ''anything'' could be possible, though past experience has led us to believe that it will simply be a Tau wearing a silly [[hat]].

==TL;DR==
<s>The good guys</S>
High-tech, Mech-loving alien race who are the ''least'' [[grimdark]] of factions. Can't melee for shit but can blow you back to the stone age with ranged weaponry if you have the misfortune of being downrange. You will either love them or hate them because of all this, and many neckbeards do feel the [[butthurt]]. For some reason Tau females are [[/d/|awkwardly sexualized]] by a non-insignificant minority of fa/tg/uys, which has shown up in some draw- and writefaggotry. As the saying goes: "You can't spell TAUNT without TAU."

== Warhammer Fantasy ==
Unlike most other factions in 40k, Tau have no clear antecedent from [[Warhammer Fantasy]]. Some think the anime influences and rapid industrialization/militarization point towards Nippon; others feel the caste system might be related to the Kingdom of Ind. However, neither faction has ever been explored in great detail (or any detail at all), so it's impossible to say whether Tau are similar to those factions; instead, we must compare to the real-world equivalents of the Old World nations. Slightly more controversially, there are elements of Cathay (which is the Anglicized word for China back in the British Empire heyday, so yes) in the Tau. Cathay has been described as being technologically advanced (at least on par with the Empire), including terra-cotta automaton warriors (which the Chinese definitely used to make to pay homage to the First Chinese Emperor's over inflated ego, more than a millennia ago), although such comparison is stated by some to have [[Skub|already been implemented in the characterization of the Eldar and thus, is considered as ''seriously'' stretching up a notch.]]

More recently, some have connected the Tau and their subject races to other factions in Fantasy. The rapid evolution of the Kroot and their overall savagery is (somewhat) similar to the Gors of the Beastmen (although the Beastmen are in the 40k universe themselves). The Empire also shares the xenos-friendly viewpoint of the Tau, although they're not expansionistic, and decidedly less concerned with a unified government structure so long as everyone pays their taxes, for better or for worse. Others compare them to dwarves: dwarves don't use Chaos magic, are short, technologically advanced, kinda casty and blue (understood in many countries as "hopelessly drunk") basicly all the time. Tau don't use Chaos warp magic, are short, technologically advanced, very casty and blue all the time (in regards to skin colour). Both also get seriously grudgy and angry when you piss them off.

==Trivia==
[[File:Tau Ripoff.jpeg|thumb|right|300px|FOR THE [[Blood Ravens|GREATER THEFT]]!]]
* Some have said that Tau resemble the protagonist KYNE from the Amiga video game Brataccas, which was released in 1986. Tau were first added to Warhammer 40k in late 2001. Some would dismiss this as coincidence, but Games Workshop has a long history of ripping off designs from other games; [[Beastmen]] are [[Broo]] from [[Glorantha]], very large chunks of 40k are a little too similar to [[Judge Dredd]], and all of the Greater Daemon model designs are stolen from early [[Dungeons & Dragons]]. These properties are understandable as Games Workshop was still selling games of those IPs when Warhammer was first created, but Brataccas is an obscure game from a forgotten system that was quite forgettable even at release, even if Amiga games tended to get fantastic cover art. This being said another of GW's early products was also puzzles of of this style of '70's/'80's Sci-Fi art. The Tau cast system does resemble the Protoss caste from [[Starcraft]], which predates the release of the Tau by 3 years... You have the Templar (Fire/Air Castes) Judicators (Ethereals + Water Castes) and Khalai (Earth Caste). In addition to a rogue sub-caste in the Dark Templar (Farsight Enclaves). This is Ironic considering that GW originally was making a deal with Blizzard to make games based on their properties. GW asked too much/Blizzard didn't like the terms and left... to make Warcraft and Starcraft. Just think, we <s>COULD have had a Warhammer Fantasy RTS</s> (Total War: Warhammer exists now) and World of Warhammer Fantasy Battle MMO. Starcraft would have become a Rogue Trader RTS. It was probably a mistake on GW's part, as they REALLY missed out. Stealing the Tau from the Protoss was probably done because GW was still salty.
* Tau are technically canon to the Marvel Comics universe, as the series Venom: Space Knight repeatedly used Tau vehicles for aliens in the scenery. In fact, they have the balls to even keep the Tau Sept symbol! Also, you can see what appears to be a Eldar tank, as well as a Necron. The irony of the ripoff masters Games Workshop getting ripped off is juicy, even more so when its realized that lawsuit-happy Games Workshop (who literally tried to copyright "pauldrons" while they plagiarized Eldar from Tolkien and had some contention between [[Malekith|two very similar Dark Elf characters of theirs]]) couldn't do shit about it because Marvel is owned by Disney, and nobody beats The Mouse™. (except Marvel/Disney settled out of court rather than risk the wrath of the Ordo Legalitus)

==Notable Tau==
===[[Canon]]===
*[[Aun'Va]]
*[[Aun'Shi]]
*[[El'Myamoto (Sub-commander Darkstrider)]]
*[[Shadowsun|O'Shaserra (Commander Shadowsun)]]
*[[Farsight|O'Shovah (Commander Farsight) and The Eight]]
*[[Commander Puretide]]
*[[Shas'o Kais]]
*[[Commander Or'es'Ka|Shas'o Or'es'Ka]]

===[[/tg/ 40,000]]===
*[[Blue]]
*[[Faptau]]
*[[O'ren I'shi'ii]]
*[[Shlicktau]]
*[[Xeno]]

==See Also==
[[File:Marvel Tau.jpg|thumb|right|250px|FOR THE GREATER GROOT!]]
* [[Nicassar]]
* [[Sept V'iet]]
* [[Tau Quest]]
* [[Warhammer 40,000: Fire Warrior]]
* [[Tau Dark Heresy]]
* [[Warhammer 40,000/Tactics/Tau(8E)|Tactics/Tau]]
* [[Tau Cadre Creation Tables]]
* [[Codex_-_Tau_Auxiliary]]
* [[Tau Diplomacy]]
* [[If the Emperor had a Text-to-Speech Device|<strike>Love Can Bloom 3:Golden Shadowsun</strike> NON-CANON FANFICTION GARBAGE]]

==External Link==
*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrHhS5IkRR0 A Typical Tau-Human conversation.]
*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbuPaCgdO50 Should one of your Tau actually kill anything tougher than a guardsman in melee, you are allowed to end the game in victory as long as you play this clip.]
*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhXCQFxGqMM Theme of the T'au Empire. Admittedly, its actually pretty amazing, all things considered.

==Gallery==
<center><gallery>
Image:Tau1.jpg|Stealth suits are :3
Image:Firewarrior.gif|Fire Warriors are :3 too
Image:Tau Chibi Fire Warrior.jpg|Chibi, but not weeby.
File:TauGuela.jpg|Gue'la.
Image:TauOrigin.jpg|Ohhh GW.
Image:Tau.gif|In 40k, everyones' guns are huge.
Image:Tau Fire Warrior.jpg|A Tau Fire Warrior, the basic infantry unit.
Image:Tau Firepower Demotivator.jpg|The sad truth of 6th edition.
Image:combine.jpg|In /tg/, tau are the bad guys.
Image:Itsyourempiretoo.png|Propaganda. [[Nazi|Sound]] [[Communism|familiar?]]
Image:Never shall the tau!.JPG|Surrender... never shall the Tau.
Image:Tauassault.jpg|Tau are vicious melee fighters, no less able than [[Space Marines]]!
Image:1234622525817.jpg|In hindsight, attempting negotiations with Orks was probably a bad idea.
Image:Tau Problem, Astartes.jpg|What's that? We're not grimdark enough for you, Neckbeard?
Image:Tau Sympathizer.jpg|The Imperial Infantryman's Uplifting Primer's entry on Tau players.
Image:Discotau.jpg|For the Greater Groove!
Image:Manta.jpg|Fun fact: if you have enough money to buy this, you have too much money.
Image:Tau cosplay2.jpg|Typical Tau player, engaging in typical Tau behavior. (Pretty badass cosplay, even got the hoof right)
Image:Tau Battlesuit vs Smurf.jpg|This Char Custom Battlesuit-clad Tau demonstrates his mastery of [[Weeaboo Fightan Magic]]. Also DYNAMIC ENTRY!
Image:E6abddad6c5999a1dbe6085d8614f051.jpg|Tau in close quarters combat barring some very lucky dice rolls.
</gallery></center>
{{Promotions}}
<center><gallery>
Image:TauKroot.jpg
Image:MARKERLIGHTS.png|MARKERLIGHTS!
Image:tau_firecleavage.jpg|Sweet [[Weeaboo|weeaboo]] [[Heresy|heresy]].
Image:Commissar Shadowsuns Goods by morganagod.jpg|DAT ASS.
Image:DAT_SHAS.jpg| A Fire Warrior appreciating DAT ASS.
Image:Tau ass.gif|A Greater Good we can all believe in.
Image:NOT FUCKING CANON.png| [[If the Emperor had a Text-to-Speech Device|THIS IS NOT FUCKING CANON!]]
Image:JoinTau.jpg|Some recruitment methodologies work better than others.
Image:Tau Chick.jpg|Few rarely seen Tau chicks. Maybe because Sisters are hotter.
Image:youtastefunny.jpg|Yeah, we all know the truth about their "greater good".
Image:Subcommander torchstar by sexual yeti-d9qal0l.png|Subcommander Torchstar, Farsight's personal fangirl.
Image:Tau_caste_nudes.jpg|Earth, Fire, Water, Air...Ethereal?!? SWEET MOTHER OF KHORNE!!! MY EYES!!!
Image:Laughing tau whores.jpg|S-shut up you filthy sluts! Among my people it is considered quite a handsome dick!
Image:Power Shopping.jpg|It's a well-known fact that the Tau Empire has some of the best shopping in the entire galaxy.
Image:Taugirlpile.jpg|Here we see Tau propaganda meant to entice men with their terrible, blasphemous, and supple soft skin, smooth curves, perky brea...er...ah...heretical alien bodies.
Image:TauHuman.jpg|Indeed, many humans have already embraced the Greater Good. (The individual with the primitive flashlight has been sent to re-education. Happiness is mandatory, Citizen.)
Image:greatertits.jpg|An attractive human female defector who for some reason has been equipped with a highly modified commander's battlesuit, perhaps as a devious ploy to compel desertion by the less loyal.
</gallery></center>

==Navigation==
{{Tau}}
{{Tau-Characters}}
{{WH40k-Factions}}
{{40k-Governments}}
{{Template:Important Species in 40k}}

[[Category: Xenos]]

Tau

2019-09-25T12:40:01Z

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{{heresy}}
{{awesome}}
[[Image:TAUSYMBOL.gif|center]]
{{Infobox 40k Nations
|name= T'au Empire
|image=[[Image:Tau_Empire_Flag.jpg|300px|center]]
|bgcolor=
|fgcolor=
|Capital= T'au
|Official Languages=Tau Lexicon
|Power= Minor Power
|Size=Approximately 36 Planets
|Head of State=Ethereal Supreme
|Head of Government= Ethereal Council
|Governmental Structure=Caste-Based Authoritarian Federation
|State Religion/Ideology=[[Greater Good]]
|Demographic=[[Tau]], [[Kroot]], [[Vespid]], [[Gue'vesa|Humans]], [[Nicassar]], [[Tarellian]], Nagi, Hrenians and other minor [[Xenos]] races
|Military Force=[[Tau]] Fire Caste, Tau Air Caste, [[Kroot]] and [[Vespid]] Forces, The Deathsworn, Hrenian Light Infantry, [[Demiurg]] Forces, [[Nicassar]] Forces, Gue'vesa Forces and other minor Xenos armies
}}
[[File:9jfnqeaplhexx.jpg|right|thumb|450px|Get the fuck out of the way, [[Imperium|Oldfag]]. (Vior'la Sept Fire Warriors)]]
{{Topquote|Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?|Luke 6:41}}
{{Topquote|Ce qui constitue une République, c'est l'extermination totale de tout ce qui lui est opposé. - What constitutes a Republic is the total destruction of that which is opposed to it.|Louis Antoine de Saint-Just}}
{{Topquote|The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.|Sun Tzu}}

Tau (τ) is the 19th letter of the Greek alphabet, 300 in Greek numerals, and also the name for 2π.

It is also the name of the Warhammer 40K race known as the '''Tau''' (or "bluies", as the Valhallan 597th call them)(or "Space Communists" as anyone on /tg/ will tell you), (or "T'au" as GW copyright lawyers call them) are a playable race and a minor and overall insignificant power in ''[[Warhammer 40,000]]''. When first discovered by humanity, the Tau were a barbaric and primitive people. Their planet was then trapped in a warp storm for a few thousand years and they emerged from the other side as a unified species, led by the [[Druids|mysterious]] Ethereal caste and devoted to the concept of the "[[Greater Good]]". Their new empire supposedly has around 115 worlds, although only 36 of those have any sort of activity on them and the rest are either useless rocks or not shown/mentioned at all. They were growing until recently, when the Imperium sent a large invading force to counter them.

Although a dystopian society in its own right, the Tau Empire is noted for being one of the LEAST awful places in all the galaxy of 40k. It's also [[Derp|not really an empire]]; the Tau government, the Ethereal caste, is essentially an edifice of meritocracy and nepotism-Tau leaders are appointed to their position by even higher ranking leaders and/or a council of their future peers; the highest ranking Tau, the Aun'O, is elected by his future underlings, much like the Catholic pope, but is still simply considered the weightiest voice of a group (like a prime minister), not an Emperor with absolute power. While Tau civilization has the behavioral tendencies of many empires throughout history (expansionism, military conquest of weaker states, forcible integration of the conquered peoples, etc.), it is the government structure of a state that makes it an empire, not foreign policies. Essentially, they are ''imperialist,'' but not an ''empire''.

The Tau started as a classic case of successful design-based [[Troll|trolling]] on the part of [[Games Workshop]]. They were originally developed because GW felt that their setting needed an optimistic race and that their wallets needed more money, which they could get by selling shedloads of 40k to the robot-obsessed Japanese. The Tau, therefore, are the least [[grimdark]] faction in the game; [[Tau Diplomacy|they're the dudes willing to negotiate when they've beaten their enemies]] ([[The Beast|we cannot forget the green skinned diplomats our boy sent out during his siege of terra]]) while all the others are either too [[Chaos Space Marines| murderously psychotic in ways incomprehensible to anyone who does not share the same batshit insanity]], [[Imperium|religiously overzealous]], [[Eldar|arrogantly indifferent]], [[Orks|simplemindedly violent]], [[Necron|murderously enigmatic]], [[Tyranid|more interested in eating you than anything]], or [[Dark Eldar|all of the above]] to offer such courtesies.

This began to change in the 6th edition. For all the claims that GW doesn't listen to its fans, someone seemed to have heard the incessant bitching many fa/tg/uys made over the Tau [[Belisarius Cawl|being shoehorned into the setting]] [[Primaris Marines|in the worst way possible.]] As a result, the Tau began to take on an Orwellian flavor and Imperium-esque elements, with the Ethereals being totalitarian autocrats performing acts of ruthless indifference towards their subjects, including [[Nazi|eugenics]] or up to [[Exterminatus]] of lost races (e.g. Orks and Tyranids), in the guise of being for the Greater Good.

Twelve year old [[fluff]] (from ''[[Dawn of War]]'', supported by [[Deathwatch]] supplements describing Achillus Crusade) has them <s>arbitrarily sterilizing the rebelling humans on Kronus once they come under the rule of the Tau Empire</s> sterilizing a group of humans attempting to revolt and distract Tau forces in the middle of a planet-wide, 6-way free-for-all (to be fair though, had it been anyone else they were revolting against, including the Imperials, those humans would be dead, [[Grimdark|most likely the slow and painful way, or even suffer such a terrible fate as to wish for death]]).

The Tau Codex leaves ambiguous the question of just how much of their success is due to various forms of indoctrination, caste-based conditioning, and subtle mind control. This has only been exacerbated by the recent Farsight Enclaves supplement, which makes the Ethereals come off as mustache-twirling, Saturday-morning-cartoon villains. It speaks volumes about the 40k setting that in spite of all this they're ''still'' the friendliest race in the galaxy.

Also, the Tau have twenty planets after a handful were eaten by Tyranids (discounting allied held worlds and worlds with little to no inhabitants on them). Despite this, fanfiction writers who somehow got hired by GW and Tau fans alike have this strange habit of treating them like a major faction. For instance, a galaxy ruling combined empire with the Imperum and Eldar usually includes the Tau because the writer doesn't realize the Tau are one of the smallest, most insignificant minor species in the galaxy. This isn't to insult them, they can always get stronger; it's just the plain truth, currently that is. The setting stretches millennia, so who knows how far they can go, hopefully they'll become more and grow experienced as time goes on assuming the setting doesn't fall into constant grind never proceeding to the next year for decades ''again''.

One of the more hateful aspects of the Tau is that Games Workshop feels the need to make them seem viable as an army by having their power fluctuate wildly, for example, the Tau can easily subjugate Imperial Hive Worlds and deport its population so easily that it doesn't even get a footnote. You know, those planets in which the population of a single city shocked an Tau ambassador because ''the city's population was greater than the entirety of the Tau species''? Imagine entire planets of those cities, cities in which everyone is an experienced killer (which is why Space Marines love recruiting from Hive Worlds), armed and ready to fling themselves at any invading xenos to purge them with extreme prejudice. These are the same worlds whose PDF is large enough to enforce Imperial rule, and so contribute massive numbers of Imperial Guard (on top of having their own substantial forces).

As an example of this, take the Battle of Mu'gulath Bay, known as the Battle of Agrellan to the Imperium. This was a fight over a Hive World which the Tau won, how? Using Riptide Battlesuits. According to GW, the Riptide's armor was impervious to nearly all anti-armor weaponry (lascannons, krak missiles, and heavy meltas are a threat to Baneblades and knights and heavier stuff can even threaten Titans, so we know this is bullshit). The kicker though, is that '''''Deathstrike Missiles''''' ''did nothing'' when its shields were active. You know, the missiles '''''Titans are afraid of''''' and can vaporize armies? And can use Titan-killer warheads? '''Those Missiles'''. This is but one example, another goes back to the Taros campaign in which a Tau stronghold was mysteriously unable to be blown to hell by sustained bombardment from Colossus mortars and then the Tau ''sallied out'' to engage the Imperial forces and won. In addition, a lot of fights are won by their opponents being uncharacteristically stupid, for example in both the Taros Campaign and the Battle of Agrellan the Imperium suddenly forgets how to defend itself, its supply lines and in the second Damocles Gulf Crusade, engages the Tau using formations and tactics that cater to the Tau in the extreme (this is especially egregious in the finale), [[wat|and even has an assassin forget to use her gun to instantly kill her target]]. Even the Marines aren't immune to this sudden stupefying aura, as we have Space Marine Terminators wielding storm shields were shot and killed because they were too busy telling each other to raise their shields up to block the Tau's shots [[derp|instead of raising their shields up to block the fucking shots.]]

There were like three or four of these suits, by the way.

=="Naive Weeaboo Space Communists"==
[[Image:Tau Weeaboo.png|thumb|right|Cue hotblooded music by [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-r6xYnFDoV0 JAM Project].]]
The Tau's naiveté might seem at odds with the GRIMDARK-ness of the setting (and to a degree, a lot of it is), but the thing is, Games Workshop specifically plays this straight FOR the [[grimdark]] and ''knows'' that the seeming futility of the Tau's optimism only further accentuates the general hellishness of the rest of the galaxy - and dear [[Emperor|god]] do they play this up for maximum effect. In the 41st millennium, the Tau come across as ''more'' than a little naive to the other races; the Imperium sees any contact with aliens as heretical and will shoot them with [[bolter]] rounds as soon as they look at them; the [[Ork]]s just want to kick the shit out of things; and the [[Eldar]] see the Tau as young and powerful because of their technology but also as a race in its infancy, just staggering out of its borders for the first time and wandering into a pond full of [[Saharduin|sh]][[Dark Eldar|ar]][[Chaos|ks]].

In older fluff, the Tau were implied to have been secretly uplifted by the Eldar through the creation and subtle control of the Etherals (especially the mind-influencing pheromone secreting gland at the base of Etherals’ spines) and guiding them through reverse-engineering Imperial technology from the ruined colony ships. Eventually the Eldar abandoned them because the Tau never accomplished anything notable on their own due to a crippling lack of creativity. Humans must be in physical contact with an Ethereal or perhaps subjected to heavy doses of the pheromone in other ways to be sufficiently affected but aliens are affected merely by being in the vicinity of an Ethereal. Whether this is canon or not now is uncertain. It all probably is, seeing as it hasn’t been retconned/overwritten. Or GW forgot about it.

Putting it simply, there's an ongoing joke that the Tau are some of the most successful trolling performed in the history of mankind just by ''existing''; a case of the company installing them just to mix things up whilst at the same time keeping them surprisingly on-level.

The combination of the above fluff, however, paired with their highly advanced technology, generally "Asian" feel (their Fire Caste's combat doctrine is often reminiscent of Sun Tzu's "''Art of War''" - but derived from two distinct Tau hunting methods), use of [[Mecha|battlesuits]] (just [[Imperial Knight|like]] [[Dreadnought|the]] [[Titan (Warhammer 40,000)|Imperium]]), [[Hammerhead Gunship|heavy firepower]] which rivals that of the Imperial Guard, and one of the [[Fish of Fury|most broken tactics in tabletop 40K until it was finally fixed an edition later]] has conspired to make them very much hated (and by that we mean a source of butthurt) by a reasonable-sized population of the [[/tg/|40K fan populace]], and /tg/ has rightly dubbed the Tau [[Weeaboo]] (as much due to their Asian-ness as anything else) as a result (even when people can use the same logic to point to the Imperium's xenophobia, the fanatical worship of the God-Emperor, extensive use of Mecha and suicide attacks, use of suicide attacks as punishment for dishonour, and fondness for over-the-top dialogue in general and conclude that the Imperium of Man is Imperial Japan in Space). As a dark twist on this inherent Asian-ness, a thread concerning lack of grimdark fan fluff on Tau led to the creation of [[Sept V'iet]], the Viet Cong Tau.
[[Image:Tau fire warriors.jpg|490px|thumb|left|The [[Greater Good]]: translatable as [[Deal with it|"if you want to make an omelette, you gotta break some eggs."]]]]

And again in a case of much cultural confusion, the Tau are often considered [[Communism|communists]] (despite being a rigorous, hierarchical, near-eugenicist class society that would drive Marx into [[RAGE]]) due to their central philosophy of casting aside the self in favour of the Greater Good. This is partly because it's a nearly twenty year old meme by this point and memes that old are very stubborn about dying... and partly because we're a bunch of ignorant fucks. If anything the Tau more resemble the class system of Plato's ''Republic'' crossed with the caste system of India and [[Star_Trek#The_Federation|Star Trek's Federation]], and a little bit of facism as well (because they're the only ones in the entire galaxy who bother to try diplomacy with xenos rather than [[Exterminatus|exterminate]] them (partly because all but a few alien species are horrific space monsters that only a complete idiot would try to negotiate with)).

Even then, the Tau has more in common with the Imperium than the noblebright space hippie Feds; they adhere to a highly strict doctrine of eugenics, as [[Love Can Bloom|all forms of love, sex or breeding between different castes]] are, translated from Tau lexicon into Gothic, '''[[HERESY]]'''. The Tau also have an explicit merchant caste as well as a single unified currency which is something that the Imperium of man very much does not have along with a system of standardised wage labour which makes them actually more Capitalist than the still stuck in Feudal Economics Imperium. Contrast to the Craftworld Eldar who's society of post-scarcity voluntary labour actually is fully Communist, albeit there's still nobles entitled to bigger houses.

As well, the Tau treat their [[Tau#Tau_Member_Races|non-Tau comrades]] as second-class citizens with no say in the Tau government, and demand them to abandon their old culture and conform to a Tau Empire, basically becoming like everyone else. Ergo, the Tau, despite not being the exterminate-all-other-species kind of racist, are still an ethnocentric, aristocratic empire pretending to be a Federation, not unlike Britain during their 'tenure' as the rulers of India.

To double the weebiness but to greatly decrease the communism connection, the Tau are remarkably similar to war-time era Imperial Japan. Not in terms of military doctrine but in terms of its geopolitics. Like Imperial Japan they're a young power situated in the east, relatively far from most of their possible rivals' centres of power. Like Imperial Japan they have a seemingly nice enough doctrine in terms of rhetoric; "Greater Good" and "Co-Prosperity Sphere"; but in terms of practise what it means is that they want to replace the old empires in the region with their own. Like Imperial Japan they're at a significant disadvantage in terms of production power compared to their most serious rivals in the region, and hope to compensate for that by tactical superiority and winning big decisive battles to topple the old powers.

To further solidify the connections to Japan in the early 20th century, the Tau Empire even borrows some terminology, such as "spheres" of expansion, a firm belief that despite their grotesque material inferiority to their primary enemies the power of their ideals and their superior willpower shall overcome their enemies all, and a dogged insistence on picking fights it probably can't win. Imperial Japan knew that America alone had nearly twelve times the industrial power, with Britain having thrice Japan's military-industrial might, France just about matching theirs, and the Soviets having four times that, and even China; despite being a wartorn barely functional shithole, could be a quagmire for it. But Japan didn't give a shit because they thought that they were so awesome they could somehow get all these people to surrender through a combination of being better at war than their soft, mewling enemies and that they simply believed in their destiny to rule the waves more than anyone else did. Much like how the Tau is fully aware that the Imperium, the Orks, the Necrons, and the Tyranids could all squash them flat in a stand up fight, but believe this is immaterial because their belief in the greater good shall overcome all and they have mastered the ways of war while their foes are mired in ignorance.

What is for sure though is that, whatever part of the terribly suited to analysing politics outside of the modern era one-dimensional spectrum of political agenda they are on (probably wherever you'd put Imperial Japan during world war two), the Tau government is mainly oligarchical, with the vast majority of political power concentrated in the Ethereal caste. This is further driven home by the fact there is a Tau splinter faction led by one of their two best generals alive, Commander [[Farsight]] of the Farsight Enclaves, whose government is a non-caste society seemingly devoid of merchants, meritocratic semi-democracy. The problem is, until people stop dragging him out of his self-imposed exile to fight Tyranids, Orks, and other Tau, he's a dictator the way Optimus Prime is sometimes depicted. Farsight's government is one most certainly [[RAGE|NOT recognized by the Tau Empire]], who have finally gotten around to dispatching a fleet to silence them. <s>This, of course, is [[Advancing_the_Storyline|imminent plot stuff that will never happen]] because it's always the 41st millennium.</s> nope, GeeDubs ''finally'' decided to move the plot forward, thankfully. We still have yet to see the outcome of this fleet dispatch, though.

However, the new codex has HEAVILY downplayed their naiveté, bringing back the original codex mention that the Ethereals have officially declared some species "[[Exterminatus|lost causes]]" and that the [[Greater Good]] demands they be killed to the last.
*[[Orks]] were the first of the big players of 40k to get this treatment. They pretty much were the only serious competition Tau had before they discovered the Imperium, and it only took them a few weeks of study to realize the fact that Orks are beyond reason or sanity. They still have not realized that their encounters with Orks have merely been minute numbers of stragglers.
*[[Tyranids]] unsurprisingly ended up on "shoot on sight" list pretty much after the first contact. Like with Orks, the Tau are unaware of the small force of Tyranids they have experienced and that the main fleet they "destroyed" has since come back stronger.
*[[Eldar]] briefly were on the list too, owning this to the first contact being made by the Commorites, and not just any, but [[Urien Rakarth]] himself. It took some nuked Exodite world and Craftworld intervention for tau to realize that not all space-elves are insane rapists and scratch them off the list. Probably more encouraged by the Eldar effortlessly curbstomping them than actually carring that they shot the wrong Spelves.
*[[Space Marines]] seem to be entering the list as of the second Damocles war. The reason is not because it's impossible to reason with them, but because after some intense Water caste psychoanalysis and Nagi "mind-[[rape|ripping]]" they pretty much declared that astartes aren't ''people'' but merely a ''weapon'' and as such have no place in Tau'Va. Since this means they ignore the [[Blood Angels|artistic]], [[Thousand Sons|scholarly]], [[Word Bearers|philosophical]], and [[Ultramarines|administrative]] aspects of being Astartes intended to give them purpose after the Great Crusade ended the Tau are probably just scared shitless of Space Marines and the sheer inspiration their presence brings even off the battlefield.

To sum it up, the Tau Empire is still an expansionist empire prone to using military force, but far better than almost every other polity in the setting, as it permits others to exist with rather lenient standards, and isn't dedicated to the purposeful extinction of all other life in the galaxy. On the other hand, they don’t care if you’re some primitive feral species or a peaceful member of a species they have decided to be a lost cause. Also, as a result of surviving attacks from the major factions in the galaxy yet being blissfully unaware that those were merely tiny brushes or stragglers of vastly larger forces, the Tau believe they have proven they can truly hold their own in the galaxy against all the major players. As of Eighth Edition they were corrected quite painfully due to the opening of the Great Rift and the loss of most of their Fourth Sphere Expansion forces to a Warp rift, and following a massive Chaos invasion they have been forced to face the possibility that their empire might have bitten off more than it can chew.

Ironically, if their tech really is reverse-engineered Imperial tech (science-wise), it might not be heresy to... take it back.

==Military Doctrine==
[[Image:TauTyr2.jpg|right|500px|thumb|Close-quarters painting [[Drawfag|strikes again.]]]]
The Tau disdain [[Choppy|melee]] [[Rip and tear|combat]] in favour of [[Shooty|ranged combat]], which renders them instantaneously [[Matt Ward|less manly]] in the eyes of most of /tg/'s playerbase. The reasons behind this are complicated. Generally, Tau see hand to hand combat in warfare as an anachronism, which makes sense, considering their basic guns can rip apart tank side armour, and compared to almost all other major races Tau have less muscle strength and reaction speed, which makes them ineffective in melee even if they are trained.

Even the last reason alone is enough to avoid close combat, seeing as [[Necrons]] use similar logic, despite their [[Necron Warrior|Warriors]] and [[Necron Immortal|Immortals]] being much stronger and tougher, and actually highly trained in close combat, but equally as slow, though if the Necrons do want to get into melee, they're certainly not lacking in specialists. That said, Tau do practice martial arts, but only for ritual purposes - Fire Warrior trials and rites involve knives and swords, while Ethereals have a tradition of fighting non-lethal duels to settle disputes, using sharp bladed weapons no less, so they are often quite good with their fencing style, as [[Aun'Shi]] has shown to some unfortunate Orks.

Some people think Tau military doctrine has been hit hard with the same [[grimdark|stupidity]] nerf bat as every other fieldable army; every other faction has some reason for their material to be as limited as they would be in a fantasy setting, but the Tau have widespread education, unlike Men and Orks; reasonable access to production facilities relative to their population, unlike Necrons and Eldar; and are capable of coherent research and development, unlike Tyranids and Daemons.

For fluff reasons which have never been explained (the crunch reason is obvious), they have the same motif as every other army of equipment often being more valuable than the person wielding it, leading to most personnel being fielded with "inferior" equipment. The most obvious example of this is that they always, under whatever circumstance, field infantry in simple combat armour rather than some sort of battlesuit - its only advantage is having less bulk, as the Tau have a reason not to build larger transports to cope with the shitloads of battlesuits they could deploy instead.

This argument is analogous to saying that real-world militaries should only use armored vehicles and not have infantry, and says more about fa/tg/uy ignorance than Tau doctrine. The Tau likely practice economy of force, which has consequences both on and off the battlefield. Sending excessive amounts of force at a target is wasteful, as the excess firepower would be more useful elsewhere. If one only has a XV8 Battlesuits and no infantry, but a swarm of grots in a nearby pass needs to be taken out, they have no choice but to commit a very valuable unit to a task far beneath its worth. This is also an economic matter, as lower power units are cheaper and the Tau do not have an infinite supply of the rare materials needed to produce the strongest Battlesuits.

One could easily field a number of fire warriors for far less than the cost of a single battlesuit, and considering many foes will fall beneath "mere" infantry, any cost-aware faction would prefer the infantry's use over an expensive battlesuit. Similarly, when it comes to occupying or garrisoning territory, numbers of soldiers is significantly more important than quality of soldiers as they need to cover ground and establish a presence. In other words, they are the army who most resemble modern forces in terms of strategy, and mixed armies of infantry, armor and support elements are a good combination. And who the fuck can with a straight face call a pulse rifle and carapace grade armour "inferior equipment"? The view their equipment or doctrine is nerfed also ignores that armies have to replace lost and damaged equipment as well as actually get that equipment to the troops or they're absolutely fucked. An expensive army of battlesuits is lovely right until combat losses alongside wear and tear reach a point where the empires production can't keep up with losses or supply problems mean they don't reach the front (armies in 40k have been shown running low on ammo something far easier to produce and transport in large numbers than battlesuits). A army based around soldiers armed with "cheap" rifles and armour is a lot easier to produce and keep in the field even in the face of casualties or supply problems.

The Tau's superior [[Dakka|firepower]] is similar to that of the [[Imperial Guard]], but their strategy is different in that they tend to rely less on mass warfare and more on sophisticated technical support (drones, stealth technology, railguns), with an emphasis on tactical precision, mobility, and the initiative of individual squads of units, much like how modern warfare is waged (apparently if the Imperial Guard learned from Tau tacticians and fought with modern tactics instead of zergrushing everything then they would have been the most powerful army in the galaxy, but no, that ain't GRIMDARK and AWESOME enough [unless you're [[Lord Solar Macharius|Macharius]]]). Their military doctrine is not based on winning by attrition and/or throwing out quality tactics in favour of absorbing and dishing out heavy shocks in bloody epic clusterfucks like the Imperials, Orks and early World War II-era Soviet Russia. (Unless you count the later war "deep warfare", which is actually the combat doctrine the Tau ripped off. 40k really seems to like the Russians...)

Rather, they use infiltration and their sophisticated battlesuits to [[Anal Circumference|bypass enemy strong points and launch deep into their rear]], cutting supply lines and logistics, destroying headquarters and support units, leaving enemies cut off and functionally helpless. There are numerous examples of Tau literally starving and/or thirsting entire armies to death by cutting out their supply lines, while simultaneously harassing them with night raids, ambushes and air strikes to the point the survivors are leaderless, demoralized, out of ammo and fuel, and can barely stand due to exhaustion. The [[Imperial_Armour_Volume_Three:_The_Taros_Campaign#Volume_Three_-_The_Taros_Campaign|Taros]] campaign is a prime example of these tactics (and of the Imperium's strategic stupidity).

Of course, these kinds of tactics only work fine against more convenient armies like the Imperial Guard or Orks. When it comes to Space Marines and Eldar, who sport mostly aerial/warp/webway supply lines, operate as elite armies without obvious weak spots to exploit, have similar or superior tactical mobility and badass officers that can survive most assassination attempts, Tau lose huge parts of their usual advantages (but get the numerical superiority in return). Against utterly unconventional foes, like Tyranids, Daemons or Necrons... well, all times they faced such foes, Tau either devised some entirely new strategies, or lost horribly.

[[File:TauTyr.jpg|thumb|left|300px|90% of Tau [[dakka]] comes in the form of [[Plasma|pretty blue lights.]]]]
The Tau, again, boast some of the most powerful ranged weaponry on the tabletop game, and can crank out more concentrated firepower than any other faction with the lone exception of the Imperial Guard and maybe the orks if you only count number of bullets in the air, and even then, the Tau's weapons hit quite a bit harder. They have pathetic hand-to-hand combat skills, however, and so the Tau bolster this by using several inducted races (the [[Kroot]], Vespid, and even some [[Gue'vesa|humans cut off from the Imperium during the Damocles Crusade]]) to act as buffers against assault troops to allow Tau Fire Warrior teams and their heavy, long-ranged firepower to tear enemies apart. The most pivotal, and perhaps most infamous, part of the Tau army are their [[Battlesuit|Battlesuits]], which can mount multiple heavy weapon systems and provide excellent mobility to their pilots, all on a fairly durable unit.

They also have an extremely powerful navy, though not quite as formidable as the Imperium's, if largely because of number differences. Tau air units are among the best in the game, with aircraft superior or equal to Imperial Guard equivalents, including a stealth fighter, multipurpose heavy fighter, a superheavy fighter with guns that can one-shot a Titan, and their own [[Manta|Titan-equivalent]] (which is a small starship). Unlike the Imperium, they usually deploy swarms upon swarms of flyers, with only Orks, Tyranids, and Necrons able to rival them in numbers when things come to dogfights—kind of the way the Imperial fleets' atmospheric support craft were supposed to work if fleet officers weren't a bunch of assholes who do everything they can to provide as little air support as possible.

On defense, the Tau are a bit unusual: they leave only token garrisons at their colonies to protect them. These garrisons are intended for scouting rather than combat, avoiding engagement in order to observe and report on invaders using Pathfinders, scanning towers, and drones. Because the Tau have fairly powerful spacefleets and usually keep their forces within reasoned distance of potential hotspots, any potential threat can be quickly dealt with by organizing a hunter cadre to be sent to deal with the situation. For those of you who don't get it, it's Frederick the Great's "he who tries to protect everything protects nothing" strategy.

Of course, this strategy means Tau must have some worlds actually being heavily defended - and in fact they do. Sept worlds tend to be guarded by some nasty space stations and garrisoned by an unreasonable amounts of hunter cadres and auxiliary troops, which allows them to act as major defensive nodes from which response fleets are dispatched and to which evacuation fleets rally (think feudal Japan style castles from which commanders would send trained garrisons out to protect the lands around it from encroaching armies), and in case some really scary shit like an Imperial crusade or a Tyranid hive-fleet comes into the sept, it is on the sept world where the decisive battle is fought (See the First Damocles Crusade for an example of this tactic in action).

This has, however, backfired on occasion, since it does mean that the Tau garrisons are very vulnerable in the initial stages of an attack. It also makes them very vulnerable to Orphean War style rapid assaults where the attacker is advancing so quickly the defender doesn't even have time to relay the news that they're under attack to the rest of their army. While the Tau haven't yet faced something like the Maynarkh Dynasty, they are awfully close to the Sautekh Dynasty and Imotekh is a noted cantankerous asshole and egotistical conqueror.

A rare advantage the Tau have is their willingness to change military strategy. As examples, look at how they changed tactics in reaction to the [[Damocles Crusade]] by the Imperium of Man, and even built an entirely new space fleet to match humans in straight-on space fights, or their unusual but effective choice of switching to older weapons when dealing with [[Hive Fleet Gorgon]].

==Fleet==
In the old fluff, Tau used to have a reverse-engineered imperial warp drives, tuned to only skim the surface of the warp and bounce back to materium after a short while. New fluff on the other hand retconned that, by giving them what is called "slingshot drive" for their FTL, and from what little fluff we have on it, it looks like the actual warp drive (in the modern physics meaning, i.e. warped time-space bubble). The practical applications, however, are the same in both new and old fluff - Tau FTL is much slower than the Imperium's, but is predictable, reliable, and not affected by warp storms (a big deal, given Tau spent half of their history inside one). As a result, Tau are capable of building proper interstellar logistics lines, ones the Administratum can only dream of, but their strategic mobility is <s>lacking functionally superior to</s>...different compared to pretty much every other faction (even the non-Warp drive using FTL factions are different; the Necrons and Eldar teleport while the Tyranids bring their production power with them).

Additionally, Slingshot drives are rather big, heavy and power-hungry, even compared to the Warp drive (which takes up a 1/3rd of a smaller imperial ships). As a result, escort-class Tau spacecraft are built without FTL drives and are hooked to bigger ships for the purpose of interstellar travel, which basically make them equivalents of the Imperium's system monitor ships, with the same benefits (cheap, compact and too fast, powerful or durable for their size) without their major downside (being incapable of FTL flight). The Tau also have to concentrate their forces on an interplanetary scale; they can't throw a bunch of ships into a warzone from halfway across the galaxy as orks and humans can.
Tau empire have two fleets:
*Kor'Vatra, or "merchant fleet", is made of older modular ships that double as merchant and colony vessels (hence the name). One of their main shticks is huge arcs of fire for most gun batteries, with side batteries easily covering front arc, and nose batteries covering all but the stern - as a result, while Kor'vatra Ships may not have as much firepower as Imperial or Ork ones, they can focus more of it on one target. On the flip side, merchant ships while decently fast at sub-light, are not very agile, and must rely on escort wings and auxiliary fleets against more maneuverable foes. Even after the founding of Kor'Or'Vesh, Kor'Vatra still see a lot of military use, especially against the Imperium, <i>precisely</i> because it's regarded as non-military fleet, so Tau diplomats could tell their imperial colleagues "What battle cruisers on your orbit are you talking about? It's just our merchant vessels, moving goods to and from our trade missions".
*Kor'Or'Vesh, or "combat fleet" is a newer fleet, made for battling Imperium's fleet in straight up battle, after Kor'Vatra get run over during Damocles crusade. Made out of more compact, maneuverable and better armored ships, it may lack Kor'Vatra's wide arks of fire, but is superior in every other regard, and as Taros and second Damocles campaigns showed it is more then capable of fighting off humans even if outnumbered.
Both fleets use largely the same technologies - railguns as (by tau standard) short-ranged high damage gun batteries, ion cannons as long range beams (lance equivalent), and above all, their brokenly-powerful ordinance second only to Eldar ones (and available in far greater numbers) - Mantas, Barracudas and EMP drone-torpedoes reign supreme at extreme ranges, gaining Tau navy the same reputation their ground armies have. Because their ordinance is so powerful, most Tau ships tend towards carrier and torpedo boat archetype, and suffer horribly if enemy comes within macro-cannon or god-forbid boarding range (that is IF they manage to come that close).

==Non-combat Fluff==
[[File:Tau city.jpg|450px|thumb|right|Contrary to what [[Imperium of Man|some]] believe, what this picture shows might just be the future for the entire galaxy if the Tau [[Great Crusade|get their way.]]]]
The Tau were a new race/culture found by the Imperium of Man during their "slash and burn" exploration of their galactic neighborhood. The Tau were still pastoral, had just discovered flint tools and charcoal, and the Imperium had them scheduled for "[[Grimdark|routine cleansing]]" (Low Gothic for “ruthless genocide”) to make sure they never got off-world and developed into an entity capable of threatening humanity. Needless to say, that plan was promptly [[derp|fucked up]]. By an unfortunate (or fortunate, depending on your feelings towards a species' right to not be mercilessly exterminated for no reason whatsoever) coincidence which almost certainly involved the dickery of [[Tzeentch]] or [[Cegorach]] or [[The Deceiver|something]], a warp storm occluded the Tau homeworld, so nobody could get in or out. Since the Tau were virtually invisible in the warp, the warp storm didn't have much of an effect on them as they were immune to the influences of Chaos.

[[FAIL|The sector was labeled "lost to Chaos,"]] and cleansing was [[What|deferred indefinitely]]. Then [[Age of Apostasy|this shit]] happened, and almost all records about Tau were lost in the ensuring [[Rape|clusterfuck]] of civil war. Only the Adeptus Mechanicus still had records of this first contact when the storm died down 6,000 years later. The Damocles Crusade relocated the Tau, who were completely untouched by the warp storm and now using interstellar colony ships and pulse rifles. The extermination order still stood—it was just going to be much more difficult than the Imperium expected, seeing as the Tau, instead of [[C.S. Goto|throwing spears and rocks at their tanks]] and Space Marines, were now throwing [[ion cannon|ion charges]], [[plasma|plasma blasts]], and [[railgun|electromagnetically-accelerated hypervelocity projectiles]] at their tanks and Space Marines.

Tau history is pretty typical up through the iron-age: a knack for engineering, warfare between "urban" farmers and "barbarian" nomads, and unrestrained growth causing a series of plagues, leading to a dark age. Here's where things go sideways, though the Tau see it as the start of their endless Golden Age: the arrival of the Ethereals. Legend tells of a five-year siege at the castle of Fio'taun, with both sides starving and succumbing to disease, when two foreign Tau entered the battlefield. One went to the castle, the other to the barbarian tribes. Each of these Tau had a quiet grace and irresistible authority. In just a few hours, the castle was persuaded to open their gates, and the barbarians laid down their weapons, and both parties met to parley a truce.

These strange Tau called themselves "Ethereals," and stressed the importance of peace and understanding between all Tau. They described a "Greater Good" that each Tau must strive towards. Soon after, soon enough to seem simultaneous, more of these strange new Tau emerged across the continent with their message of peace and co-operation for all Tau. Their quiet authority was always respected, and their message of harmony was universally embraced. Wait a minute, [[God-Emperor of Mankind|I've seen this]] [[Great Crusade|historical pattern before]]....

Perhaps uniquely for the setting, Tau-human interactions bear the whiff of realpolitik. On the one hand, the Imperium wants to exterminate them ''eventually'', but the upper management generally realizes that the Tau are going to be a giant drain of resources and manpower to get rid of, given the stiff resistance they put up in [[Damocles Crusade|previous campaigns]] and their [[Riptide|uniformly]] [[railgun|advanced]] [[battlesuit|technology]]. Furthermore, they serve as a useful buffer state against various threats on the Eastern Fringe, from Orks and Chaos raiders to Tyranid hive fleets to alien forces the Imperium hasn't had (recorded) contact with. Their existence deflects danger from Imperial space, and in a place and time when the Imperium is [[Time of Ending|coming under attack from all sides]], that's more important than dogma.

This strategy is not unique to the Tau only though, as the Imperium allows countless other (much more dangerous) xeno empires to prosper in the Eastern Fringe to serve as an ablative shield against much nastier shit. Amongst those is (for example) the Charadon ork empire, which is older than the Imperium and spawns a Waaagh! or two per millennium (even with the routine warboss assasination raids that the Ultramarines make). Even after the emergence of the genius warboss Snagrod and his Waagh on Rynn no one cared to issue a crusade against them. So yeah, the Tau empire is not even close to being spotted by the High Lords, not to mention recognized as a threat dangerous enough to actually do something about.

Conversely, the Tau have realized just how massive an undertaking expanding through the entire universe would really be, and are taking it slow. They mostly absorb Imperial buffer worlds stripped of manpower and armament in the face of massive redeployments to face other threats, offering the Empire's protection in return for annexation and outright conquering the places that don't take the deal. The Tau have claimed that they are engaging in this sort of aggressive behavior because ''someone's'' going to [[Tyranids|gobble]] those settlements up sooner or later, and if ''they'' don't do it, then whoever does won't be [[Exterminatus|nearly as nice about it]]. While baldly self-serving, that logic is...well, mostly correct, really.

There's no lost love between the Imperium and the Tau, but open full-scale war is probably unlikely in the near-future.

And then the Second Damocles Crusade happened.... even the imperium isn't that stupid, so this almost certainly involves that tricky dick Tzeench trying to stop the greater good from ruining all his plans. ...Or nurgle...or, well any of the ruinous powers really. Or that ancient scheming old sperg [[Eldrad]], for that matter.

Looking at the new galactic map, where the Tau are now sandwiched between their own eye of terror and a Necron dynasty, they are soon to be fucked.

=== Castes ===
[[File:Commander HawkEye.jpg|thumb|290px|right|<s>Join the Greater Good, lose your virginity to a hot alien babe!</s> Unapproved of sexual contact is an offence to the greater good Gue'La. Now get back to work or you won't get your overtime pay! ]]
Tau society after the arrival of Ethereals was organized into castes; everyone with a place, and a place for everyone. [[Love Can Bloom|Interbreeding between castes and Xenos races]] is one of the most severe crimes in the Empire, in other words, [[Heresy]]. This was outlawed by the [[Ethereal]]s presumably to preserve the biological differences between castes, and as part of this effort they have taken over the practice of sex entirely. Tau society has been manipulated so that Tau do not form romantic bonds of a long-lasting nature and do not even consider sex to be anything other than a state-mandated act meant only, like everything else, to serve society and the Greater Good. In essence, Tau are conditioned to never have sex until and unless their superiors say they are worth breeding.

Their superiors pick their breeding partners (the Tau get NO input into this) and the couple basically spends a few days off from work screwing around before going their separate ways to never see each other again. If a Tau did somehow get over their social conditioning and thought of sex as something more than a mandated duty, they'd be [[Blam|punished/killed for illegal activities/perversion]]. An Imperial genetor's report in the fourth edition Tau codex observes the presence of synthetic proteins in Tau internal organs and suggests them as evidence that their evolution has been accelerated, though he might have been confused by synthetic proteins that the Tau were given. [[/tg/]] seems to be under the strong impression that they are mammals, as you can see in the picture further down the page, despite the complete implausibility of this theory. The frequent [[/d/|sexualization]] of the Tau by fa/tg/uys is a mystery to many, but clearly not all. [[PROMOTIONS|Not nearly enough]], in fact.

==== {{anchor|Fire|Fire Caste}} Shas (Fire) ====
The '''Fire Caste''' consists of the various [[Fire Warrior|warriors]] of the Tau Empire. The miniatures of a Tau army in a [[Warhammer 40,000]] game are almost exclusively Fire Caste. Other castes think Shas are overly-aggressive hotheads due to their tendency to solve all problems by applying more plasma (when Tau encountered other sentient species, Fire Caste representatives immediately voted to hunt down and exterminate them, just like they hunted down dangerous local life forms on the other world they colonized), although for Humans and Eldar, who's history knows numerous [[Wyches|kinky]], [[Haemonculus|horrid]], [[World_Eaters|Earthshatteringly mad]], [[Night_Lords|batshit insane]], [[Blood Angels|bloodthirsty]] individuals and groups, mention of the "Aggressively Hotheaded" Tau would end up with them collectively pointing fingers and laughing at them. On the other hand, it also shows how calm and disciplined other castes are.

They are taller than Earth Caste Tau, and physically stronger than the Air and Water Castes, though still shorter and weaker than a typical Human. They pretty much compensate for this by giving their basic Fire Warrior a [[pulse rifle]], which is sort of like an automatic sniper-[[plasma]] gun, and employ heavily armed and sophisticated battlesuits for their elite infantry. Oh yeah, and [[Railgun]]s. Company -sized Tau forces are called "Hunter Cadres".

==== {{anchor|Earth|Earth Caste}} Fio (Earth) ====
The '''Earth Caste''' are the laborers and engineers; they are the "civilians" of Tau society. Their appearance can vary widely, though other Tau would describe them as "plain." They all have a stoic outlook, with little ambition other than to excel in their career of choice and work for the Greater Good. Unlike the Imperial worker classes, whose quality of life generally ''starts'' at working 14-hour days seven days a week while living off of dried, recycled dung chips and goes [[Such is life on Volg|''downhill from there'']], the Earth caste is mostly concerned with technological planning and engineering.

They have robots to do the grunt work. The Farsight Enclaves field some Earth Caste pilots for their battlesuits, demonstrating their more flexible caste systems and/or their desperation for manpower. Doing so makes them ''even worse'' in close-combat than Tau already are, but they make up for it with technical training and tweaks to the suits' software and mechanics, re-rolling missed shots and equipment failures.

==== {{anchor|Air|Air Caste}} Kor (Air) ====
The '''Air Caste''' are the intermediaries between Tau. In more primitive times they served as messengers and couriers, and sometimes scouts/explorers, gliding on membranous anatomical surfaces through T'au's atmosphere. When the Tau started exploring offworld, it was the Air Caste that took charge of the vessels traveling between the stars. Now the Air Caste are the Tau stellar navy/airforce/mailmen, piloting the Empire's various carriers, warships, and emissary cruisers. Air caste Tau tend to be tall and slender like runners or dancers, and this is frequently exaggerated by the years the Tau navy spends in low-gravity.

They are much less likely to be eaten by [[daemon]]s due to a faulty Geller Field than their Imperial equivalents, but only because their ships are much slower, using a "slingshot drive" to temporarily enter the Warp and bounce back into real space. Despite their slender stature and lack of muscle mass, Air caste pilots are extremely resistant to G-force, making them excellent void and atmospheric fighter pilots (simultaneously, as small Tau voidcraft also double as atmospheric craft).

==== {{anchor|Water|Water Caste}} Por (Water) ====
The '''Water Caste''' are the emissaries to non-Tau. They are diplomats, merchants, civil servants. The most open-minded Tau can be found among the Water caste, with some even showing individual ambition (but still for the greater good of the Tau Empire). When a new culture is encountered, the Water caste are sent in first to negotiate. If talks break down, the Water caste are withdrawn from the area and it's time for the Fire Caste to then start negotiating with pulse weapon fire. Also, unlike their Imperial equivalents in bureaucracy, the [[Administratum]], they are brisk, efficient, and very good at their jobs. No dumping valuable ammo on an uninhabited dust world because no one signed the paperwork not to.

It's a less known fact that Pors also run the Tau intelligence and espionage network, and Por'Os and Por'Els from this branch are pretty much Tau Inquisitors except more competent, much saner, and not nearly as good at kicking asses personally. As of the second Damocles Crusade the Imperium has designated the Water caste as a primary threat above any other Tau caste, as their subterfuge, diplomacy and propaganda has cost the Imperium more worlds and manpower than the Fire and Air caste's military prowess combined, and they even managed to totally outplay the Inquisition on its own field, which royally pissed them off.

==== {{anchor|Ethereal|Ethereal Caste}} Aun (Ethereal) ====
The '''Ethereal Caste''' are basically the philosopher-kings described by Plato in "The Republic". They are selfless and always focused on what is best for the Greater Good ("Tau'va") for all Tau and every Tau without exception. The Ethereals are inspirational to all Tau caste members, and merely being near one will inspire a Tau soldier, engineer, pilot, or diplomat to work harder.

In the case of the Fire Caste, some Ethereals accompany hunter cadres in battle during important deployments so as to better lead/inspire the troops, which works because all Tau in the combat zone will fight to their bitter deaths. They also seem to have semi-magical powers (don't ask how they work, none of the Tau know themselves) that allow Tau around them to do special things, like running while shooting. The [[Adeptus Mechanicus]] theorizes that the respect the Ethereal Caste gets from all other Tau is caused by a pheromone. <b>ALL GLORY TO THE HYPNOTAU......</b>.
Also, ''[[Xenology]]'' relates a story from a major, insectoid race called the [[Q'Orl]] which alleges that the [[Eldar]] stole one of their queens. Given that these queens have a magic, yellow, diamond-shaped sack that produces mind-control pheromones…well, let's just say the characters in the story figure it out quickly enough. There is a theory that the Ethereals themselves are also affected by their own pheromones, which could explain why they're so selfless and uncorrupted despite their absolute power (although being uncorrupted no longer seems to apply after 7th/8th edition).

This can also be supported by the (old as fuck and likely retconned) novelization of [[Warhammer_40,000:_Fire_Warrior|Fire Warrior]], where the Ethereal character has a pretty level head and chipper demeanor despite having been [[Anal_Circumference|repeatedly captured and tortured by both the Inquisition and Chaos, watching his diplomatic retinue chopped up by a Chaos Lord, and mind-raped by said Chaos Lord all in the span of roughly two days.]] Either he's a stoic old motherfucker, or he's just too busy tripping his blue balls on his own pheromones to give a shit.

8th ed has a particularly interesting story in it and it proves without a shadow of a doubt: the Ethereal caste does use some kind of mind-altering substance or influence on the Tau. During a meeting with Commander O'Ryn and Aun'Va (who is a solid hologram controlled by an AI at this point) in the planet of Junica, their location was ambushed by Chaos forces and Aun'Va (or the AI acting like Aun'Va) ordered O'Ryn to send her forces on what's essentially a suicide mission. O'Ryn, not seeing the point of throwing her and her soldiers' lives at such a hopeless battle, actually ''defied'' the command of an ethereal (and the space pope himself, no less) and retreated. It could've been an interesting and pretty terrifying critique of how manipulative a totalitarian system can be and that the Ethereals don't shy away from anything to keep the people in line. But no, it was explained with mind control, which is way lazier and honestly way less terrifying.

O'Ryn was eventually declared a renegade and Farsight took her in, but it does indeed prove that the unflinching and unquestioning loyalty and fanaticism that the ethereals' physical presence inspire on nearby Tau aren't due to their charisma or the Tau's indoctrination, and instead on something more sinister. To put this into perspective: O'Ryn has been the first Tau since Farsight to actively defy an ethereal's command and the main reason she was able to do so was because she was speaking to an AI-controlled drone, instead of the actual space pope.

===Tau Names===
Tau have ridiculously long, detailed and actually meaningful names. Their names contain their caste, rank, birth sept, and one or more nicknames earned by them through the course of their lives. Fluff does say that they ''do'' have birth names, but those are only used before tau earn at least one appropriate nickname, as a name given to them by comrades is considered more valuable than one just chosen by random at their birth. The nickname part and it's importance surprisingly is actually taken from the Roman culture, which is weird, given most Tau culture tend to be based on China and Japan (except for their social and government structures which are copied almost verbatim from Plato's Republic).

Also, do note the lack of last names, which is expected, since Tau society pretty much have no institute of a family, with children being raised in a centralized facilities apart from their parents. As tau grow, move through ranks and achieve respect of his comrades his name changes appropriately, switching the rank part, adding new nicknames and sometimes dropping the old and outdated ones. For example, when Farsight was still a lowly fire warrior, his name was '''Shas'La Vior'La Shoh''' (Fire Caste Private of the Hot-Blooded sept Inner Light), and at the "present days" '''Shas'O Vior'La Shovah Kais Mont'yr''' (Fire Caste Commander of the Hot-Blooded sept Farsight Skillful Blooded). How the fuck Tau bureaucracy is able to keep track of their population with their names constantly changing is a mystery, but it seems they have no problem with that, probably because they just track ID numbers when names are too much of an issue like most sane people who work with databases.

For the sake of convenience Tau often use shortened versions of names, almost always dropping the sept part and secondary nicknames, and if speaking within one caste the caste part too, so in the case of Farsight other fire warriors could refer to him as O'Shovah, while for example an Ethereal would call him Shas'O'Shovah (assuming Farsight allows this given his seething hatred of Ethereals, he's the type who'd force them to use his full name out of spite). Humans and other non-Tau often get this system wrong and shorten the names in a ways that make little sense: for example, Imperium's Taros invasion force thought the Taros' chief Ethereal's name was Aun'El, which was only his caste and rank, and as the book was mostly written from the Imperium's standpoint, we still don't know what was his actual name.

One final stroke of Tau naming, is that as they abandon their true (birth) names it makes them even more resistant to sorcery and daemonic powers that often require target's true name to amplify their effect or even make the spell work at all.

===Psychic/Chaos Defenses===
Tau are an entire race of psychic blunts, they cannot produce psykers and have limited innate resistance to some forms of psychic powers and daemonic bullshit. People often mistake this resistance to outright invulnerability, but in truth it's more akin to camouflage - Tau souls are so dim they are indistinguishable from the spirits of non-sapients at best, and at most times they even blend in the psychic background of inanimate objects. This may have something to do with how unemotional tau are, as some of the more passionate subjects in the fluff had been slightly affected by warp shenanigans like faint whispers and slight feelings of "wrongness" in places where humans creep out and try to run away immediately, while more calm and collected tau hadn't noticed anything strange. If for example a telepath tries to mind-rape a tau or a daemon tries to posses a tau he'd find it hard to find a soul to target, but if he manages to find it there would be even less resistance than with regular humans. Sadly while this trait is often shown in the fluff, it does not affect tau crunch in any way.

This innate defense is further strengthened by the Greater Good philosophy deeply indoctrinated into each Tau from childhood and (allegedly) reinforced by a subtle mind control. Tau'Va being the antithesis of all the creeds of Chaos makes Tau all but immune to its temptations, and only a single Tau has ever actually fallen to Chaos, the Water Caste member Water Spider who was possessed by a Daemon of Tzeentch. That being said, the Tau have only just been exposed to the more material horrors of the galaxy; should they become jaded and start losing faith in the Greater Good (as inferred with giving up on indoctrinating certain species), well, that would be an entirely different situation. Their allies, including the Kroot, have been known to go all-in with Chaos worship, although Tau seldom take culture from their allied races.

8th Ed is here, and has confirmed that the Tau aren't immune to Chaos, just slightly difficult for Daemons to spot. When the Tau started the 4th Sphere Expansion with their new warp drives: they didn't take a note from the Imperials' tech and failed to invent the [[Gellar Field]] too, meaning they were fully vulnerable to the Warp's denizens. The entire experience was hilarious. First was the unpredictability of their warp drives (known as "slipstream technology" to them) that caused most of their expeditionary fleet to be destroyed due to unleashing massive tears in the fabric of reality, [[lulz|while being broadcasted to the Tau sept worlds, causing the Ethereals to rapidly evacuate their bowels as they scramble to censor the event to the wider populace.]] Those that weren't immediately torn up by the warp rifts, were sucked into the Warp where a vast majority was either destroyed after drifting in the more unsavory parts of the Warp, or the various daemons mucking about.

Contact was lost, but the Tau managed to find the survivors later, nestled into several worlds that were the original target for conquest. The Tau that survived however, were acting weird. Some of them started shoving off the Greater Good, while some worshiped a voice that they claim to be the Greater Good itself (which may or may not be a warp entity), while some were outright driven insane. A disturbing trend about them however, is their total [[Imperium|xenophobia and brutality]]. Any non-Tau who wasn't driven off from the 4th Sphere colonies were murdered for [[Chaos God|something]] that was telling the survivors that the auxiliaries were the reason for their loss and torment due to their more powerful connection to the Warp, so killing all non-Tau was the only way to ensure the survival of the Greater Good.

That being said, they're still hard for Daemons to see, considering that the Fourth Sphere dove into the Warp unprotected and "merely" got off with plain Chaos corruption when most people who try that shit critfails their [[anal circumference]] roll and either gets torn apart by daemon cocks or becomes [[Chaos Spawn|an Unnameable Beast]]. But this event does still prove that the Chaos Gods can still influence the Tau with enough warp exposure, so it wouldn't be surprising if a few of them started going bughouse-nuts and began carving 8-pointed stars on their persons in the future. Especially with virtually the entire [[Death Guard]] and a large force of the [[Thousand Sons]] heading straight for the wormhole that links the Fourth Sphere colonies to the center of the Empire...

==Alliances==
{{MattWard}}
[[File:Illus4.jpg|280px|right|thumb|Unfortunately for some [[Slaanesh|deviants]] [[Extra Heresy|and heretical elements on]] [[/tg/]]. [[Not as Planned|This is what an actual canon Tau Female looks like.]] No boobs, no curves, no ass, no redeeming qualities other than having a face of your grandmother and the nose of a mutilated vag. Know the alien. Hate the alien. Purge the alien. The Emperor Protects! <s>This is an Ethereal though, so the other castes should be fair game.</s>]]
In 6th edition, Tau are notable for being one of two factions (the other being Imperial Guard) who can ally with anyone except for 'Nids. Yes, this includes both Chaos Space Marines and Chaos Daemons, although, according to the Farsight Enclaves supplement, <s>Farsight is one of the few Tau (maybe the only one ''period'') who actually understands the existence of Chaos, so the average Tau would consider them to be just another kind of alien.</s> Farsight rebelled because the Ethereals understand the existence of Chaos on some level, but keep it suppressed from the general populace so they're not entirely screwed. [[Emperor|Which sounds vaguely familiar]]. It is probably going to end [[Horus Heresy|about as well]], too (although due to cultural differences likely in it's own distinct way); all of this is, of course, assuming that the 'nids don't NOM everything before the Tau get the opportunity to fuck their own shit up.

Their current level of naïveté leads to a few... ''interesting'' alliances, to say the least.

First off, Tau ''can'' ally with [[Ork]]s, even though fluff-wise they are viewed as enemies of the Greater Good to be purged wherever encountered. Smaller Ork warbands (mostly [[Blood Axes]]) frequently act as mercenaries, of course, so the Tau might use them in that capacity. Plus, there might be fluff changes coming up (most notably, it was rumored that the [[Gretchin Revolutionary Committee]] would return in the new Orks codex; they, of course, would get along quite well with the Tau).

They are also battle brothers with both the Space Marines and Eldar, which has caused a large amount of headscratching on /tg/. The Eldar make a modicum of sense; after all, the Eldar most likely had a hand in their synthetic evolution and the creation of the Ethereals, and the Eldar are well known for being expert manipulators. A Tau-Space Marine alliance, though, would be odd, to say the least, since Tau and Space Marines are always going at it in the [[fluff]]. Of course, a minor [[Space Marine Chapter|chapter]] could always find an alliance with the Tau, or even [[Heresy|join the Greater Good]], but that seems far-fetched at best. Old fluff from back in the 3rd edition codex tells a story of a Tau commander letting an Apothecary remove the aul glands from dead Marines, establishing that the Tau are honourable warriors in the minds of this particular chapter. Isn't too hard to guess that someone at GW felt the battle brothers thing was a bit of a head-desk move, so they tried to fix it.

The weirdest part, though, is that Tau ''aren't'' Battle Brothers with the Imperial Guard, despite (or maybe because of) the existence of [[Gue'vesa]] (Imperial Guard defectors).

7th edition corrected all of this for the Tau, making them only battle brothers with themselves and certain allies of convenience, like Necrons and the Eldar, while the rest are desperate allies or, in the case of daemons and 'Nids, allies of the apocalypse. This effectively "fixes" the issue from the point of view of a butthurt puritan while still allowing for those who bought Tau models to include them as allies in their games.

8th edition totally destroyed any chance of Tau having allies in matched play games. Taudar is dead, thank fuck.

==Tau Member Races==
[[File:Dynamic entry by majesticchicken.jpg|right|thumb|550px|Look up fuckers! You're invited to the latest imperial party and we're not taking "no" for an answer!]]
The Tau are the only faction that willingly accept other races into their ranks. Typically, the races are extended a hand from the Water Caste first, and if they still pose a problem or otherwise refuse to be reasoned with, the Fire Warriors are sent in. It should be noted that tau usually are not in haste of annexing the world, and if the aliens don't want to join right now but aren't immediately hostile and open to trade, Water Caste would slowly but surely convert them into a Greater Good to the point that one day they themselves would ask to join the Empire. The species, when annexed or conquered, are usually allowed to keep their planet, but must answer to the authority of the local Ethereal and possibly the local Shas'o. Most of them are fluff and don't show up on the tabletop, but it would get a little ridiculous if you could purport to play a 'single' 40k race that included, like, twelve different races.

* Demiurg - <s>[[Squats]] reborn.</s> NOT ANYMORE the Squats are back and not Demiurg at all! They are a race of space-faring miners specializing in ionic weaponry who serve the Tau with their engineering and mining abilities. They also serve as an example of something the Imperium will never do: <s>save dead codex races (Well, okay, they're sort of saved...).</s> They make an appearance in Battlefleet Gothic: Armada though, so that's nice.
* Galgs - Frog/Toad People who are regularly hired as mercenaries. No other information available. Probably [[Lizardmen#Slann|Slann]] In Space.
* [[Gue'vesa]] - Humans who have not only defected to the Tau, but chosen to take up arms and fight alongside them to serve the Greater Good. Rules for them are found in [[Forge World|Forge World's]] Imperial Armour Volume 3. (If the current trend goes on we may see Sisters join up with the Tau, <s>which might be an improvement for the Sisters.)</s>{{BLAM}}{{BLAM|HERESY!}}
* Hrenian - Alien mercenaries employed for their skills as light infantry. No other information available. Probably [[Lizardmen#Skinks|Skinks]] In Space.
* Ji'atrix - A spacefaring race. No other information available. (Dammit, GW [[Writefag|writefags]].)
* [[Kroot]] - Predatory gene-assimilating avian humanoids. They are the first alien race to be actively recruited by the Tau as mercenaries, and are so regularly hired that they have officially progressed to being considered Auxiliaries of the Tau forces.
* [[Vespid|Mal'kor]] - Insectoid aliens, also known as Vespids, who are native to a gas giant planet within the Tau Empire. Serve as Auxiliaries.
* Morralian - Also known as "Deathsworn". No other information available.
* [[Nicassar]] - A voidfaring race of [[psyker]]s and the only psychically-gifted species in the Tau Empire. The Tau have carefully hidden them away from the Imperium due to their (actually justifiable) psyker-phobia. Were the second alien species to join the Greater Good.
* Ranghon - No information available.
* [[Tarellian]] - These guys are basically [[Lizardmen#Saurus|Saurus]] IIIIN SPAAAAACE!!!!!! Not really part of the Empire, but rather mercenaries who will gladly fight humans and Tyranids on the cheap since the Imperium virus-bombed their home world and the Tyranids nommed their biggest colony.
* Poctroon - The first sapient species to be found by the Tau, [[wikipedia:Siege of Fort Pitt|they were "accidentally" driven extinct by Tau smallpox]], and their planet just by coincidence was a great place to set a Sept World.
* Nagi - Brain worms that, due to their horrific appearance and inability to communicate, were attacked by the Fire Caste. They managed to sort it out, though, and now they work with the Ethereals as advisors (because having brain worms about as "advisors" isn't a bad idea or anything). They have been shown in a few books so far, and were involved in a "mind-rip" (guess outright calling it "rape" was too much) of a space marine POW, while being so self-righteous and smug about their mental superiority they could give Eldar a run for their money. Apparently they can also at least perceive the Warp (which they call "extra-dimensional space"), and probably manipulate it as well, and know enough about it to outright refuse to go anywhere near demonically-tainted Agrellan when the Tau invaded it.
* Ji'atrices, Morralians, or Ranghons are probably other Warhammer Fantasy Races In Space, such as [[Lizardmen#Kroxigor|Kroxigors]] or Trolls, given the overall tendency of the Tau to incorporate Fantasy races missing from 40k.

The usually genocidal actions of the other races, most notably the [[Imperium]], also serve as a motivating factor for less-powerful races to join the Tau. While the Tau do seem a minor threat to the Imperium now, if the current policy continues, there will be more and more races joining up with the them if for no other reason than avoiding [[Exterminatus|extermination]]. Of course, the Tau are just coming to realize how vast and powerful the Imperium really is, and while a lot of their member races really ''are'' the victims of crazy, evil, fascist extermination protocols, there's always the chance that someone responsible for a "Hell World" or "Nightmare World" might join up, and the damage might be done before they realize their mistake...,

==In a Nutshell==
;'''The Stated Reason Why People Hate Tau'''
Weeaboo space confucianists (Asian Commies)—not grimdark enough.
;'''The ''Real'' Reason Why People Hate Tau'''
Until the edition update, this would, most assuredly, be [[Fish of Fury]]. Fuck, even most Tau players felt this was bullshit. Post-edition update, it was that certain [[Matt Ward|undesirables]] felt that they were trying to take the mantle of the 40K universe's "rightful" Imperial protagonists. And because they are not [[Choppa|choppy]] enough. And then 6th Edition codex came, and Tau became one of the shootiest armies in the shootiest edition ever, not to mention their ability to bitchslap cheesmongers, having straight counters against any of the Wardex bullshit. When the 7th edition came out they became overpowered AF and they took the title as the chedder cheese of Warhammer.
More generally, the Tau battle philosophy is "deny your opponent the chance to interact with you," which is a good philosophy for real soldiers but can make for frustrating or uninteresting gameplay.
;'''A Real Reason Why People Like Tau'''
The one race that isn't being a wall of dicks. If the Tau are trolling done by Games Workshop, then the target of said trolling was any fatbeard that needs a constant supply of grimdark to stay alive. Of course, the mind-influencing pheromones they use to conquer new worlds and their psycho-indoctrination mass re-education facilities will just have to be ignored if you don't want destroy your wishful thinking for a half-way decent faction to exist in 40k. But people have always been good at ignoring shit that doesn't fit into their perceived image of something.
;'''Another Real Reason Why People Like Tau'''
Unlike many other Races in 40k the Tau are capable of fitting into many other Sci-fi Universes without much Problems. Such as Star trek where they would be at home along side other Peaceful yet also Tyrannical Factions like the Federation. Compared to the Necrons or Eldar which would be both Roflstomps and completely different from all other groups in that Universe. (Unless it [[Doctor Who|Doctor Who]]).
;'''The Real Reason Why People Play Tau'''
Arguably have the most powerful guns in the game. Often twin-linked. Often on cool-looking robot battlesuits. [[meme|Also markerlights]]. Also [[Riptide|RAPETIDE]]. Tau players may also have a tendency towards sadism.
;'''A Solid Reason People Don't Play Tau'''
They're fucking expensive. Seriously. On a points-per-pound level, they cost more than any other (plastic) army. This is doubly true if you like battlesuits, but of course you do because you're playing Tau.
;'''Helping Necrons? Or are they Necrontyr descendants?'''
An often overlooked issue is that Tau have almost no warp signatures, just like Necrons, hate Warpspawns and Warp in general (despite the fact that in 6E they can work with them...I just...I don't...WAAAARD!!!), just like Necrons, have the exact same skull shape, stature and short lives, and the overwhelming need for Technology and beam weapons, JUST LIKE NECRONS. [[GW]] may have planned a race that simply prepares a pacified, multiracial galaxy for Necrons to feast upon, supported by Ethereals that have a C'tan phase blade. Then there is a reference of "dark seed in east" by the Deceiver, so the tricky C'tan might give Tzeentch the finger in the [[JUST AS PLANNED]] competition. Or maybe GW just has so little creativity that they simply made a new civ conforming to an Old One's standards without knowing it. Given that recent murmurs have suggested that something absolutely massive is in the works at GW, ''anything'' could be possible, though past experience has led us to believe that it will simply be a Tau wearing a silly [[hat]].

==TL;DR==
<s>The good guys</S>
High-tech, Mech-loving alien race who are the ''least'' [[grimdark]] of factions. Can't melee for shit but can blow you back to the stone age with ranged weaponry if you have the misfortune of being downrange. You will either love them or hate them because of all this, and many neckbeards do feel the [[butthurt]]. For some reason Tau females are [[/d/|awkwardly sexualized]] by a non-insignificant minority of fa/tg/uys, which has shown up in some draw- and writefaggotry. As the saying goes: "You can't spell TAUNT without TAU."

== Warhammer Fantasy ==
Unlike most other factions in 40k, Tau have no clear antecedent from [[Warhammer Fantasy]]. Some think the anime influences and rapid industrialization/militarization point towards Nippon; others feel the caste system might be related to the Kingdom of Ind. However, neither faction has ever been explored in great detail (or any detail at all), so it's impossible to say whether Tau are similar to those factions; instead, we must compare to the real-world equivalents of the Old World nations. Slightly more controversially, there are elements of Cathay (which is the Anglicized word for China back in the British Empire heyday, so yes) in the Tau. Cathay has been described as being technologically advanced (at least on par with the Empire), including terra-cotta automaton warriors (which the Chinese definitely used to make to pay homage to the First Chinese Emperor's over inflated ego, more than a millennia ago), although such comparison is stated by some to have [[Skub|already been implemented in the characterization of the Eldar and thus, is considered as ''seriously'' stretching up a notch.]]

More recently, some have connected the Tau and their subject races to other factions in Fantasy. The rapid evolution of the Kroot and their overall savagery is (somewhat) similar to the Gors of the Beastmen (although the Beastmen are in the 40k universe themselves). The Empire also shares the xenos-friendly viewpoint of the Tau, although they're not expansionistic, and decidedly less concerned with a unified government structure so long as everyone pays their taxes, for better or for worse. Others compare them to dwarves: dwarves don't use Chaos magic, are short, technologically advanced, kinda casty and blue (understood in many countries as "hopelessly drunk") basicly all the time. Tau don't use Chaos warp magic, are short, technologically advanced, very casty and blue all the time (in regards to skin colour). Both also get seriously grudgy and angry when you piss them off.

==Trivia==
[[File:Tau Ripoff.jpeg|thumb|right|300px|FOR THE [[Blood Ravens|GREATER THEFT]]!]]
* Some have said that Tau resemble the protagonist KYNE from the Amiga video game Brataccas, which was released in 1986. Tau were first added to Warhammer 40k in late 2001. Some would dismiss this as coincidence, but Games Workshop has a long history of ripping off designs from other games; [[Beastmen]] are [[Broo]] from [[Glorantha]], very large chunks of 40k are a little too similar to [[Judge Dredd]], and all of the Greater Daemon model designs are stolen from early [[Dungeons & Dragons]]. These properties are understandable as Games Workshop was still selling games of those IPs when Warhammer was first created, but Brataccas is an obscure game from a forgotten system that was quite forgettable even at release, even if Amiga games tended to get fantastic cover art. This being said another of GW's early products was also puzzles of of this style of '70's/'80's Sci-Fi art. The Tau cast system does resemble the Protoss caste from [[Starcraft]], which predates the release of the Tau by 3 years... You have the Templar (Fire/Air Castes) Judicators (Ethereals + Water Castes) and Khalai (Earth Caste). In addition to a rogue sub-caste in the Dark Templar (Farsight Enclaves). This is Ironic considering that GW originally was making a deal with Blizzard to make games based on their properties. GW asked too much/Blizzard didn't like the terms and left... to make Warcraft and Starcraft. Just think, we <s>COULD have had a Warhammer Fantasy RTS</s> (Total War: Warhammer exists now) and World of Warhammer Fantasy Battle MMO. Starcraft would have become a Rogue Trader RTS. It was probably a mistake on GW's part, as they REALLY missed out. Stealing the Tau from the Protoss was probably done because GW was still salty.
* Tau are technically canon to the Marvel Comics universe, as the series Venom: Space Knight repeatedly used Tau vehicles for aliens in the scenery. In fact, they have the balls to even keep the Tau Sept symbol! Also, you can see what appears to be a Eldar tank, as well as a Necron. The irony of the ripoff masters Games Workshop getting ripped off is juicy, even more so when its realized that lawsuit-happy Games Workshop (who literally tried to copyright "pauldrons" while they plagiarized Eldar from Tolkien and had some contention between [[Malekith|two very similar Dark Elf characters of theirs]]) couldn't do shit about it because Marvel is owned by Disney, and nobody beats The Mouse™. (except Marvel/Disney settled out of court rather than risk the wrath of the Ordo Legalitus)

==Notable Tau==
===[[Canon]]===
*[[Aun'Va]]
*[[Aun'Shi]]
*[[El'Myamoto (Sub-commander Darkstrider)]]
*[[Shadowsun|O'Shaserra (Commander Shadowsun)]]
*[[Farsight|O'Shovah (Commander Farsight) and The Eight]]
*[[Commander Puretide]]
*[[Shas'o Kais]]
*[[Commander Or'es'Ka|Shas'o Or'es'Ka]]

===[[/tg/ 40,000]]===
*[[Blue]]
*[[Faptau]]
*[[O'ren I'shi'ii]]
*[[Shlicktau]]
*[[Xeno]]

==See Also==
[[File:Marvel Tau.jpg|thumb|right|250px|FOR THE GREATER GROOT!]]
* [[Nicassar]]
* [[Sept V'iet]]
* [[Tau Quest]]
* [[Warhammer 40,000: Fire Warrior]]
* [[Tau Dark Heresy]]
* [[Warhammer 40,000/Tactics/Tau(8E)|Tactics/Tau]]
* [[Tau Cadre Creation Tables]]
* [[Codex_-_Tau_Auxiliary]]
* [[Tau Diplomacy]]
* [[If the Emperor had a Text-to-Speech Device|<strike>Love Can Bloom 3:Golden Shadowsun</strike> NON-CANON FANFICTION GARBAGE]]

==External Link==
*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrHhS5IkRR0 A Typical Tau-Human conversation.]
*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbuPaCgdO50 Should one of your Tau actually kill anything tougher than a guardsman in melee, you are allowed to end the game in victory as long as you play this clip.]
*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhXCQFxGqMM Theme of the T'au Empire. Admittedly, its actually pretty amazing, all things considered.

==Gallery==
<center><gallery>
Image:Tau1.jpg|Stealth suits are :3
Image:Firewarrior.gif|Fire Warriors are :3 too
Image:Tau Chibi Fire Warrior.jpg|Chibi, but not weeby.
File:TauGuela.jpg|Gue'la.
Image:TauOrigin.jpg|Ohhh GW.
Image:Tau.gif|In 40k, everyones' guns are huge.
Image:Tau Fire Warrior.jpg|A Tau Fire Warrior, the basic infantry unit.
Image:Tau Firepower Demotivator.jpg|The sad truth of 6th edition.
Image:combine.jpg|In /tg/, tau are the bad guys.
Image:Itsyourempiretoo.png|Propaganda. [[Nazi|Sound]] [[Communism|familiar?]]
Image:Never shall the tau!.JPG|Surrender... never shall the Tau.
Image:Tauassault.jpg|Tau are vicious melee fighters, no less able than [[Space Marines]]!
Image:1234622525817.jpg|In hindsight, attempting negotiations with Orks was probably a bad idea.
Image:Tau Problem, Astartes.jpg|What's that? We're not grimdark enough for you, Neckbeard?
Image:Tau Sympathizer.jpg|The Imperial Infantryman's Uplifting Primer's entry on Tau players.
Image:Discotau.jpg|For the Greater Groove!
Image:Manta.jpg|Fun fact: if you have enough money to buy this, you have too much money.
Image:Tau cosplay2.jpg|Typical Tau player, engaging in typical Tau behavior. (Pretty badass cosplay, even got the hoof right)
Image:Tau Battlesuit vs Smurf.jpg|This Char Custom Battlesuit-clad Tau demonstrates his mastery of [[Weeaboo Fightan Magic]]. Also DYNAMIC ENTRY!
Image:E6abddad6c5999a1dbe6085d8614f051.jpg|Tau in close quarters combat barring some very lucky dice rolls.
</gallery></center>
{{Promotions}}
<center><gallery>
Image:TauKroot.jpg
Image:MARKERLIGHTS.png|MARKERLIGHTS!
Image:tau_firecleavage.jpg|Sweet [[Weeaboo|weeaboo]] [[Heresy|heresy]].
Image:Commissar Shadowsuns Goods by morganagod.jpg|DAT ASS.
Image:DAT_SHAS.jpg| A Fire Warrior appreciating DAT ASS.
Image:Tau ass.gif|A Greater Good we can all believe in.
Image:NOT FUCKING CANON.png| [[If the Emperor had a Text-to-Speech Device|THIS IS NOT FUCKING CANON!]]
Image:JoinTau.jpg|Some recruitment methodologies work better than others.
Image:Tau Chick.jpg|Few rarely seen Tau chicks. Maybe because Sisters are hotter.
Image:youtastefunny.jpg|Yeah, we all know the truth about their "greater good".
Image:Subcommander torchstar by sexual yeti-d9qal0l.png|Subcommander Torchstar, Farsight's personal fangirl.
Image:Tau_caste_nudes.jpg|Earth, Fire, Water, Air...Ethereal?!? SWEET MOTHER OF KHORNE!!! MY EYES!!!
Image:Laughing tau whores.jpg|S-shut up you filthy sluts! Among my people it is considered quite a handsome dick!
Image:Power Shopping.jpg|It's a well-known fact that the Tau Empire has some of the best shopping in the entire galaxy.
Image:Taugirlpile.jpg|Here we see Tau propaganda meant to entice men with their terrible, blasphemous, and supple soft skin, smooth curves, perky brea...er...ah...heretical alien bodies.
Image:TauHuman.jpg|Indeed, many humans have already embraced the Greater Good. (The individual with the primitive flashlight has been sent to re-education. Happiness is mandatory, Citizen.)
Image:greatertits.jpg|An attractive human female defector who for some reason has been equipped with a highly modified commander's battlesuit, perhaps as a devious ploy to compel desertion by the less loyal.
</gallery></center>

==Navigation==
{{Tau}}
{{Tau-Characters}}
{{WH40k-Factions}}
{{40k-Governments}}
{{Template:Important Species in 40k}}

[[Category: Xenos]]

Dante

2019-09-25T01:13:28Z

2600:1006:B105:8611:58CC:338D:D9D2:B1D4: /* Lord Commander */

[[File:Dante book cover.jpg|thumb|400px|The man in action]]
{{Topquote|The woods are lovely, dark and deep, But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep.|Robert Frost}}
{{Topquote|Are you only the legend, or are you the truth behind the legend?|Amphiaraus to Hercules}}

'''Luis Dante''' is the [[Chapter Master|Lord Commander ]] of the [[Blood Angels]], and Warden of the [[Warhammer 40,000 8th edition|Imperium Nihilus]], basically second in command to only the [[Roboute Guilliman|Imperial Regent]] himself.

A legendary figure in the 42nd Millennium, Dante has been a Space Marine for over 1600 years, including the last 1200 as Chapter Master. He embodies the [[Noblebright#8chan Anon Explains the Grim/Noble and Dark/Bright Spectrum|Nobledark]] in the [[Grimdark]] of 40k, and has kicked the asses of countless xenos, mutants, heretics and daemons in countless wars upon countless worlds. If it exists, he killed at least one.

==Background==

===Early life===
[[File:Baal.jpg|200px|thumb|right|Where it all begins.]]
Dante's childhood is detailed in the novel ''Dante'' by Guy Haley. According to the book, Dante was born in the Great Salt Waste of Baal Secundus (Baalfora) in approximately 445.M40. His father, Arreas, was a kind but undistinguished member of the Salt clans (Irkuk clan to be specific) that made a living harvesting salt from the chemically contaminated land (they travel in sand roamers, very much like the sandcrawlers of Tatooine). His mother died giving birth to a younger brother when he was seven (452.M40), the baby [[grimdark|naturally]] dying as well.

Dante was the boy's 'Angel' name, equivalent to the traditional Christian baptismal name, whereas Luis was his personal name. Most Baalite clans used their Angel name in day-to-day life, but Dante's people preferred their personal names. So, Luis is generally used in the book for the scenes where Dante is a child.

As Baalfora was a post-apocalyptic hell-hole (think [[Fallout]] with a strong flavour of Mad Max), the Salt clans were malnourished, physically stunted, and suffering from radiation. The Blood Angels did not think highly of them as a source of potential recruits. An in-universe observation is made that the Salt Clans were small and scattered, and so the inference to be drawn is that there was not much fighting to be had to breed a martial culture among them. You can imagine Dante's relative chances of becoming a Space Marine in such conditions. That said, life in the Great Salt Waste was no easy-living. Dante killed his first man when he was ten, helping his people fight off nomads who had attacked their caravan.

===Journey to Angel's Fall===
Dante had grown up hearing the stories of the Blood Angels from his father. When news came that there was to be a trial (456.M40), Dante decided to attempt it. However, his father Arreas tried to discourage him from attempting to join by guilt tripping about abandoning family. Arreas also pointed out that Dante's chances were not good. As a boy of only eleven, Dante would be much smaller and weaker physically than other potential recruits. The ''Warlords of the Dark Millennium'' (WotDM) info book is more explicit in stating that Dante’s growth had been stunted by malnutrition, and his body damaged by exposure to the rad-deserts of Baalfora (but so too the case for everyone else). Regardless, Dante knew the next trials would be a generation away (probably he would be dead then or too old for the gene-seed implantation procedure if he did live that long), and so this was now or never. One night, Dante left home without a farewell to his father, making off for Angel's Fall where the trials were held.

Dante made it, showing bravery and character, but also benefiting from a combination of luck and fate. Dante fucked up at the very beginning, losing his roamer to a type of quick sand due to his own fault. He would have died of thirst while traveling across the sand dunes on foot, if not for the [[Sanguinor]], who appeared and pointed the way to life saving water. Dante subsequently befriended a pair of older aspirants (Florian and Daneill) who did not kill him opportunistically (what are the chances?), as you suspect might or should happen to small boys traveling alone in WH40K. Well, Florian and Daneill did contemplate snuffing Dante there and then, but you can only take [[Grimdark]] so far (plus with Dante's literal guardian angel hanging around, its not like this will get anywhere if they tried).

Thereafter there is a heroic episode in which Dante shows great bravery and resolve, but continuing to benefit from luck. It was the numbers that saw the boys through when attacked by a Fire Scorpion (and it was only a juvenile), but Daneill died when he drank 'thirst water', which [[grimdark|sucks the moisture out of anything it touches]]. The final hurdle is using a winged para-glider to traverse the canyon from the Heavenwall mountains (the 'Angel's Leap', here being where Sanguinius first flew). The potential aspirants were attacked by Blood Eagles, but Dante and Florian were one of the few survivors (both besties by now).

===The trials===
[[File:Blood angel aspirants.jpg|300px|thumb|right|The Blood Angels and their aspirants. Don't worry, you'll be as pretty as us in no time.]]
After receiving a pass for genetic compatibility, and potential (''First Winnowing''), Dante begins the first set of athletic trials, where he fails to distinguish himself. He expects to be failed at this stage (''Second Winnowing''), but makes it through into the second stages, which he also survives without distinction in feats of combat and physical valour. However, it is here that Dante begins to show a flair for leadership, which he uses to help guide his team to victory in the ''Trial of War''. Besides leadership, Dante's biggest strength and ultimate point of character, is his heart and morality. When it came to his final physical test (''Final Choosing''), the High Chaplain of the time pitted him against his best friend Florian, whom he was urged to kill. Although Florian had reluctantly committed himself to the task, Dante pulled a [[Star Wars|Luke Skywalker]] after getting the best of his friend and threw down his staff, telling the Chaplain to stuff it. To which the Chaplain gave him a pass--clearing the most treacherous test of all (Florian obviously failed), one called the [[Horus|Test of Horus]]. The Blood Angels egg on aspirants to shred their inhibitions about personal loyalty by matching them against those who were observed to be have become their friends or close comrades during earlier in the trials. First, the chaplains would urge them to kill comrades for the 'greater good' of serving the Emperor as remorseless killers. If that fails, aspirants are threatened with rejection, or tempted furthermore by promises of power and glory. Everything is a trick, patterned after Horus (aka Satan) tempting Sanguinius (aka Jesus Christ) on the Vengeful Spirit during the Siege of Terra. All true Blood Angels will do as Sanguinius did. [[Awesome|Fucking Brilliant]].

In the ultimate trial, the ''Winnowing of Weariness'', aspirants are made to take a long vigil without falling asleep. However, Dante fell asleep (failing the task), dreaming of his parents. It was the Sanguinor that roused him before the Blood Angels could catch on. Damn, he is a man of destiny [[Mary Sue|or what]].

During the gene-seed implantation (''Blood Change''), Dante drank from the chalice containing the blood of Sanguinius, and then [[Vampire|slumbered in a sarcophagus for a year]]. As was normal, Dante had visions of Sanguinius' life and times. What was unusual was that Dante survived drifting in and out of consciousness, while screaming the names of figures and events from Blood Angels history in great torment. Normally those who suffered like this died while trying to claw their way out, or emerged as monsters in the thralls of the [[Black Rage]]. However, Dante emerged in normal condition, every inch the angel that the gene-seed implantation was supposed to produce. Some Blood Angels believed that it was a sign of greatness. The Black Rage could not be held off forever, but only forestalled. Dante's mastery of his anger inside the sarcophagus basically foreshadowed his future potential to hold off the Black Rage for an absurd length of time (1600 years and counting).

Generally, the novelisation (if you can't tell by now, it is fucking awesome) tries to avoid making Dante a Mary Sue (Haley neatly undercuts the trope in chapter one), but it is clear that he is a man of destiny. So, there is a bit of a revisionism to the earlier fluff about his non-Mary sueishness that readers drew from the WotDM info book. Dante (at this stage) is clearly not the strongest, but he is good enough, and certainly good-hearted enough to be the chosen of whatever force that guides the Sanguinor.

==The Blood Angel==

===Scout to Chapter Master===
[[File:The_Red_Angel.jpg|thumb|400px|right|What he looked like before getting kitted in gold.]]
In the novels and the rest of the fluff, Lord Commander Dante is generally portrayed as a stern but kind fatherly figure to the Blood Angels, who's a good guy and [[Meme|doesn't afraid of anything]]. But before becoming a legend, he was simply Captain Dante, and before that Sergeant Dante, and of course, a battle-brother and a scout at the beginning.

;Scout
As a young Space Marine scout, Dante fought against the Orks in the Ash Wastes of the planet Rora, Eudyminous System (467.M40). It was Dante's 23rd engagement. Turns out that his sergeant, Gallileon, is assessing him for potential as a line officer, and so he gets put on the spot. Dante's tactical plan works, but then he was also at fault for leading the Orks onto his squad in the first place. So, good brain, but not an infallible warrior. The larger campaign is more difficult for the Blood Angels Company, and the Sanguinor himself has to bail them out.

A few years later in 470.M40, Dante fought under Sergeant Basileus on Ereus V, participating in the extermination of the Orreti. However, Dante [[heresy|sympathised with the fate of the pitiful Xenos race]]. Blood Angels indoctrination techniques are quite obviously a [[fail]], or perhaps Dante was too much for them, the [[noblebright|Mr. noblebright]] that he is. On the other hand, Dante and the Blood Angels do end up going all vampire on the Orreti, mercy be damned. Yeah, who would miss these sorry-ass aliens? <s>Ugluk</s> Basileus: looks like meat is back on the menu boys! Of course, this obviously has to be the first step on Dante's route to non-blood sucking enlightenment.

;Battle Brother
Dante has his first encounter (besides an aspirant who came back mad from inside the sarcophagus) with the Black Rage in the hive world of Tobias Halt (518.M40). Battling the Chaos marines of the ''Purge'' warband, Dante's battle-brother Laziel falls to the rage and thinks they are the old legion, relieving the siege of Terra. More problematically for Dante, his fury at his inability to protect the factory workers of Holywell Hive leads to his fall to a bloodlust which culminates in him slaughtering the traitor marines, and then draining the factory workers. After that he swore off the partaking of blood save for sacrimental rituals.

;Sergeant and Captain
Dante rose to become the Captain of the Blood Angels 5th company in 753.M40. He replaced Captain Avernis, who fell during the assault on the Odrius <s>pirate lair</s> freeport in Mas the year before. At that point, Dante had been a sergeant, leading 'Squad Dante'. The Eldar corsair king Hellaineth attempted to engage Dante in [[heresy|some philosophical discussions]], but Dante wisely turned him down. While the port was destroyed, Hellaineth escaped, and not before leaving Dante with some niggling doubts anyway. Damn Space Elves. But no worry, the Sanguinor is there to ensure the emperor's finest remains eternally committed to the good fight.

;Rise to Chapter Master

In the WotDM info book, Dante became the Chapter Master in approximately 900-999.M40. Turns out that Dante was not chosen because he was the best of the Captains, but simply because he was the only surviving line officer after the debilitating Kallius Insurrection that left no more than 200 Blood Angels alive. Some might interpret this as lessening Dante's legend, and indeed the point is raised in the infobook from an in-universe POV. As a legend of M41, there is a retrospective rose-tinted perception of his every deed, and how Dante became a Chapter Master is apparently a matter the Blood Angels care not to discuss. [[Derp|This is stupid]]. It is actually saying something that Dante is the only line officer left after perhaps the most dangerous campaign the Blood Angels had fought in a long time. In WH40K survivors are the winners, and Dante was a survivor. Whoever wrote that bit of fluff did not think it through.

The WotDM is only one version of how Dante became Chapter Master. Another version of his ascent involves the Secoris Disaster, which is similar enough to the Kallius Insurrection, whilst maintaining some key differences. In this, Captain Dante and Captain Kadeus were the only line officers who survived the Secoris Tragedy (996.M40), a disastrous attempt by the entire chapter (under Chapter Master Sangallo) to cleanse the [[Space Hulk]] Sin of Damnation. Only fifty Blood Angels survive. Kadeus would go on to become Chapter Master, and together with Dante, rebuild the chapter. Ultimately, Kadeus would die in the Blood Angels fortress-monastery on Baal, naming Dante as his successor and handing him the Axe Mortalis.

Obviously the dates are off, for the latest fluff has Dante as Chapter Master for over 1000 years. However, due to the Imperium's [[administratum|shitty record keeping]] (acknowledged from a meta POV in WotDM), it is quite possible to <s>correct</s> hedge the dates. Alternatively, Dante has been Chapter Master for less than thousand years, and the whole over a thousand year shtick is Imperium propaganda (possibility acknowledged in WotDM). To be sure, the Secoris tragedy comes from the earlier fluff by James Swallow (see ''Dante: Lord of the Host'') and Gav Thorpe (''Space Hulk''), but not that old. Moreover, the Sin of Damnation (Secoris incident) is mentioned prominently in the Blood Angels 7th ed (2014), whereas the dates for Dante's rule of the chapter is not quite clear from it.

Finally, note that Blood Angels codex like the 5th and 6th ed state that that [[Darnath Lysander|Lysander]] does not recall a time when Dante was not the Chapter Master of the Blood Angels. Since Lysander was lost in the warp in late M40, and reappeared almost a thousand years later in 964.M41 (Codex: Space Marines 5th ed), Dante must have been Chapter Master before the former date. Thus, it is probably the Secoris tragedy that has been retconned, or at least, given less precedence by recent BL writers.

Ultimately, whatever fluff you choose to follow, Dante was a badass. It was to him to lead the Blood Angels Chapter during the Dark Millennium that is M41.

That said, the 8th Edition Blood Angels Codex (most recent on the moment of writing) also reinforces previously mentioned info from 5th and 6th codexes, as [[Darnath Lysander|Captain Lysander]] still doesn't recall times when Blood Angels had the Chapter Master other than Dante, thus making his ascension after Kallius Insurrection more likely one, if not outright makes it canon.

===Lord Commander===
[[File:Vampire Awesomeness Incarnate.png|thumb|400px|right|One of the best ever pieces depicting Dante.]]
There is some fluff in the novels about Dante's personality as a leader. Basically, it can be said that he functions as an executive authority of the Blood Angels, rather than a 'lord' (like a Jedi Master of the High Council rather than the pre-Ruusan Reformation Jedi Lords). However, the title of ''Lord Commander'' is often used in conjunction with ''High Lord'' in the Blood Angels series by James Swallow. Meanwhile, the 7th ed codex and WotDM infobook seems to have shortened the title to just ''Commander'', while including subsidiary titles like ''Master of the Blood Angels'' and ''Lord of the Angelic Hosts''. It is not clear what exactly is the precise wording of the title. Swallow enjoys appending 'Lord' or 'High Lord' to Commander, but it could be just be reflecting the in-universe reverence of the Blood Angels for Dante. In any case, Dante behaves anything but like a 'lord' or 'master'. He is first-among-equals amongst the Blood Angels (or likes to think himself as such). He addresses First Captain [[Karlaen]] as brother, and brooks no ceremony while interacting with [[Mephiston]] and others.

According to the WotDM infobook, Dante has led the Blood Angels to their "most glorious and triumphant millennia since the time of the [[Great Scouring|Scouring]]". Some of his notable personal exploits are mentioned here.

It seems he doesn't sweat the small talk per se, and venerates a warriors honor more than a title. He certainly has many titles, all of which signify that he is indeed a warrior to be venerated above all others, but Dante really places respect above all else. Dante respects even the lowliest guardsmen who lays it all on the line for the defense of humanity, he doesn't ask anything more.

; The Gates of Pandemonium (Undated; M40-M41?)
Dante kicked [[Skarbrand]]'s ass at Pandemonium sometime during M41, casting the creature back into the warp. With Skarbrand’s banishment, the Daemonic armies were overwhelmed by the Blood Angels.

; Skylos (Undated; M40-M41?)
Dante defeated a powerful Chaos chronomancer at Skylos, who had shrouded the whole planet with his dark sorcery. The chronomancer would attempt to use time as a weapon against Dante, even stealing several decades of his life. Unfortunately for the chronomancer, the loss of a few decades is irrelevant to one such as Dante, who [[awesome|hacked him down with the Axe Mortalis]] (detailed in the short story ''Dante: Lord of the Host'').

; Ruden III (Undated; M40-M41?)
Dante's victory over Eldar corsairs on Ruden III is mentioned as one of his legendary deeds in ''Shield of Baal: Exterminatus''.

; Vetrim (Undated; M40-M41?)
Dante's role in the liberation of Vetrim from its Tau overlords and human turncoats is one of the legendary deeds singled out in ''Shield of Baal: Exterminatus''.

; Orana (Undated; M40-41?)
Sometime during M41 Dante personally led the Blood Angels strike force that saved the planet of Orana from an invasion of Chaos Space Marines and Daemons. Orana's capital hive was transformed into a hideous Hellspire, with stone and metal transformed into bloody flesh and bone, and Chaos sorcerers summoning a powerful Daemon lord. When all seemed lost Dante launched himself at the Daemon lord, banishing him back into the warp. With the Daemon's banishment, the Chaos forces were overwhelmed and the planet saved for the Imperium.

; Alchonis Campaign (Undated; M40-M41?)
Not much details about this, but that badass "I have seen all the evil that the galaxy harbours...." quote of Dante was uttered at the start of this campaign, with Dante personally involved (Codex Blood Angels 3rd ed).

; Pyrus Reach (Undated; M40-M41?)
Dante personally led a Blood Angels force during the Pyrus Reach campaign, which is featured in the ''Dark Millenium'' cardgame.
The conflict involved forces of Chaos led by [[Erebus]] and his [[Word Bearers]], and an Ork Waaagh! led by Warboss Garzulk the Faceless from the mighty Goffs clan. Space Elves from a Craftworld are also involved, and as usual, involved in some behind the scenes shenanigans that got the [[Dark Angels]] into the mess as well.

; Canau (Undated; M40-M41?)
Dante led the Blood Angels to liberate the planet of Canau from the Orks. Singled out as one of his most legendary exploits, subject to much mythmaking where he slew so many Orks that even the [[Matt Ward|Dark Lord]] has trouble accepting the numbers cited.

; Ultima Macharia (Undated; M40-M41?)
Dante performed some memorable deed here (Blood Angels 5th ed). No details are given, but possibly something to do with the [[Macharian Heresy]]. Most probably it is mentioned because it is the farthest planet on the western half of the galaxy, providing a nice mirror to Dante's involvement in Jonol (see below), the planet on the edge of the Eastern Fringes of the Segmentum Ultima.

; Jonol (Undated; M40-M41?)
Dante is mentioned as being involved in some bloody victory on this planet. Jonol is the homeworld of the Honoured Sons Space Marine Chapter, on the Eastern Fringes of the Galaxy, and probably the rationale for its prominence in Dante's fluff is to show he has fought across the length and breadth of the Imperium.

; Terion (Early M41)
Dante led the Blood Angels to relieve the world of Terion at the dawn of the 41st Millennium, defeating an alliance of [[Night Lords]] and the Traitor warband known as the Brotherhood of Darkness. In an upbeat ending, the devastated Terion was rebuilt into a paradise, and all that remains of the war’s legacy is a colossal monument to Dante in the capital city. [[Grimdark]]? What grimdark?

; WAAAGH! Big Skorcha (798.M41)
Dante led the Blood Angels in defense of Baal and its moons from WAAAGH! Big Skorcha, which included numerous Orks from three entire Space Hulks.

; Battle of Stonehaven (901.M41)
Dante led the drop assault that broke WAAAGH! Bludcrumpa's decade-long siege of the Forge World Ironhelm.

; Kalagazaar (911.M41)
When Grey Knight prognosticars predicted [[Ka'bandha]] return to the mortal world, the Grey Knights revealed themselves to the Blood Angels, bringing the news to Dante and proposing a joint strike. The Blood Angels and Grey Knights then attacked Ka'Bandha at his fortress on the Daemon world Kalagazar, banishing him and his Daemonic legions and then subjecting the planet to exterminatus. At the end of the mission the surviving Blood Angels have their memories wiped, with Dante having agreed to that at the mission's start. The fluff does not make it clear if Dante himself actually participated in the mission, but it seems much more probable that he did than not (7th ed rulebook).

; Second War for Armageddon (941.M41)
Dante's reputation led Chapter Masters [[Tu'Shan]] of the [[Salamanders]] and [[Marneus Calgar]] of the [[Ultramarines]] to acknowledge his overall command of imperial forces in [[Armageddon]].

At the walls of Tartarus Hive, Dante and Tu'Shan would famously fight side by side against [[Ghazghkull Thraka]] and his bodyguard, winning the day for the Imperium. A generation later, Dante's name is still spoken with reverence in Armageddon, and one of the Armageddon system's deep space monitoring installations was named in his honour.

; Malogrim (Undated; 941-999.M41?)
Sometime during M41 Dante personally led the Blood Angels as they defended the planet of Malogrim from a three-way invasion involving Orks, Dark Eldar, and Chaos Space Marines of the [[Emperor's Children]]. The Orks were led personally by [[Ghazghkull Thraka]], and the Dark Eldar spearheaded by [[Lelith Hesperax]] and her Wych Cult of Strife.

This conflict is undated, but the appearance of Ghazghkull gives a date shortly before 941.M40, or sometime afterwards. Of course, there is no hard and fast canon, and this is from a card game the ''Siege of Malogrim Hive''. Possibly there was never a date indicated, just like what developers claimed for [[Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine]].

;The Gehenna Campaign (955.M41)
Dante and the Blood Angels 3rd Company battled against the Necron Legions of the [[Silent King]] on Gehenna, his leadership allowing the company to fight the enemy to a stalemate for three standard weeks. When a Tyranid splinter fleet enters orbit, the Blood Angels and the Necrons ally to fight the common foe successfully. However, it turns out that the Necrons were using the Blood Angels, letting them bore the brunt of the fighting (hmmm, perhaps Dante would have done well to internalise the lessons about Xenos perfidy). The Necrons fled before the Blood Angels recognised the treachery, but Blood Angels propaganda made it out that Dante let them leave in gratitude for their 'contributions' to the defense. Heh, perhaps not only his exploits, but also virtues and nobility are exaggerated. Just kidding, we know Dante is the man despite the frankly silly fluff.

; The Blackfang Crusade (994.M41)
Dante mobilised the whole Blood Angels chapter, leading them to drive the Orks from their empire (twelve worlds) in the Blackfang system, and also its two neighbouring systems. [[Awesome|All in a single standard year]].

; The Third Tyrannic War (997.M41-early.M42)
[[File:Dante-vs-Hive-Tyrant.png|300px|thumb|right|Dante taking on a hive tyrant]]
Hive Fleet Leviathan, the largest Tyranid force ever to invade the Galaxy, is eventually defeated at Baal. Dante and the Blood Angels play an important role, contributing decisively in the Cryptus Campaign and the defense of Baal (and its moons) itself. Responding to Dante's call-to-arms, every 2nd founding chapter of the Blood Angels and later descendants (save the [[Lamenters]]) assembled at Baal. During the fighting, Baal Primus (Baalind) and Baal Secundus (Baalfora) were both destroyed, but the arrival of a relief force led by Guilliman allowed the Blood Angels to claim victory on Baal (8th ed). Dante is alive when Guilliman arrives, but the specifics of the battle and his ultimate survival won't be clear until Haley's ''Devastation of Baal'' releases in November 2017. Spoilers for Devestation of Baal: As the destruction of Baal came to a close, Dante and a mere 2000 marines from various chapters found themselves in a last-stand scenario. With the Arx Angelicum's defenses destroyed and no hope for victory left, each and every marine present inducted themselves into the Death Conpany using ash, soot, and blood in place of paint to darken their armor. Dante gives one final speech to the assembled marines before they began their suicide charge. In the process of pushing towards the Swarmlord as their final hope of victory, Dante willingly succumbs to the Red Thirst and very nearly falls to the Black Rage, telling himself that he'll see the Swarmlord dead before he gives in completely. As he and his forces pushed forward and were thinned out by the swarm, the Sanguinor and Legion of the Damned showed up and assisted Dante in reaching the Swarmlord. In the ensuing duel, Dante found that for all his might and experience, it was nothing compared to the might of the Swarmlord. In their duel, Dante attempted to weave around the Swarmlord to get swings in with the Axe Mortalis or shots with his perdition pistol, but barely drew any blood. If he had shot and hacked up the Swormlord’s weapons and then arms and then body, this wouldn’t have been a problem. As his jump pack ran out of fuel, the Swarmlord took advantage and very nearlt killed Dante then and there, but Dante abandoned his backpack all together. However, this had the unfortunate side effect of his armor no longer having a power source and it rapidly began shutting down. Dante made one final charge, parrying and shattering one of the Swarmlord's bone swords, however, the momentum of the sword continued through the blow and impaled Dante through one of his hearts. Before the Swarmlord could cleave Dante in two, his armor's sealing foam melded it to the bone sword and caught the Swarmlord unawares. Using this momentary hesitation, Dante aimed his perdition pistol at the Swarmlord's face and held the trigger. As he melted the Swarmlord into hot Tyranid goop, the Swarmlord severed the arm that was impaled through Dante. As he fell, he blanked out because of the pain, but awoke to the sight of the Swarmlord keeling over and dying, but not before it got one hateful glare in with one of its eyes. It is here that Dante finally succumbs to his wounds, but not before wondering who the golden warrior that Sanguinius saw dying before the Emperor was. He awoke to the sight of the Sanguinor who heralded Sanguinius himself. Sanguinius called Dante the greatest of his sons and said that Dante had earned his right to rest beside him for all time. Dante begged for eternal rest, but Sanguinius told him that he had one final duty to do, and poured strength into Dante, reviving him.

===Dark Imperium===
Dante lives to see the Blood Angels and the Imperium win against the Tyrannids on Baal. He meets with Guilliman afterwards, who names him Warden of Imperium Nihilus, the supreme commander of Imperial forces north of the Cicatrix Maledictum. Guilliman basically orders Dante not to kneel before him and says that he, above all else, earned the right to stand up with him.

==Appearance==
[[File:Dante Bloodquest.jpg|thumb|200px|left|He looks like this, but much older and with white hair]]
[[File:Dante Wargear.jpg|thumb|400px|right|Cool guys like Dante always get cool stuff.]]

Dante's eyes are described as pale amber, while his once golden hair has long since turned white (WotDM and the novelisation ''Dante''). In the ''Blood Quest'' comic series, his hair is long, going down to his chest à la Thranduil/Lucius Malfoy. [[Pretty Marines|Bishounen]] much?

Dante is so old that his age shows; his face is deeply wrinkled, and incredibly for a Space Marine, there are tell-tale signs of physical aging like loosening skin folds and loss of muscle definition. How old you ask? Apparently, the skins of ancient marines became thick and seamed with shallow wrinkles akin to cracks in leather. Aaand Dante has gone even further beyond that. His wrinkles at one point were so deep that they sharpened his "fine bone" face to "the point of brittleness", while the eyes suck into their sockets. Mainly the reason why Dante never shows his face in public; seeing him uncovered would shatter the mystique of the immortal golden hero. Okay, so not that Bishounen. Think Jedi Master Cin Drallig, with a flavour of Grand Moff Tarkin.

In the novel ''Deus Encarmine'', Dante is described as having a 'hawkish countenance', including an aquiline jaw and nose. It is said he had the "aspect of a predator at rest". So, one can imagine a patrician face, which looks like a snarling Elrond when enraged. Aaand the fangs. Don't forget that Blood Angels like Dante have long fangs which grow as far to prickle the lower lip.

Dante swore off living blood after a nasty vampire incident. Towards the end of the novelisation, Dante drinks blood after fifteen hundred hundreds years, which somewhat reverses his physical aging. Still old, but the blood gives him strength and youth (well, he is a [[Indrick Boreale|spehss]] vampire after all). Dante had previously taken sacramental blood, which seems to be a big thing in ceremonies etc. There is no reason why this should not have restored his youth, and indeed, Dante describes it as "borrowed life" as well. Perhaps there is something in the Blood Angels gene that allows them to draw strength from 'living' blood particularly.

Note that in the novelisation Dante brings up the in-universe speculations about the 'functional immortality' of Space Marines. He thinks that marines had rarely survived long enough to test the theory, but seeing himself after sixteen hundred years he doubts it is true. He is old, and wonders how many years he had left in him. Of course, this is with him ignoring the fact his severely aged appearance came from not drinking living blood. And that he’s as strong as ever just like all other ancient Astartes. It’s pretty obvious the aging is only skin-deep aesthetics for both him and other elderly Space Marines.

;Voice
Dante has a deep, badass baritone voice in the ''Warhammer 40,000: Armageddon'' video game. However, the ''Bloodquest: Prisoner of the Eye of Terror'' audiobook portrays him as having a sophisticated RP - ancient, wise and fatherly. The different setting of these stories (warrior in a wargame vs background role as ancient authority figure) could explain the choice of voice.

==The Man, the Myth, the Legend==
[[File:Tearing wires.jpg|thumb|200px|right|Someone made up a drawing of Dante fucking up a motherfucking Titan. The Imperium approves.]]
{{topquote|You are the greatest hero of the Imperium! Who can claim to have lived so long or achieved so much?|Dante's equerry <s>Alfred</s> Arafeo}}
{{topquote|I have seen all the evil that the galaxy harbours, and I have slain all whose presence defiles the Emperor.|Dante to the Blood Angels}}
{{topquote|My son, my greatest son.|Sanguinius to Dante}}
{{topquote|My historitors have struggled to create a concise history of your life.|Roboute Guilliman to Dante}}

Fluffwise, the WotDM for Dante seems to push for a trinity of 'big three' Space Marine Commanders of M41, including [[Logan Grimnar]], [[Marneus Calgar]], and Dante himself. The fluff goes on to present Grimnar as the most beloved figure in a folk hero sort of way, while Calgar turns out to be a four-star badass that is most respected in his capacity as a Chapter Master. In comparison, Dante is presented as a distant hero figure to the people of the Imperium, an immortal golden warrior whose deeds have become indistinguishable from legend.
In fact, even the Space Marines are in awe of Dante. [[Tu'Shan]], Chapter Master of the [[Salamanders]], and his Firedrake elite, kneel to greet Dante in ''The Burden of Angels''. Aaaand do not forget the ''The Diadem of Dante'', a Golden Iron Halo forged in honour of Dante as a great hero of the Imperium, but now proudly paraded by the [[Blood Ravens|Magpies]]. It is said that all those wearing it hope that some of Dante's might would rub off on them.

The WotDM outlines the in-universe myths and legends surrounding Dante. He is basically to the Imperium what Calgar is to the [[Matt Ward|Dark Lord]]. According to the Imperium, he is the oldest Space Marine alive, whereas that distinction actually belongs to the Blood Angels Veteran Sergeant Cleutin. Who cares about sergeants, eh? (but note the Cleutin fluff was 2nd ed, maybe retconned). Much is also made of the fact that Dante has basically got more shit done than several entire chapters founded in M41. AND the WotDM goes on to state this is not enough for the Imperium, they go full ham in which legend is intertwined with truth à la 'if-it-didn't-happen-it-should-have-happened" myth-making. Funnily enough, the [[Matt Ward|Dark Lord]] is very meta about Dante's legend in the Blood Angels 5th ed. It is noted that Dante has lived so long that "his exploits have passed into myth". Thus, it is now "now impossible to say" how many Ork he slew single-handedly during Liberation of Canau, and that the "tally grows greater each time the story is recounted". The Dark Lord also questions if Dante "truly" defeated Skarbrand before the Gates of Pandemonium?, and if it was "indeed a single mighty blow that
clove the Daemon in twain"? Finally, it is noted that only Dante himself could reveal whether there is truth to these stories, and how much is just Imperial legend and propaganda that Dante tolerates for the sake of providing a hero. The Dark Lord's own view is quite apparent since it is claimed that the "exaggerated nature of such tales must rankle" Dante. There is some truth to this, for it turns out that the Grey Knights needed to team up with Dante and the Blood Angels to defeat [[Ka'bandha]] on Kalagazaar in 911.M41. While Haley would also take this stance in the novelisation, you have to wonder if the [[Matt Ward|Dark Lord]] was truly writing clever meta, or he was just taking the shine off the major threat to his beloved [[Marneus Calgar|spiritual liege]].

Note that Dante's legend is not just the result of deliberate Imperium propaganda. The Imperium is a decentralised empire of a million worlds, and Dante's legend has been distorted by time and flawed retellings across the galaxy. The WotDM goes on to offer Dante's possible reaction to his legend. One view is that Dante lets his legend grow because he knows mankind needs heroes in the Dark Millenium. Another is that Dante has better things to do than pay heed to the words of mortal men and women.

The novelisation ''Dante'' basically states outright that Dante has tolerated the embellishment of his legend to provide humanity with a hero. In the words of Dante himself "I allow my legend to grow beyond all measure of truthfulness. I allow men to think me infallible and potent beyond my means. I embrace it gladly for the service it gives mankind".

Dante himself remains grounded, and tired of the hero worship. He thinks he is no saint and that he has had to pretend to be something he is not. In his words, "...although I am mighty and wise, and of the Adeptus Astartes, I am just a man. Under my armour beats a human heart alongside the one gifted me by the Emperor". [[Awesome|Daaaamnn]].

==The Sanguinor==
[[File:Sanguinoranddante.jpg|thumb|500px|right|Dante and the Sanguinor.]]
Dante has a special relationship with the Sanguinor, who has come to him several times in aid.
*The first time to save Dante when he was dying of thirst while trekking to Angel's Fall for the Blood Angels trial.
*The second time to aid Dante during the trials by stopping him from falling asleep.
* The third time Sanguinor appeared to save a young Dante's company from the Orks on Rora.
* The fourth time the Sanguinor appeared to pull Dante from the depths of the Red Thirst on Tobias Halt.
* The fifth time to dispel Dante's doubts about the shitty human experience in the Imperium, just before he became Captain of the 5th company.
* The sixth time was shortly after Chapter Master Dante sacrificed the world of Aeros during the Cryptus Campaign to delay the Tyrannids from reaching Baal and with the Sanguinor answering Dante's question that there is still hope in saving their homeworld.
* The seventh time was when Dante was dying and the Sanguinor heralding Sanguinius before Dante is healed.

And...counting. Since becoming Chapter Master, Dante has seen Sangunior many a times. On the first occasion Dante had been praying to the Emperor to save him, and on the fifth occasion Dante had been invoking Sanguinius for guidance. This is interesting as the Blood Angels like Dante don't believe the Emperor and Sanguinius to be gods. Who is the Sanguinor and why does he help Dante? The Blood Angels do not consider him divine, but a mysterious entity which helps them in times of great peril. However, Dante was not yet a Space Marine when the Sanguinor first appeared to help him. So, the Sanguinor is some sort of Baalite entity, one who does not restrict himself to helping the Blood Angels (or because Sanguinius had the gift of Forsight and the Sanguinor is connected to/an aspect of Sanguinius "they" knew that Dante was going to be chapter master).

Dante himself believes the Sanguinor to be a pure entity, and replied as such to an inquisitor who challenged the Blood Angels over the being's true nature. Interestingly, Dante feels close to Sanguinius during the Sanguinor's presence, almost as if "Sanguinius himself were there". Hmmmmm.

Update: The ''Devastation of Baal'' all but states Aratron still serves as the Herald for Sanguinius. Even in spirit form.

==More fluff==
[[File:SoB Ex Dante.png|thumb|400px|[[Ultramarines|Most Chapters]] [[Space Wolves|can only wish their Liege was this]] [[Emperor's Children|fabulous]].]]
===Dante and the Imperium===
{{topquote|All my life I have striven to serve not only the Imperium, but humanity.|Dante}}

In the novelisation, Dante is portrayed as being aware of the grim conditions of humans under the Imperium. Unlike most Imperial commanders, he is not okay with throwing away the lives of Imperial Guardsmen (for whom he has the highest respect), or any other soldier of the Imperium. In the short story, ''The Word of the Silent King'', Dante allies with the Necrons to defend Gehenna from the Tyrannids. Captain [[Erasmus Tycho|Tycho]] pointed out that chapters had been declared excommunicate traitoris for less, but Dante was prepared to risk it for the people of Gehenna. Admittedly, Dante does have a backup plan to assassinate the Silent King afterward, but he foregoes a much better opportunity in the first place to help defend the people.

Dante's views on the impotent administration of the Imperium are....well. The relevant quote from the novelisation is revealing, "I have fought every foe that mankind must face, from the overt aggression of the orks to the grindings of unthinking bureaucracy". Yeah, Dante just included the lovely chaps at the [[Administratum]] among all the vile enemies of mankind he had slain over the last 1600 years.

Dante also wonders, if Sanguinius was a hero, why did he leave the moons of Baal as wastelands, when he could have easily restored them. He questions if an 'Angel' would leave his people to suffer so that their strife-hardened children might make for good warriors. Ultimately, Dante answers his own question, "it was the way it was, because it had to be that way". [[Grimdark]].

===Dante on the Xenos===
[[File:Dante VS Avatar.jpg|thumb|200px|right|Fighting the xenos. Dante taking on a freaking [[Khaine|Avatar of Khaine]] like a boss.]]
The novel Dante reveals his views on the [[xenos]]. Dante thinks that he had been (rightfully) taught to mistrust xenos races, but that he never truly hated them. He proves sympathetic to the Orreti, a dying xenos race pitifully eking out a living by scavenging on dead worlds (think the gypsy). Unfortunately for the Orreti, dead Imperial worlds are still Imperial, and the Blood Angels exterminate them after they are thought to be responsible for the destruction of a colony world. [[Grimdark]]. Actually, exterminate wouldn't describe it. The Blood Angels went all vampire on the Orreti, and even 1500 years later, Dante remembers the incident with great regret.

Dante only truly hates the [[Tyranids]], and that is so because they seek to [[Necron|extinguish life]] [[What|itself]]. In a display of [[noblebright]], Dante believes "[[heresy|non-humans strove only to survive as mankind strove]]". Expect to see words like nobility, honour, mercy, and virtue in such scenes, but also perfidy, treachery, and atrocities. Dante would certainly be considered a heretic by many in the Imperium (but [[Roboute Guilliman#41st millennium / Gathering Storm|recent events]] might lead one to think otherwise.

Of course, Dante is no idealist opposed to human supremacy (he is a space marine after all). He desperately contemplates an alliance of races, but only for the great war against the Tyranids. However, Dante concedes that he not could not envisage true unity among humans, let alone between the different races. Ahem, suppose Dante has not [[Roboute Guilliman#41st millennium / Gathering Storm|got the memo yet]].

In conclusion, there are some elements which might make Dante seem to be a Mary Sue for WH40K. Oh, who are we kidding. He would be right at home in [[Star Trek]].

===Dante and the Imperial Cult===
[[File:Dante WH40K Armageddon.png|300px|left|thumb|Dante wearing the death mask of Sanguinius.]]
{{topquote|On this day, as on every other, I ask you grant me wisdom and strength, great Sanguinius, so I may guide our Chapter to ever greater glory.|Dante praying to Sanguinius}}

The Blood Angels generally keep to the [[Imperial Truth]], but venerate the Emperor and Sangunius as ancestral figures. However, it is not a stone-cold atheism that is shown by chapters like the [[Excoriators]]. There is a lot of room for doubt, and Dante at times finds himself agreeing with the [[Ecclesiarchy]] about the Emperor and Sanguinius (well, duh, the baroque Catholic vampires in spehss thing won't work otherwise).

Dante prays daily to Sanguinius in ''Deus Encarmine'', albeit cynically noting in the novelisation ''Dante'' that Sangunius had never actually answered his prayers. Hmm, it would seem that Dante and the Blood Angels are yet to to identify why it is that the Sanguinor keeps bailing them out time and again. In the ''Gathering Storm'', it is confirmed that heroes like [[Saint Celestine]] and the [[Legion of the Damned]] are warp entities that the Emperor himself sends forth to save the day. While there is no confirmation, it is very strongly implied in the novelisation that the Sanguinor is indeed some sort of Blood Angels warp manifestation, and to be associated with Sanguinius in some fashion (the [[Inquisition]] likes to [[Chaos|think otherwise]]). When Dante has a moment of doubt, he prays to Sanguinius for reassurance, but doubts if the prayer will be answered. Not so co-incidentally, the Sanguinor appears at that precise moment and tells Dante there is hope for the Imperium.

James Swallow has also played on the atheist/religious angle in ''The Sanguinor: the Exemplar of the Host''. In the story, The Blood Angels veteran sergeant Ganon is a cynic and very atheistic, whereas others in his squad are more spiritual. In comparison, Blood Angels like Dante fall on the agnostic spectrum, and whether the Emperor (and Sanguinius) are divine or not depends on what exactly is a god in WH40k. The one thing that is clear is that there are 'higher powers' at work that help out the Blood Angels in their time of need.

;The Ecclesiarchy and Dante
[[File:Lord muthaflubbin dante by mrrumbles-d6mqupm.jpg|200px|right|thumb|pictured: too old for this shit.]]
A lot of people in the Imperium venerate the Space Marines as the Emperor's Angels, and the Blood Angels are at the very top when it comes to being revered (well, at least until Roboute-living-god-Guilliman showed up again). The Sanguinala is a Christmas/Easter like festival in honour of Sanguinius (aka spehss Jesus), and on that day the people of the Imperium wear the livery of the Blood Angels. You should not therefore be surprised to see the veneration even extending to the greatest warriors of the Blood Angels, including Dante. In the novelisation ''Mephiston: Blood of Sanguinius'', fanatical pilgrims and priests even travel to Baal to worship [[Mephiston]]. It is not clear how common it is, but evidently this is not considered [[heresy]] (note that the pilgrims were led by priests who needed Mephiston's superpowers to bail their planet out, and so this is possibly an one-off display of sycophancy). On the other hand, ''The Carrion Throne'' reveals that the 9 loyalist Primarchs are extolled as the archangels of the Emperor, created to battle the 9 "great devils" of Chaos. The word Primarch itself seems to have come to denote the greatest of angels. So, simply by virtue of descent the Space Marines (especially the greatest heroes) can be expected to be treated with a high degree of reverence, being lesser angels.

In the novelisation, [[Sisters of Battle|Sister]] Amity Hope of the [[Sisters of Battle|Order of the Sacred Rose]] tells Dante and the Blood Angels that they are the "sons" of the Emperor's most "holy offspring" Sanguinius, whose soul is guided by the Emperor, and works through them. Interesting. The Order of the Sacred Rose appears in the [[Dawn of War]] series and are rather antagonistic to the [[Blood Ravens]]. So, it seems that the Blood Angels find a place in the Imperial cult and are exempt from the contempt shown by some sisters to other chapters. Then again: dawn of war could be an exception to this rule given it's relative distance to the main 40k canon.

The GW website states this about Dante: "Amongst mortal men he is nothing less than a saviour, a golden god who descends from the heavens on wings of fire to smite his foes in deadly close combat". There is also a bit in the Blood Angels 7th ed about him being a "golden god" to the "common soldiers" of the Imperium.

===The Red Thirst===
[[File:Drink Dante.png|thumb|200px|right|Time for the drinks]]
{{topquote|He was an angel, not a monster.|Dante on why he refused to take living blood}}

Despite suffering from the [[Red Thirst]] like all Blood Angels, Dante refused to drink living blood for the longest time. There is a discrepancy in the novelisation about when he took the decision. On the one hand, Dante thinks at one point that he had not drank living blood since the incident on Ereus V, whereas the decision is shown as being taken after he lapses to the thirst at Tobias Halt. In any case, Dante consequently suffered from a constant hunger for blood, compared to an appetite "gnawing at his stomach and soul" and a "hunger that filled his dreams with the bright lustre of blood".

In one council scene, Dante is shown as counting blood drop rubies in a bowl, evidently said to help in meditation. While it is not explicitly stated that it is to ward off the thirst, the immediate context for the scene is his decision not to drink wine spiced with 'dead' blood, and so one can interpret it as an attempt to distract himself from the temptation. Note that Dante did occasionally drink wine spiced with blood. It is just that by that point in the book even the tiniest dollops of dead blood could drive him to almost intolerable temptations. He eventually drinks living blood at the end of the book, rejuvenating him to some extent.

===Codex Astartes/Codex Imperialis===
In ''Deus Encarmine'', the Blood Angel battle-brother Koris voices Dante's wisdom that a "Blood Angel who does not strive to question is no better than a mindless servitor". It can thus be argued that Dante is not an orthodox follower of the [[Codex Astartes]], or at least not in the manner many other chapters chose to interpret it. Note that this also depends on if you see the Codex as being an in-universe inflexible bible (see the page), and that bit might just be an innocuous line that has nothing to do with the codex otherwise. In fact, the context for the line in the book itself is about faith and belief. However, it would be still possible that Dante's wisdom encapsulates the codex. Finally, note that the Blood Angels 7th ed says that they adhere as closely to the Codex Astartes as possible, albeit with few important variations.

Interestingly, there is a scene in the novelisation ''Dante'' in which Dante reminisces about the glory days of the old legions, set in the context of the rising tide of enemies facing the Imperium. So, Dante seems to be one who would possibly not be adverse to the concentration of Space Marines in one single force, and indeed he calls all the Blood Angels descendants to Baal for the war against the Tyranids. His logic is that only the full strength of the Blood Angels and successors in one single point of action can hope to succeed.

''Devastation of Baal'' points to him being in favour of Guilliman's reforms.

===Friends, allies, and enemies===
[[File:BA's.jpg|thumb|left|300px|Tyranids vs Blood Angels, or how Dante sees the End Times]]
During the Second War for Armageddon, Dante became bros with the Chapter Master of the [[Salamanders]], [[Tu'Shan]]. He praised Tu’shan for his contributions, which the Salamanders take as a 'supreme gesture' (8th ed codex Space Marines). To commemorate their past victories and the bond between them, the Blood Angels and Salamanders meet every now and then to exchange counsel, trophies of war, and vows of friendship (''The Burden of Angels'' by Nick Kyme).

The Blood Angels-Salamanders bond is remarkably strong. On one occasion to celebrate the anniversary of their alliance on Armageddon, the Salamanders led by Tu’shan arrived on Hecatomb, a planet claimed by the Blood Angels. On this planet, long ago, Dante had vanquished the Chaos champion Raegus Malifact. While exchanging ritual vows, the Blood Angels librarian Abathor became possessed by the shattered blade of Raegus, which had contained some of his essence. Waves of Daemons spilled forth, and while the warpspawn and Raegus/Abathor were beaten back, the event triggered the Red Thirst in Dante and the Blood Angels. They fought. Dante vs Tu’shan. Blood Angels vs Salamanders. Before they became dinner, the Salamanders and Tu’shan were able to calm down Dante and the Blood Angels by appealing to their humanity. Despite the unsavoury incident, the Salamanders pledged to be as strong as friends as ever.

The Blood Angels under Dante also have the dubious distinction of becoming 'allies' with the Necrons, fighting together on Gehenna against the [[Tyranids]]. Dante has the supremely dubious honour of shaking hands with the Silent King himself, mono e mono. To be fair, the Blood Angels did fight the Necrons at the start, and it turned out that the [[Silent King]] had made an accord with Sanguinius 10,000 years before. So, this was just a (temporary) renewal of an ancient alliance. In a monologue, the Necron lord [[Anrakyr]] later admires the Blood Angels, giving honour to their dead on Gehenna.

Also to be noted are the Daemons of [[Khorne]]. [[Ka'bandha]], ancient foe of Dante and the Blood Angels, was leading a campaign against them when Hive Fleet Leviathan invaded Baal. As the dust of the conflict cleared, it became evident that the Khornate daemons actually fought against the Tyranids on Baalind (Baal Primus), leaving behind the eight-pointed star of Chaos made out of Tyranid skulls. Suffice to say that there is some degree of respect (perhaps Khorne still desires the Blood Angels as his own, hmmm) and, if anyone is to destroy the Blood Angels, Ka'Bandha thinks it should be him.

Unsurprisingly, gets on fabulously well with Roboute Guilliman (ironically a lot better than Calgar does).

==End Times==
{{Topquote|Death is lighter than a feather, duty heavier than a mountain.|Imperial Rescript to Soldiers and Sailors.}}
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%">
In the novelisation, there is a prophecy made by Sanguinius about the End Times, where a great, golden warrior will stand between the [[Emperor]] and the darkness. Dante believes that this golden warrior is him despite most Blood Angels assuming it refers to the Sanguinor. Dante used to castigate himself for what he saw as his vainglory, but he is now increasingly convinced that this warrior is indeed him, holding onto it as his reason to keep fighting through increasingly terrible odds.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">

"I fear what I have seen. My visions plague me with darkness. So little of comfort can be gleaned from them. The consequences of our victory are dire indeed, as I have described in these writings, and yet there are some things I cannot bring myself to record, visions so dark that they fill my heart with despair.

The dreams of my father are dead, that is certain. Long aeons await of war and suffering that would break the heart of the Emperor to perceive. He never showed any sign that He saw the dark future advancing towards us. Does He know? I cannot credit that He does not. My gift of foresight – if gift it can truly be named – descends from His, and His is more potent than I can conceive. Time and again I have asked myself, did He always know, and did He foresee all that has come to pass? Or was He, like me, taken unawares? The brighter future I once saw has been burned to ashes and a second, rotten potentiality raised in its place. I curse you, Horus, I curse you to the end of days.I have written too often on these matters. I still cannot divine the answer. I shall instead write down my dream of last night. This brought some comfort to me when no comfort ought to be expected, and is thus worthy of record.
Dante unrolled the scroll, exposing the next page.

There shall come to pass days of great darkness, when mankind is diminished and all the lights of the world shall be extinguished, and the final scraps of hope torn away. I dreamed I was upon a plain of black sand studded with diamond stars. In the dream there was [[Tyranids|a great hunger]] that pervaded all time and space, a more terrible and consuming appetite than the thirst that dogs my sons. It rose from the east of the night, and swallowed the moons of Baal that coursed across the unfamiliar sky. Before Baal Secundus was consumed, a bright light flashed upon it and sped away, outpacing the shadows.The hunger spread rapidly, bloated by its meal of my home. Fortified by the blood of Baal, the formless hunger took shape, becoming a ravenous dragon that consumed the stars in great mouthfuls, until the only light was the memory of their glory, trapped in the diamonds on the sand. As the last star was eaten, the hellish Octed of the traitors burned through the western sky, writ in fire on the starless void. Then this too went out, and I was alone in the dark.

Shadows swirled and parted. The vision lost its disguise of metaphor, and I looked upon a scene that may be a true echo of the future. I saw my father. Ruined. Broken. I knew it was Him, though His body was little more than a corpse, for I could feel His mind. His power was much reduced in potency, and I could feel no sense of consciousness there, merely raging, ungoverned power that threatened to obliterate my sleeping mind. This living corpse of my father was trapped in machinery that fed His soul the essence of others. I do not know if I should commit this to paper, even in my private writings. He cannot ever know of this fate, if He does not already. Or is He aware, and makes this choice between that life in death and the utter destruction of mankind? If so, my respect for my father grows.
As the guns of the Warmaster pound at the walls of the Palace, perhaps this miserable reality is the best that can be hoped for. Perhaps this is what I must die to ensure.

The hunger came for my father. The puppets of the Dark Gods clashed with the hunger for the pleasure of killing Him. There was a warrior in gold before the throne, surrounded by my father’s Custodians and other heroes who, mighty though they were, paled next to the lords of our days. There they fought, and there they died. The vision ended as the devourer of flesh and the devourers of souls closed in on my lord and creator. There was despair only, despair and more despair. But before I woke something more. I sensed stirring in the warp, and the touch of my father, His mind made anew, and the knowledge that all might be well.

As I am fated to, so too did this golden warrior lay down his life to protect my father. The precious seconds he bought with his blood could change everything, or they could change nothing. Maybe the vision is false. I pray the future is mutable, and so it has proved in the past. All but the moment that draws near, the reckoning when I must face my brother. That I cannot avoid.
I do not know who this golden warrior was. He appeared similar to my Herald, and I saw my own face depicted upon his mask, but he was not me, and he wore a form of armour I do not know. It is certain that he was one of my sons, and whether his sacrifice will prove to be in vain or not, I know this: that he was a noble warrior, true and purer than any of his age, and I love him for that, for it means that my works for the Emperor, at least, have not been undertaken in vain, and that my unavoidable death might also prove fruitful."</div></div>

<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%">
Another prophecy concerning Dante comes from the WotDM infobook. In-universe, this prophecy was made by Sargon Eregesh, the Storm Oracle of the [[Black Legion]].
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">

{{Topquote|In the Time of Ending, we will see the final flight of the Dead Angel’s Host. They rise above us on howling wings. They fall upon us in a celestial storm. At their vanguard flies the Last Archangel. To the Neverborn, he will be the Death-that-Soars. To you and I, he will be a mortal man bearing the immortal face of his fallen father. To the Imperium of Man, he will be hope. A warrior of infinite courage. A soldier of infinite sorrows. Beware the golden mask that forever stares and never smiles, weeping tears of frozen gold.|The Mourner’s Prophecies.}}

This prophecy is independent of the one made by Sanguinius, but it is clear that the fluff has Dante fated for some epic climax. He is tired after sixteen hundred years of service, and clings onto the prospect of a final battle as personal motivation in these dark times.

<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%">
Finally, this account of Dante's situation from the ''Shield of Baal: Exterminatus''.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
For over a thousand years, Commander Dante has been Chapter Master of the Blood Angels. Amongst the greatest of Adeptus Astartes lords, he has overseen centuries of war across the length and breadth of the Imperium. Always clad in ancient gold artificer armour, he wears the Death Mask of Sanguinius, which bears the likeness of his Primarch. To the Emperor’s armies Dante is a golden god and the doom of the enemies of Mankind, while to the Blood Angels he is revered and respected like no other since the days of Sanguinius. Dante’s deeds are legend across the Imperium, from slaying the Bloodthirster Skarbrand before the gates of Pandemonium to vanquishing the Eldar pirates of Ruden III; from freeing the Tau bond-world of Vetrim from its deceitful overlords, to winning victory during the Second War for Armageddon against the Ork hordes of Warboss Ghazghkull. And yet for all his triumphs a shadow hangs over Dante. The Chapter Master feels the weight of years of war heavy upon him. He has been forced to witness the slow degeneration of his battle-brothers as they succumb to their genetic curse. Like Sanguinary High Priest Corbulo, Dante hopes for a cure to the blood madness that afflicts his kin. Yet with every passing year that hope dwindles a little more. Only one thing keeps Dante from giving in completely to these doubts, a prophecy recorded in the oldest of the Chapter’s records. Penned by the Primarch himself, it speaks of a golden warrior standing in defence of the Emperor’s throne during the final battle for Mankind. Dante believes that he is the one the scroll speaks of, and so he fights on, awaiting the day when he will be needed to hold back the darkness one last time.</div></div></div></div>

The ''Devastation of Baal'' gives strong traction to the possibility Dante is the Golden Warrior of Sanguinius' prophecies.

==Miscellaneous==
[[File:Dante old art.jpg|400px|thumb|right|<s>Trainers</s> Chaos hates him. Here he is, the Last Archangel, falling upon the enemies of man.]]
===Music===
Dante has his own theme leitmotif in the Warhammer 40k Armageddon video game. It is titled 'Dante's Retribution' and is an epic boss type music that lets you know shit is about to go down. Not surprising, cause Dante is the Imperium's big bad boss to kick the shit out of enemy bosses like Skarbrand and Ghazghkull. You can listen to it here https://soundcloud.com/danbewick/dantes-retribution-from-the-warhammer-40k-armageddon-ogs. The composer is Dan Bewick.

Damn, just think of that score playing when Dante beats the crap out of Skarbrand and Ghazghkull. The ominous intro transitions to a heroic action beat, climaxing into the score of a victorious Imperium. THE EMPEROR PROTECTS!

===Video games===
Dante's dialogues in the Warhammer 40k Armageddon video game can be heard on playthroughs of the game on Youtube. He is also an HQ Unit in the Blood Angels mod for Soulstorm.

===Card games===
Dante and the Blood Angels were featured in the Warhammer 40k cardgames by Sabertooth Games. These are ''Siege of Malogrim Hive'' and ''Dark Millennium''. Note that Sabertooth Games is now defunct, and the cardgames no longer supported.

===Board games===
Dante and the Blood Angels are featured in the ''Battle for Armageddon'' board game.

==On the Tabletop==
[[File:99800101001 CommanderDanteNEW 01.jpg|300px|right|thumb|His Model]]

8th Edition Dante!

{| class=wikitable
! || Pts || WS || BS || S || T || W || A || Ld || Sv
|-
| '''Commander Dante:''' || 175 || 2+ || 2+ || 4 || 4 || 6 || 6 || 9 || 2+/4++
|}

Commander Dante himself, one of the [[Logan Grimnar|big]] [[Marneus Calgar|three]], and damn does it show. As of 8th Edition, he has changed. First off, his ability to hit or shoot anything on a flat 2+ is a great buff, but when combined with his ''Chapter Master'' ability which allows him and other units with the Blood Angels keyword within 6" to reroll failed hits, he and any force he accompanies quickly become a terror to behold. His Death Mask now inflicts a -1 modifier to enemy leadership for units within 3" of him.

As befitting of the oldest and most fabulous space vampire, he is no slouch in combat and has some great equipment. He comes with an inferno pistol that still has a 6" range, but it's an AP-4 weapon with D6 damage that gets to shoot while in melee. The Axe Mortalis has completely changed from seventh edition. It is now a S+2 AP-3 axe that does D3 damage and can reroll failed wound rolls against characters. Throw him at enemy characters and laugh as you tear them down while rerolling failed hit and wound rolls. Did I mention he has 6 attacks now? With lucky rolls, that's a potential 18 damage inflicted on one character or 6 elite models being struck down by this stone cold pimp.

{{Marines-Characters}}

[[Category:Space Marines Chapter Masters]]
[[Category:Blood Angels]]

Dante

2019-09-25T01:09:35Z

2600:1006:B105:8611:58CC:338D:D9D2:B1D4: /* Appearance */

[[File:Dante book cover.jpg|thumb|400px|The man in action]]
{{Topquote|The woods are lovely, dark and deep, But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep.|Robert Frost}}
{{Topquote|Are you only the legend, or are you the truth behind the legend?|Amphiaraus to Hercules}}

'''Luis Dante''' is the [[Chapter Master|Lord Commander ]] of the [[Blood Angels]], and Warden of the [[Warhammer 40,000 8th edition|Imperium Nihilus]], basically second in command to only the [[Roboute Guilliman|Imperial Regent]] himself.

A legendary figure in the 42nd Millennium, Dante has been a Space Marine for over 1600 years, including the last 1200 as Chapter Master. He embodies the [[Noblebright#8chan Anon Explains the Grim/Noble and Dark/Bright Spectrum|Nobledark]] in the [[Grimdark]] of 40k, and has kicked the asses of countless xenos, mutants, heretics and daemons in countless wars upon countless worlds. If it exists, he killed at least one.

==Background==

===Early life===
[[File:Baal.jpg|200px|thumb|right|Where it all begins.]]
Dante's childhood is detailed in the novel ''Dante'' by Guy Haley. According to the book, Dante was born in the Great Salt Waste of Baal Secundus (Baalfora) in approximately 445.M40. His father, Arreas, was a kind but undistinguished member of the Salt clans (Irkuk clan to be specific) that made a living harvesting salt from the chemically contaminated land (they travel in sand roamers, very much like the sandcrawlers of Tatooine). His mother died giving birth to a younger brother when he was seven (452.M40), the baby [[grimdark|naturally]] dying as well.

Dante was the boy's 'Angel' name, equivalent to the traditional Christian baptismal name, whereas Luis was his personal name. Most Baalite clans used their Angel name in day-to-day life, but Dante's people preferred their personal names. So, Luis is generally used in the book for the scenes where Dante is a child.

As Baalfora was a post-apocalyptic hell-hole (think [[Fallout]] with a strong flavour of Mad Max), the Salt clans were malnourished, physically stunted, and suffering from radiation. The Blood Angels did not think highly of them as a source of potential recruits. An in-universe observation is made that the Salt Clans were small and scattered, and so the inference to be drawn is that there was not much fighting to be had to breed a martial culture among them. You can imagine Dante's relative chances of becoming a Space Marine in such conditions. That said, life in the Great Salt Waste was no easy-living. Dante killed his first man when he was ten, helping his people fight off nomads who had attacked their caravan.

===Journey to Angel's Fall===
Dante had grown up hearing the stories of the Blood Angels from his father. When news came that there was to be a trial (456.M40), Dante decided to attempt it. However, his father Arreas tried to discourage him from attempting to join by guilt tripping about abandoning family. Arreas also pointed out that Dante's chances were not good. As a boy of only eleven, Dante would be much smaller and weaker physically than other potential recruits. The ''Warlords of the Dark Millennium'' (WotDM) info book is more explicit in stating that Dante’s growth had been stunted by malnutrition, and his body damaged by exposure to the rad-deserts of Baalfora (but so too the case for everyone else). Regardless, Dante knew the next trials would be a generation away (probably he would be dead then or too old for the gene-seed implantation procedure if he did live that long), and so this was now or never. One night, Dante left home without a farewell to his father, making off for Angel's Fall where the trials were held.

Dante made it, showing bravery and character, but also benefiting from a combination of luck and fate. Dante fucked up at the very beginning, losing his roamer to a type of quick sand due to his own fault. He would have died of thirst while traveling across the sand dunes on foot, if not for the [[Sanguinor]], who appeared and pointed the way to life saving water. Dante subsequently befriended a pair of older aspirants (Florian and Daneill) who did not kill him opportunistically (what are the chances?), as you suspect might or should happen to small boys traveling alone in WH40K. Well, Florian and Daneill did contemplate snuffing Dante there and then, but you can only take [[Grimdark]] so far (plus with Dante's literal guardian angel hanging around, its not like this will get anywhere if they tried).

Thereafter there is a heroic episode in which Dante shows great bravery and resolve, but continuing to benefit from luck. It was the numbers that saw the boys through when attacked by a Fire Scorpion (and it was only a juvenile), but Daneill died when he drank 'thirst water', which [[grimdark|sucks the moisture out of anything it touches]]. The final hurdle is using a winged para-glider to traverse the canyon from the Heavenwall mountains (the 'Angel's Leap', here being where Sanguinius first flew). The potential aspirants were attacked by Blood Eagles, but Dante and Florian were one of the few survivors (both besties by now).

===The trials===
[[File:Blood angel aspirants.jpg|300px|thumb|right|The Blood Angels and their aspirants. Don't worry, you'll be as pretty as us in no time.]]
After receiving a pass for genetic compatibility, and potential (''First Winnowing''), Dante begins the first set of athletic trials, where he fails to distinguish himself. He expects to be failed at this stage (''Second Winnowing''), but makes it through into the second stages, which he also survives without distinction in feats of combat and physical valour. However, it is here that Dante begins to show a flair for leadership, which he uses to help guide his team to victory in the ''Trial of War''. Besides leadership, Dante's biggest strength and ultimate point of character, is his heart and morality. When it came to his final physical test (''Final Choosing''), the High Chaplain of the time pitted him against his best friend Florian, whom he was urged to kill. Although Florian had reluctantly committed himself to the task, Dante pulled a [[Star Wars|Luke Skywalker]] after getting the best of his friend and threw down his staff, telling the Chaplain to stuff it. To which the Chaplain gave him a pass--clearing the most treacherous test of all (Florian obviously failed), one called the [[Horus|Test of Horus]]. The Blood Angels egg on aspirants to shred their inhibitions about personal loyalty by matching them against those who were observed to be have become their friends or close comrades during earlier in the trials. First, the chaplains would urge them to kill comrades for the 'greater good' of serving the Emperor as remorseless killers. If that fails, aspirants are threatened with rejection, or tempted furthermore by promises of power and glory. Everything is a trick, patterned after Horus (aka Satan) tempting Sanguinius (aka Jesus Christ) on the Vengeful Spirit during the Siege of Terra. All true Blood Angels will do as Sanguinius did. [[Awesome|Fucking Brilliant]].

In the ultimate trial, the ''Winnowing of Weariness'', aspirants are made to take a long vigil without falling asleep. However, Dante fell asleep (failing the task), dreaming of his parents. It was the Sanguinor that roused him before the Blood Angels could catch on. Damn, he is a man of destiny [[Mary Sue|or what]].

During the gene-seed implantation (''Blood Change''), Dante drank from the chalice containing the blood of Sanguinius, and then [[Vampire|slumbered in a sarcophagus for a year]]. As was normal, Dante had visions of Sanguinius' life and times. What was unusual was that Dante survived drifting in and out of consciousness, while screaming the names of figures and events from Blood Angels history in great torment. Normally those who suffered like this died while trying to claw their way out, or emerged as monsters in the thralls of the [[Black Rage]]. However, Dante emerged in normal condition, every inch the angel that the gene-seed implantation was supposed to produce. Some Blood Angels believed that it was a sign of greatness. The Black Rage could not be held off forever, but only forestalled. Dante's mastery of his anger inside the sarcophagus basically foreshadowed his future potential to hold off the Black Rage for an absurd length of time (1600 years and counting).

Generally, the novelisation (if you can't tell by now, it is fucking awesome) tries to avoid making Dante a Mary Sue (Haley neatly undercuts the trope in chapter one), but it is clear that he is a man of destiny. So, there is a bit of a revisionism to the earlier fluff about his non-Mary sueishness that readers drew from the WotDM info book. Dante (at this stage) is clearly not the strongest, but he is good enough, and certainly good-hearted enough to be the chosen of whatever force that guides the Sanguinor.

==The Blood Angel==

===Scout to Chapter Master===
[[File:The_Red_Angel.jpg|thumb|400px|right|What he looked like before getting kitted in gold.]]
In the novels and the rest of the fluff, Lord Commander Dante is generally portrayed as a stern but kind fatherly figure to the Blood Angels, who's a good guy and [[Meme|doesn't afraid of anything]]. But before becoming a legend, he was simply Captain Dante, and before that Sergeant Dante, and of course, a battle-brother and a scout at the beginning.

;Scout
As a young Space Marine scout, Dante fought against the Orks in the Ash Wastes of the planet Rora, Eudyminous System (467.M40). It was Dante's 23rd engagement. Turns out that his sergeant, Gallileon, is assessing him for potential as a line officer, and so he gets put on the spot. Dante's tactical plan works, but then he was also at fault for leading the Orks onto his squad in the first place. So, good brain, but not an infallible warrior. The larger campaign is more difficult for the Blood Angels Company, and the Sanguinor himself has to bail them out.

A few years later in 470.M40, Dante fought under Sergeant Basileus on Ereus V, participating in the extermination of the Orreti. However, Dante [[heresy|sympathised with the fate of the pitiful Xenos race]]. Blood Angels indoctrination techniques are quite obviously a [[fail]], or perhaps Dante was too much for them, the [[noblebright|Mr. noblebright]] that he is. On the other hand, Dante and the Blood Angels do end up going all vampire on the Orreti, mercy be damned. Yeah, who would miss these sorry-ass aliens? <s>Ugluk</s> Basileus: looks like meat is back on the menu boys! Of course, this obviously has to be the first step on Dante's route to non-blood sucking enlightenment.

;Battle Brother
Dante has his first encounter (besides an aspirant who came back mad from inside the sarcophagus) with the Black Rage in the hive world of Tobias Halt (518.M40). Battling the Chaos marines of the ''Purge'' warband, Dante's battle-brother Laziel falls to the rage and thinks they are the old legion, relieving the siege of Terra. More problematically for Dante, his fury at his inability to protect the factory workers of Holywell Hive leads to his fall to a bloodlust which culminates in him slaughtering the traitor marines, and then draining the factory workers. After that he swore off the partaking of blood save for sacrimental rituals.

;Sergeant and Captain
Dante rose to become the Captain of the Blood Angels 5th company in 753.M40. He replaced Captain Avernis, who fell during the assault on the Odrius <s>pirate lair</s> freeport in Mas the year before. At that point, Dante had been a sergeant, leading 'Squad Dante'. The Eldar corsair king Hellaineth attempted to engage Dante in [[heresy|some philosophical discussions]], but Dante wisely turned him down. While the port was destroyed, Hellaineth escaped, and not before leaving Dante with some niggling doubts anyway. Damn Space Elves. But no worry, the Sanguinor is there to ensure the emperor's finest remains eternally committed to the good fight.

;Rise to Chapter Master

In the WotDM info book, Dante became the Chapter Master in approximately 900-999.M40. Turns out that Dante was not chosen because he was the best of the Captains, but simply because he was the only surviving line officer after the debilitating Kallius Insurrection that left no more than 200 Blood Angels alive. Some might interpret this as lessening Dante's legend, and indeed the point is raised in the infobook from an in-universe POV. As a legend of M41, there is a retrospective rose-tinted perception of his every deed, and how Dante became a Chapter Master is apparently a matter the Blood Angels care not to discuss. [[Derp|This is stupid]]. It is actually saying something that Dante is the only line officer left after perhaps the most dangerous campaign the Blood Angels had fought in a long time. In WH40K survivors are the winners, and Dante was a survivor. Whoever wrote that bit of fluff did not think it through.

The WotDM is only one version of how Dante became Chapter Master. Another version of his ascent involves the Secoris Disaster, which is similar enough to the Kallius Insurrection, whilst maintaining some key differences. In this, Captain Dante and Captain Kadeus were the only line officers who survived the Secoris Tragedy (996.M40), a disastrous attempt by the entire chapter (under Chapter Master Sangallo) to cleanse the [[Space Hulk]] Sin of Damnation. Only fifty Blood Angels survive. Kadeus would go on to become Chapter Master, and together with Dante, rebuild the chapter. Ultimately, Kadeus would die in the Blood Angels fortress-monastery on Baal, naming Dante as his successor and handing him the Axe Mortalis.

Obviously the dates are off, for the latest fluff has Dante as Chapter Master for over 1000 years. However, due to the Imperium's [[administratum|shitty record keeping]] (acknowledged from a meta POV in WotDM), it is quite possible to <s>correct</s> hedge the dates. Alternatively, Dante has been Chapter Master for less than thousand years, and the whole over a thousand year shtick is Imperium propaganda (possibility acknowledged in WotDM). To be sure, the Secoris tragedy comes from the earlier fluff by James Swallow (see ''Dante: Lord of the Host'') and Gav Thorpe (''Space Hulk''), but not that old. Moreover, the Sin of Damnation (Secoris incident) is mentioned prominently in the Blood Angels 7th ed (2014), whereas the dates for Dante's rule of the chapter is not quite clear from it.

Finally, note that Blood Angels codex like the 5th and 6th ed state that that [[Darnath Lysander|Lysander]] does not recall a time when Dante was not the Chapter Master of the Blood Angels. Since Lysander was lost in the warp in late M40, and reappeared almost a thousand years later in 964.M41 (Codex: Space Marines 5th ed), Dante must have been Chapter Master before the former date. Thus, it is probably the Secoris tragedy that has been retconned, or at least, given less precedence by recent BL writers.

Ultimately, whatever fluff you choose to follow, Dante was a badass. It was to him to lead the Blood Angels Chapter during the Dark Millennium that is M41.

That said, the 8th Edition Blood Angels Codex (most recent on the moment of writing) also reinforces previously mentioned info from 5th and 6th codexes, as [[Darnath Lysander|Captain Lysander]] still doesn't recall times when Blood Angels had the Chapter Master other than Dante, thus making his ascension after Kallius Insurrection more likely one, if not outright makes it canon.

===Lord Commander===
[[File:Vampire Awesomeness Incarnate.png|thumb|400px|right|One of the best ever pieces depicting Dante.]]
There is some fluff in the novels about Dante's personality as a leader. Basically, it can be said that he functions as an executive authority of the Blood Angels, rather than a 'lord' (like a Jedi Master of the High Council rather than the pre-Ruusan Reformation Jedi Lords). However, the title of ''Lord Commander'' is often used in conjunction with ''High Lord'' in the Blood Angels series by James Swallow. Meanwhile, the 7th ed codex and WotDM infobook seems to have shortened the title to just ''Commander'', while including subsidiary titles like ''Master of the Blood Angels'' and ''Lord of the Angelic Hosts''. It is not clear what exactly is the precise wording of the title. Swallow enjoys appending 'Lord' or 'High Lord' to Commander, but it could be just be reflecting the in-universe reverence of the Blood Angels for Dante. In any case, Dante behaves anything but like a 'lord' or 'master'. He is first-among-equals amongst the Blood Angels (or likes to think himself as such). He addresses First Captain [[Karlaen]] as brother, and brooks no ceremony while interacting with [[Mephiston]] and others.

According to the WotDM infobook, Dante has led the Blood Angels to their "most glorious and triumphant millennia since the time of the [[Great Scouring|Scouring]]". Some of his notable personal exploits are mentioned here.

It seems he doesn't sweat the small talk per se, and venerates a warriors honor more than a title. He certainly has many titles, all of which signify that he is indeed a warrior to be venerated above all others, but Dante really places respect above all else. Dante respects even the lowliest guardsmen who lays it all on the line for the defense of humanity, he doesn't ask anything more.

; The Gates of Pandemonium (Undated; M40-M41?)
Dante kicked [[Skarbrand]]'s ass at Pandemonium sometime during M41, casting the creature back into the warp. With Skarbrand’s banishment, the Daemonic armies were overwhelmed by the Blood Angels.

; Skylos (Undated; M40-M41?)
Dante defeated a powerful Chaos chronomancer at Skylos, who had shrouded the whole planet with his dark sorcery. The chronomancer would attempt to use time as a weapon against Dante, even stealing several decades of his life. Unfortunately for the chronomancer, the loss of a few decades is irrelevant to one such as Dante, who [[awesome|hacked him down with the Axe Mortalis]] (detailed in the short story ''Dante: Lord of the Host'').

; Ruden III (Undated; M40-M41?)
Dante's victory over Eldar corsairs on Ruden III is mentioned as one of his legendary deeds in ''Shield of Baal: Exterminatus''.

; Vetrim (Undated; M40-M41?)
Dante's role in the liberation of Vetrim from its Tau overlords and human turncoats is one of the legendary deeds singled out in ''Shield of Baal: Exterminatus''.

; Orana (Undated; M40-41?)
Sometime during M41 Dante personally led the Blood Angels strike force that saved the planet of Orana from an invasion of Chaos Space Marines and Daemons. Orana's capital hive was transformed into a hideous Hellspire, with stone and metal transformed into bloody flesh and bone, and Chaos sorcerers summoning a powerful Daemon lord. When all seemed lost Dante launched himself at the Daemon lord, banishing him back into the warp. With the Daemon's banishment, the Chaos forces were overwhelmed and the planet saved for the Imperium.

; Alchonis Campaign (Undated; M40-M41?)
Not much details about this, but that badass "I have seen all the evil that the galaxy harbours...." quote of Dante was uttered at the start of this campaign, with Dante personally involved (Codex Blood Angels 3rd ed).

; Pyrus Reach (Undated; M40-M41?)
Dante personally led a Blood Angels force during the Pyrus Reach campaign, which is featured in the ''Dark Millenium'' cardgame.
The conflict involved forces of Chaos led by [[Erebus]] and his [[Word Bearers]], and an Ork Waaagh! led by Warboss Garzulk the Faceless from the mighty Goffs clan. Space Elves from a Craftworld are also involved, and as usual, involved in some behind the scenes shenanigans that got the [[Dark Angels]] into the mess as well.

; Canau (Undated; M40-M41?)
Dante led the Blood Angels to liberate the planet of Canau from the Orks. Singled out as one of his most legendary exploits, subject to much mythmaking where he slew so many Orks that even the [[Matt Ward|Dark Lord]] has trouble accepting the numbers cited.

; Ultima Macharia (Undated; M40-M41?)
Dante performed some memorable deed here (Blood Angels 5th ed). No details are given, but possibly something to do with the [[Macharian Heresy]]. Most probably it is mentioned because it is the farthest planet on the western half of the galaxy, providing a nice mirror to Dante's involvement in Jonol (see below), the planet on the edge of the Eastern Fringes of the Segmentum Ultima.

; Jonol (Undated; M40-M41?)
Dante is mentioned as being involved in some bloody victory on this planet. Jonol is the homeworld of the Honoured Sons Space Marine Chapter, on the Eastern Fringes of the Galaxy, and probably the rationale for its prominence in Dante's fluff is to show he has fought across the length and breadth of the Imperium.

; Terion (Early M41)
Dante led the Blood Angels to relieve the world of Terion at the dawn of the 41st Millennium, defeating an alliance of [[Night Lords]] and the Traitor warband known as the Brotherhood of Darkness. In an upbeat ending, the devastated Terion was rebuilt into a paradise, and all that remains of the war’s legacy is a colossal monument to Dante in the capital city. [[Grimdark]]? What grimdark?

; WAAAGH! Big Skorcha (798.M41)
Dante led the Blood Angels in defense of Baal and its moons from WAAAGH! Big Skorcha, which included numerous Orks from three entire Space Hulks.

; Battle of Stonehaven (901.M41)
Dante led the drop assault that broke WAAAGH! Bludcrumpa's decade-long siege of the Forge World Ironhelm.

; Kalagazaar (911.M41)
When Grey Knight prognosticars predicted [[Ka'bandha]] return to the mortal world, the Grey Knights revealed themselves to the Blood Angels, bringing the news to Dante and proposing a joint strike. The Blood Angels and Grey Knights then attacked Ka'Bandha at his fortress on the Daemon world Kalagazar, banishing him and his Daemonic legions and then subjecting the planet to exterminatus. At the end of the mission the surviving Blood Angels have their memories wiped, with Dante having agreed to that at the mission's start. The fluff does not make it clear if Dante himself actually participated in the mission, but it seems much more probable that he did than not (7th ed rulebook).

; Second War for Armageddon (941.M41)
Dante's reputation led Chapter Masters [[Tu'Shan]] of the [[Salamanders]] and [[Marneus Calgar]] of the [[Ultramarines]] to acknowledge his overall command of imperial forces in [[Armageddon]].

At the walls of Tartarus Hive, Dante and Tu'Shan would famously fight side by side against [[Ghazghkull Thraka]] and his bodyguard, winning the day for the Imperium. A generation later, Dante's name is still spoken with reverence in Armageddon, and one of the Armageddon system's deep space monitoring installations was named in his honour.

; Malogrim (Undated; 941-999.M41?)
Sometime during M41 Dante personally led the Blood Angels as they defended the planet of Malogrim from a three-way invasion involving Orks, Dark Eldar, and Chaos Space Marines of the [[Emperor's Children]]. The Orks were led personally by [[Ghazghkull Thraka]], and the Dark Eldar spearheaded by [[Lelith Hesperax]] and her Wych Cult of Strife.

This conflict is undated, but the appearance of Ghazghkull gives a date shortly before 941.M40, or sometime afterwards. Of course, there is no hard and fast canon, and this is from a card game the ''Siege of Malogrim Hive''. Possibly there was never a date indicated, just like what developers claimed for [[Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine]].

;The Gehenna Campaign (955.M41)
Dante and the Blood Angels 3rd Company battled against the Necron Legions of the [[Silent King]] on Gehenna, his leadership allowing the company to fight the enemy to a stalemate for three standard weeks. When a Tyranid splinter fleet enters orbit, the Blood Angels and the Necrons ally to fight the common foe successfully. However, it turns out that the Necrons were using the Blood Angels, letting them bore the brunt of the fighting (hmmm, perhaps Dante would have done well to internalise the lessons about Xenos perfidy). The Necrons fled before the Blood Angels recognised the treachery, but Blood Angels propaganda made it out that Dante let them leave in gratitude for their 'contributions' to the defense. Heh, perhaps not only his exploits, but also virtues and nobility are exaggerated. Just kidding, we know Dante is the man despite the frankly silly fluff.

; The Blackfang Crusade (994.M41)
Dante mobilised the whole Blood Angels chapter, leading them to drive the Orks from their empire (twelve worlds) in the Blackfang system, and also its two neighbouring systems. [[Awesome|All in a single standard year]].

; The Third Tyrannic War (997.M41-early.M42)
[[File:Dante-vs-Hive-Tyrant.png|300px|thumb|right|Dante taking on a hive tyrant]]
Hive Fleet Leviathan, the largest Tyranid force ever to invade the Galaxy, is eventually defeated at Baal. Dante and the Blood Angels play an important role, contributing decisively in the Cryptus Campaign and the defense of Baal (and its moons) itself. Responding to Dante's call-to-arms, every 2nd founding chapter of the Blood Angels and later descendants (save the [[Lamenters]]) assembled at Baal. During the fighting, Baal Primus (Baalind) and Baal Secundus (Baalfora) were both destroyed, but the arrival of a relief force led by Guilliman allowed the Blood Angels to claim victory on Baal (8th ed). Dante is alive when Guilliman arrives, but the specifics of the battle and his ultimate survival won't be clear until Haley's ''Devastation of Baal'' releases in November 2017. Spoilers for Devestation of Baal: As the destruction of Baal came to a close, Dante and a mere 2000 marines from various chapters found themselves in a last-stand scenario. With the Arx Angelicum's defenses destroyed and no hope for victory left, each and every marine present inducted themselves into the Death Conpany using ash, soot, and blood in place of paint to darken their armor. Dante gives one final speech to the assembled marines before they began their suicide charge. In the process of pushing towards the Swarmlord as their final hope of victory, Dante willingly succumbs to the Red Thirst and very nearly falls to the Black Rage, telling himself that he'll see the Swarmlord dead before he gives in completely. As he and his forces pushed forward and were thinned out by the swarm, the Sanguinor and Legion of the Damned showed up and assisted Dante in reaching the Swarmlord. In the ensuing duel, Dante found that for all his might and experience, it was nothing compared to the might of the Swarmlord. In their duel, Dante attempted to weave around the Swarmlord to get swings in with the Axe Mortalis or shots with his perdition pistol, but barely drew any blood. As his jump pack ran out of fuel, the Swarmlord took advantage and very nearlt killed Dante then and there, but Dante abandoned his backpack all together. However, this had the unfortunate side effect of his armor no longer having a power source and it rapidly began shutting down. Dante made one final charge, parrying and shattering one of the Swarmlord's bone swords, however, the momentum of the sword continued through the blow and impaled Dante through one of his hearts. Before the Swarmlord could cleave Dante in two, his armor's sealing foam melded it to the bone sword and caught the Swarmlord unawares. Using this momentary hesitation, Dante aimed his perdition pistol at the Swarmlord's face and held the trigger. As he melted the Swarmlord into hot Tyranid goop, the Swarmlord severed the arm that was impaled through Dante. As he fell, he blanked out because of the pain, but awoke to the sight of the Swarmlord keeling over and dying, but not before it got one hateful glare in with one of its eyes. It is here that Dante finally succumbs to his wounds, but not before wondering who the golden warrior that Sanguinius saw dying before the Emperor was. He awoke to the sight of the Sanguinor who heralded Sanguinius himself. Sanguinius called Dante the greatest of his sons and said that Dante had earned his right to rest beside him for all time. Dante begged for eternal rest, but Sanguinius told him that he had one final duty to do, and poured strength into Dante, reviving him.

===Dark Imperium===
Dante lives to see the Blood Angels and the Imperium win against the Tyrannids on Baal. He meets with Guilliman afterwards, who names him Warden of Imperium Nihilus, the supreme commander of Imperial forces north of the Cicatrix Maledictum. Guilliman basically orders Dante not to kneel before him and says that he, above all else, earned the right to stand up with him.

==Appearance==
[[File:Dante Bloodquest.jpg|thumb|200px|left|He looks like this, but much older and with white hair]]
[[File:Dante Wargear.jpg|thumb|400px|right|Cool guys like Dante always get cool stuff.]]

Dante's eyes are described as pale amber, while his once golden hair has long since turned white (WotDM and the novelisation ''Dante''). In the ''Blood Quest'' comic series, his hair is long, going down to his chest à la Thranduil/Lucius Malfoy. [[Pretty Marines|Bishounen]] much?

Dante is so old that his age shows; his face is deeply wrinkled, and incredibly for a Space Marine, there are tell-tale signs of physical aging like loosening skin folds and loss of muscle definition. How old you ask? Apparently, the skins of ancient marines became thick and seamed with shallow wrinkles akin to cracks in leather. Aaand Dante has gone even further beyond that. His wrinkles at one point were so deep that they sharpened his "fine bone" face to "the point of brittleness", while the eyes suck into their sockets. Mainly the reason why Dante never shows his face in public; seeing him uncovered would shatter the mystique of the immortal golden hero. Okay, so not that Bishounen. Think Jedi Master Cin Drallig, with a flavour of Grand Moff Tarkin.

In the novel ''Deus Encarmine'', Dante is described as having a 'hawkish countenance', including an aquiline jaw and nose. It is said he had the "aspect of a predator at rest". So, one can imagine a patrician face, which looks like a snarling Elrond when enraged. Aaand the fangs. Don't forget that Blood Angels like Dante have long fangs which grow as far to prickle the lower lip.

Dante swore off living blood after a nasty vampire incident. Towards the end of the novelisation, Dante drinks blood after fifteen hundred hundreds years, which somewhat reverses his physical aging. Still old, but the blood gives him strength and youth (well, he is a [[Indrick Boreale|spehss]] vampire after all). Dante had previously taken sacramental blood, which seems to be a big thing in ceremonies etc. There is no reason why this should not have restored his youth, and indeed, Dante describes it as "borrowed life" as well. Perhaps there is something in the Blood Angels gene that allows them to draw strength from 'living' blood particularly.

Note that in the novelisation Dante brings up the in-universe speculations about the 'functional immortality' of Space Marines. He thinks that marines had rarely survived long enough to test the theory, but seeing himself after sixteen hundred years he doubts it is true. He is old, and wonders how many years he had left in him. Of course, this is with him ignoring the fact his severely aged appearance came from not drinking living blood. And that he’s as strong as ever just like all other ancient Astartes. It’s pretty obvious the aging is only skin-deep aesthetics for both him and other elderly Space Marines.

;Voice
Dante has a deep, badass baritone voice in the ''Warhammer 40,000: Armageddon'' video game. However, the ''Bloodquest: Prisoner of the Eye of Terror'' audiobook portrays him as having a sophisticated RP - ancient, wise and fatherly. The different setting of these stories (warrior in a wargame vs background role as ancient authority figure) could explain the choice of voice.

==The Man, the Myth, the Legend==
[[File:Tearing wires.jpg|thumb|200px|right|Someone made up a drawing of Dante fucking up a motherfucking Titan. The Imperium approves.]]
{{topquote|You are the greatest hero of the Imperium! Who can claim to have lived so long or achieved so much?|Dante's equerry <s>Alfred</s> Arafeo}}
{{topquote|I have seen all the evil that the galaxy harbours, and I have slain all whose presence defiles the Emperor.|Dante to the Blood Angels}}
{{topquote|My son, my greatest son.|Sanguinius to Dante}}
{{topquote|My historitors have struggled to create a concise history of your life.|Roboute Guilliman to Dante}}

Fluffwise, the WotDM for Dante seems to push for a trinity of 'big three' Space Marine Commanders of M41, including [[Logan Grimnar]], [[Marneus Calgar]], and Dante himself. The fluff goes on to present Grimnar as the most beloved figure in a folk hero sort of way, while Calgar turns out to be a four-star badass that is most respected in his capacity as a Chapter Master. In comparison, Dante is presented as a distant hero figure to the people of the Imperium, an immortal golden warrior whose deeds have become indistinguishable from legend.
In fact, even the Space Marines are in awe of Dante. [[Tu'Shan]], Chapter Master of the [[Salamanders]], and his Firedrake elite, kneel to greet Dante in ''The Burden of Angels''. Aaaand do not forget the ''The Diadem of Dante'', a Golden Iron Halo forged in honour of Dante as a great hero of the Imperium, but now proudly paraded by the [[Blood Ravens|Magpies]]. It is said that all those wearing it hope that some of Dante's might would rub off on them.

The WotDM outlines the in-universe myths and legends surrounding Dante. He is basically to the Imperium what Calgar is to the [[Matt Ward|Dark Lord]]. According to the Imperium, he is the oldest Space Marine alive, whereas that distinction actually belongs to the Blood Angels Veteran Sergeant Cleutin. Who cares about sergeants, eh? (but note the Cleutin fluff was 2nd ed, maybe retconned). Much is also made of the fact that Dante has basically got more shit done than several entire chapters founded in M41. AND the WotDM goes on to state this is not enough for the Imperium, they go full ham in which legend is intertwined with truth à la 'if-it-didn't-happen-it-should-have-happened" myth-making. Funnily enough, the [[Matt Ward|Dark Lord]] is very meta about Dante's legend in the Blood Angels 5th ed. It is noted that Dante has lived so long that "his exploits have passed into myth". Thus, it is now "now impossible to say" how many Ork he slew single-handedly during Liberation of Canau, and that the "tally grows greater each time the story is recounted". The Dark Lord also questions if Dante "truly" defeated Skarbrand before the Gates of Pandemonium?, and if it was "indeed a single mighty blow that
clove the Daemon in twain"? Finally, it is noted that only Dante himself could reveal whether there is truth to these stories, and how much is just Imperial legend and propaganda that Dante tolerates for the sake of providing a hero. The Dark Lord's own view is quite apparent since it is claimed that the "exaggerated nature of such tales must rankle" Dante. There is some truth to this, for it turns out that the Grey Knights needed to team up with Dante and the Blood Angels to defeat [[Ka'bandha]] on Kalagazaar in 911.M41. While Haley would also take this stance in the novelisation, you have to wonder if the [[Matt Ward|Dark Lord]] was truly writing clever meta, or he was just taking the shine off the major threat to his beloved [[Marneus Calgar|spiritual liege]].

Note that Dante's legend is not just the result of deliberate Imperium propaganda. The Imperium is a decentralised empire of a million worlds, and Dante's legend has been distorted by time and flawed retellings across the galaxy. The WotDM goes on to offer Dante's possible reaction to his legend. One view is that Dante lets his legend grow because he knows mankind needs heroes in the Dark Millenium. Another is that Dante has better things to do than pay heed to the words of mortal men and women.

The novelisation ''Dante'' basically states outright that Dante has tolerated the embellishment of his legend to provide humanity with a hero. In the words of Dante himself "I allow my legend to grow beyond all measure of truthfulness. I allow men to think me infallible and potent beyond my means. I embrace it gladly for the service it gives mankind".

Dante himself remains grounded, and tired of the hero worship. He thinks he is no saint and that he has had to pretend to be something he is not. In his words, "...although I am mighty and wise, and of the Adeptus Astartes, I am just a man. Under my armour beats a human heart alongside the one gifted me by the Emperor". [[Awesome|Daaaamnn]].

==The Sanguinor==
[[File:Sanguinoranddante.jpg|thumb|500px|right|Dante and the Sanguinor.]]
Dante has a special relationship with the Sanguinor, who has come to him several times in aid.
*The first time to save Dante when he was dying of thirst while trekking to Angel's Fall for the Blood Angels trial.
*The second time to aid Dante during the trials by stopping him from falling asleep.
* The third time Sanguinor appeared to save a young Dante's company from the Orks on Rora.
* The fourth time the Sanguinor appeared to pull Dante from the depths of the Red Thirst on Tobias Halt.
* The fifth time to dispel Dante's doubts about the shitty human experience in the Imperium, just before he became Captain of the 5th company.
* The sixth time was shortly after Chapter Master Dante sacrificed the world of Aeros during the Cryptus Campaign to delay the Tyrannids from reaching Baal and with the Sanguinor answering Dante's question that there is still hope in saving their homeworld.
* The seventh time was when Dante was dying and the Sanguinor heralding Sanguinius before Dante is healed.

And...counting. Since becoming Chapter Master, Dante has seen Sangunior many a times. On the first occasion Dante had been praying to the Emperor to save him, and on the fifth occasion Dante had been invoking Sanguinius for guidance. This is interesting as the Blood Angels like Dante don't believe the Emperor and Sanguinius to be gods. Who is the Sanguinor and why does he help Dante? The Blood Angels do not consider him divine, but a mysterious entity which helps them in times of great peril. However, Dante was not yet a Space Marine when the Sanguinor first appeared to help him. So, the Sanguinor is some sort of Baalite entity, one who does not restrict himself to helping the Blood Angels (or because Sanguinius had the gift of Forsight and the Sanguinor is connected to/an aspect of Sanguinius "they" knew that Dante was going to be chapter master).

Dante himself believes the Sanguinor to be a pure entity, and replied as such to an inquisitor who challenged the Blood Angels over the being's true nature. Interestingly, Dante feels close to Sanguinius during the Sanguinor's presence, almost as if "Sanguinius himself were there". Hmmmmm.

Update: The ''Devastation of Baal'' all but states Aratron still serves as the Herald for Sanguinius. Even in spirit form.

==More fluff==
[[File:SoB Ex Dante.png|thumb|400px|[[Ultramarines|Most Chapters]] [[Space Wolves|can only wish their Liege was this]] [[Emperor's Children|fabulous]].]]
===Dante and the Imperium===
{{topquote|All my life I have striven to serve not only the Imperium, but humanity.|Dante}}

In the novelisation, Dante is portrayed as being aware of the grim conditions of humans under the Imperium. Unlike most Imperial commanders, he is not okay with throwing away the lives of Imperial Guardsmen (for whom he has the highest respect), or any other soldier of the Imperium. In the short story, ''The Word of the Silent King'', Dante allies with the Necrons to defend Gehenna from the Tyrannids. Captain [[Erasmus Tycho|Tycho]] pointed out that chapters had been declared excommunicate traitoris for less, but Dante was prepared to risk it for the people of Gehenna. Admittedly, Dante does have a backup plan to assassinate the Silent King afterward, but he foregoes a much better opportunity in the first place to help defend the people.

Dante's views on the impotent administration of the Imperium are....well. The relevant quote from the novelisation is revealing, "I have fought every foe that mankind must face, from the overt aggression of the orks to the grindings of unthinking bureaucracy". Yeah, Dante just included the lovely chaps at the [[Administratum]] among all the vile enemies of mankind he had slain over the last 1600 years.

Dante also wonders, if Sanguinius was a hero, why did he leave the moons of Baal as wastelands, when he could have easily restored them. He questions if an 'Angel' would leave his people to suffer so that their strife-hardened children might make for good warriors. Ultimately, Dante answers his own question, "it was the way it was, because it had to be that way". [[Grimdark]].

===Dante on the Xenos===
[[File:Dante VS Avatar.jpg|thumb|200px|right|Fighting the xenos. Dante taking on a freaking [[Khaine|Avatar of Khaine]] like a boss.]]
The novel Dante reveals his views on the [[xenos]]. Dante thinks that he had been (rightfully) taught to mistrust xenos races, but that he never truly hated them. He proves sympathetic to the Orreti, a dying xenos race pitifully eking out a living by scavenging on dead worlds (think the gypsy). Unfortunately for the Orreti, dead Imperial worlds are still Imperial, and the Blood Angels exterminate them after they are thought to be responsible for the destruction of a colony world. [[Grimdark]]. Actually, exterminate wouldn't describe it. The Blood Angels went all vampire on the Orreti, and even 1500 years later, Dante remembers the incident with great regret.

Dante only truly hates the [[Tyranids]], and that is so because they seek to [[Necron|extinguish life]] [[What|itself]]. In a display of [[noblebright]], Dante believes "[[heresy|non-humans strove only to survive as mankind strove]]". Expect to see words like nobility, honour, mercy, and virtue in such scenes, but also perfidy, treachery, and atrocities. Dante would certainly be considered a heretic by many in the Imperium (but [[Roboute Guilliman#41st millennium / Gathering Storm|recent events]] might lead one to think otherwise.

Of course, Dante is no idealist opposed to human supremacy (he is a space marine after all). He desperately contemplates an alliance of races, but only for the great war against the Tyranids. However, Dante concedes that he not could not envisage true unity among humans, let alone between the different races. Ahem, suppose Dante has not [[Roboute Guilliman#41st millennium / Gathering Storm|got the memo yet]].

In conclusion, there are some elements which might make Dante seem to be a Mary Sue for WH40K. Oh, who are we kidding. He would be right at home in [[Star Trek]].

===Dante and the Imperial Cult===
[[File:Dante WH40K Armageddon.png|300px|left|thumb|Dante wearing the death mask of Sanguinius.]]
{{topquote|On this day, as on every other, I ask you grant me wisdom and strength, great Sanguinius, so I may guide our Chapter to ever greater glory.|Dante praying to Sanguinius}}

The Blood Angels generally keep to the [[Imperial Truth]], but venerate the Emperor and Sangunius as ancestral figures. However, it is not a stone-cold atheism that is shown by chapters like the [[Excoriators]]. There is a lot of room for doubt, and Dante at times finds himself agreeing with the [[Ecclesiarchy]] about the Emperor and Sanguinius (well, duh, the baroque Catholic vampires in spehss thing won't work otherwise).

Dante prays daily to Sanguinius in ''Deus Encarmine'', albeit cynically noting in the novelisation ''Dante'' that Sangunius had never actually answered his prayers. Hmm, it would seem that Dante and the Blood Angels are yet to to identify why it is that the Sanguinor keeps bailing them out time and again. In the ''Gathering Storm'', it is confirmed that heroes like [[Saint Celestine]] and the [[Legion of the Damned]] are warp entities that the Emperor himself sends forth to save the day. While there is no confirmation, it is very strongly implied in the novelisation that the Sanguinor is indeed some sort of Blood Angels warp manifestation, and to be associated with Sanguinius in some fashion (the [[Inquisition]] likes to [[Chaos|think otherwise]]). When Dante has a moment of doubt, he prays to Sanguinius for reassurance, but doubts if the prayer will be answered. Not so co-incidentally, the Sanguinor appears at that precise moment and tells Dante there is hope for the Imperium.

James Swallow has also played on the atheist/religious angle in ''The Sanguinor: the Exemplar of the Host''. In the story, The Blood Angels veteran sergeant Ganon is a cynic and very atheistic, whereas others in his squad are more spiritual. In comparison, Blood Angels like Dante fall on the agnostic spectrum, and whether the Emperor (and Sanguinius) are divine or not depends on what exactly is a god in WH40k. The one thing that is clear is that there are 'higher powers' at work that help out the Blood Angels in their time of need.

;The Ecclesiarchy and Dante
[[File:Lord muthaflubbin dante by mrrumbles-d6mqupm.jpg|200px|right|thumb|pictured: too old for this shit.]]
A lot of people in the Imperium venerate the Space Marines as the Emperor's Angels, and the Blood Angels are at the very top when it comes to being revered (well, at least until Roboute-living-god-Guilliman showed up again). The Sanguinala is a Christmas/Easter like festival in honour of Sanguinius (aka spehss Jesus), and on that day the people of the Imperium wear the livery of the Blood Angels. You should not therefore be surprised to see the veneration even extending to the greatest warriors of the Blood Angels, including Dante. In the novelisation ''Mephiston: Blood of Sanguinius'', fanatical pilgrims and priests even travel to Baal to worship [[Mephiston]]. It is not clear how common it is, but evidently this is not considered [[heresy]] (note that the pilgrims were led by priests who needed Mephiston's superpowers to bail their planet out, and so this is possibly an one-off display of sycophancy). On the other hand, ''The Carrion Throne'' reveals that the 9 loyalist Primarchs are extolled as the archangels of the Emperor, created to battle the 9 "great devils" of Chaos. The word Primarch itself seems to have come to denote the greatest of angels. So, simply by virtue of descent the Space Marines (especially the greatest heroes) can be expected to be treated with a high degree of reverence, being lesser angels.

In the novelisation, [[Sisters of Battle|Sister]] Amity Hope of the [[Sisters of Battle|Order of the Sacred Rose]] tells Dante and the Blood Angels that they are the "sons" of the Emperor's most "holy offspring" Sanguinius, whose soul is guided by the Emperor, and works through them. Interesting. The Order of the Sacred Rose appears in the [[Dawn of War]] series and are rather antagonistic to the [[Blood Ravens]]. So, it seems that the Blood Angels find a place in the Imperial cult and are exempt from the contempt shown by some sisters to other chapters. Then again: dawn of war could be an exception to this rule given it's relative distance to the main 40k canon.

The GW website states this about Dante: "Amongst mortal men he is nothing less than a saviour, a golden god who descends from the heavens on wings of fire to smite his foes in deadly close combat". There is also a bit in the Blood Angels 7th ed about him being a "golden god" to the "common soldiers" of the Imperium.

===The Red Thirst===
[[File:Drink Dante.png|thumb|200px|right|Time for the drinks]]
{{topquote|He was an angel, not a monster.|Dante on why he refused to take living blood}}

Despite suffering from the [[Red Thirst]] like all Blood Angels, Dante refused to drink living blood for the longest time. There is a discrepancy in the novelisation about when he took the decision. On the one hand, Dante thinks at one point that he had not drank living blood since the incident on Ereus V, whereas the decision is shown as being taken after he lapses to the thirst at Tobias Halt. In any case, Dante consequently suffered from a constant hunger for blood, compared to an appetite "gnawing at his stomach and soul" and a "hunger that filled his dreams with the bright lustre of blood".

In one council scene, Dante is shown as counting blood drop rubies in a bowl, evidently said to help in meditation. While it is not explicitly stated that it is to ward off the thirst, the immediate context for the scene is his decision not to drink wine spiced with 'dead' blood, and so one can interpret it as an attempt to distract himself from the temptation. Note that Dante did occasionally drink wine spiced with blood. It is just that by that point in the book even the tiniest dollops of dead blood could drive him to almost intolerable temptations. He eventually drinks living blood at the end of the book, rejuvenating him to some extent.

===Codex Astartes/Codex Imperialis===
In ''Deus Encarmine'', the Blood Angel battle-brother Koris voices Dante's wisdom that a "Blood Angel who does not strive to question is no better than a mindless servitor". It can thus be argued that Dante is not an orthodox follower of the [[Codex Astartes]], or at least not in the manner many other chapters chose to interpret it. Note that this also depends on if you see the Codex as being an in-universe inflexible bible (see the page), and that bit might just be an innocuous line that has nothing to do with the codex otherwise. In fact, the context for the line in the book itself is about faith and belief. However, it would be still possible that Dante's wisdom encapsulates the codex. Finally, note that the Blood Angels 7th ed says that they adhere as closely to the Codex Astartes as possible, albeit with few important variations.

Interestingly, there is a scene in the novelisation ''Dante'' in which Dante reminisces about the glory days of the old legions, set in the context of the rising tide of enemies facing the Imperium. So, Dante seems to be one who would possibly not be adverse to the concentration of Space Marines in one single force, and indeed he calls all the Blood Angels descendants to Baal for the war against the Tyranids. His logic is that only the full strength of the Blood Angels and successors in one single point of action can hope to succeed.

''Devastation of Baal'' points to him being in favour of Guilliman's reforms.

===Friends, allies, and enemies===
[[File:BA's.jpg|thumb|left|300px|Tyranids vs Blood Angels, or how Dante sees the End Times]]
During the Second War for Armageddon, Dante became bros with the Chapter Master of the [[Salamanders]], [[Tu'Shan]]. He praised Tu’shan for his contributions, which the Salamanders take as a 'supreme gesture' (8th ed codex Space Marines). To commemorate their past victories and the bond between them, the Blood Angels and Salamanders meet every now and then to exchange counsel, trophies of war, and vows of friendship (''The Burden of Angels'' by Nick Kyme).

The Blood Angels-Salamanders bond is remarkably strong. On one occasion to celebrate the anniversary of their alliance on Armageddon, the Salamanders led by Tu’shan arrived on Hecatomb, a planet claimed by the Blood Angels. On this planet, long ago, Dante had vanquished the Chaos champion Raegus Malifact. While exchanging ritual vows, the Blood Angels librarian Abathor became possessed by the shattered blade of Raegus, which had contained some of his essence. Waves of Daemons spilled forth, and while the warpspawn and Raegus/Abathor were beaten back, the event triggered the Red Thirst in Dante and the Blood Angels. They fought. Dante vs Tu’shan. Blood Angels vs Salamanders. Before they became dinner, the Salamanders and Tu’shan were able to calm down Dante and the Blood Angels by appealing to their humanity. Despite the unsavoury incident, the Salamanders pledged to be as strong as friends as ever.

The Blood Angels under Dante also have the dubious distinction of becoming 'allies' with the Necrons, fighting together on Gehenna against the [[Tyranids]]. Dante has the supremely dubious honour of shaking hands with the Silent King himself, mono e mono. To be fair, the Blood Angels did fight the Necrons at the start, and it turned out that the [[Silent King]] had made an accord with Sanguinius 10,000 years before. So, this was just a (temporary) renewal of an ancient alliance. In a monologue, the Necron lord [[Anrakyr]] later admires the Blood Angels, giving honour to their dead on Gehenna.

Also to be noted are the Daemons of [[Khorne]]. [[Ka'bandha]], ancient foe of Dante and the Blood Angels, was leading a campaign against them when Hive Fleet Leviathan invaded Baal. As the dust of the conflict cleared, it became evident that the Khornate daemons actually fought against the Tyranids on Baalind (Baal Primus), leaving behind the eight-pointed star of Chaos made out of Tyranid skulls. Suffice to say that there is some degree of respect (perhaps Khorne still desires the Blood Angels as his own, hmmm) and, if anyone is to destroy the Blood Angels, Ka'Bandha thinks it should be him.

Unsurprisingly, gets on fabulously well with Roboute Guilliman (ironically a lot better than Calgar does).

==End Times==
{{Topquote|Death is lighter than a feather, duty heavier than a mountain.|Imperial Rescript to Soldiers and Sailors.}}
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%">
In the novelisation, there is a prophecy made by Sanguinius about the End Times, where a great, golden warrior will stand between the [[Emperor]] and the darkness. Dante believes that this golden warrior is him despite most Blood Angels assuming it refers to the Sanguinor. Dante used to castigate himself for what he saw as his vainglory, but he is now increasingly convinced that this warrior is indeed him, holding onto it as his reason to keep fighting through increasingly terrible odds.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">

"I fear what I have seen. My visions plague me with darkness. So little of comfort can be gleaned from them. The consequences of our victory are dire indeed, as I have described in these writings, and yet there are some things I cannot bring myself to record, visions so dark that they fill my heart with despair.

The dreams of my father are dead, that is certain. Long aeons await of war and suffering that would break the heart of the Emperor to perceive. He never showed any sign that He saw the dark future advancing towards us. Does He know? I cannot credit that He does not. My gift of foresight – if gift it can truly be named – descends from His, and His is more potent than I can conceive. Time and again I have asked myself, did He always know, and did He foresee all that has come to pass? Or was He, like me, taken unawares? The brighter future I once saw has been burned to ashes and a second, rotten potentiality raised in its place. I curse you, Horus, I curse you to the end of days.I have written too often on these matters. I still cannot divine the answer. I shall instead write down my dream of last night. This brought some comfort to me when no comfort ought to be expected, and is thus worthy of record.
Dante unrolled the scroll, exposing the next page.

There shall come to pass days of great darkness, when mankind is diminished and all the lights of the world shall be extinguished, and the final scraps of hope torn away. I dreamed I was upon a plain of black sand studded with diamond stars. In the dream there was [[Tyranids|a great hunger]] that pervaded all time and space, a more terrible and consuming appetite than the thirst that dogs my sons. It rose from the east of the night, and swallowed the moons of Baal that coursed across the unfamiliar sky. Before Baal Secundus was consumed, a bright light flashed upon it and sped away, outpacing the shadows.The hunger spread rapidly, bloated by its meal of my home. Fortified by the blood of Baal, the formless hunger took shape, becoming a ravenous dragon that consumed the stars in great mouthfuls, until the only light was the memory of their glory, trapped in the diamonds on the sand. As the last star was eaten, the hellish Octed of the traitors burned through the western sky, writ in fire on the starless void. Then this too went out, and I was alone in the dark.

Shadows swirled and parted. The vision lost its disguise of metaphor, and I looked upon a scene that may be a true echo of the future. I saw my father. Ruined. Broken. I knew it was Him, though His body was little more than a corpse, for I could feel His mind. His power was much reduced in potency, and I could feel no sense of consciousness there, merely raging, ungoverned power that threatened to obliterate my sleeping mind. This living corpse of my father was trapped in machinery that fed His soul the essence of others. I do not know if I should commit this to paper, even in my private writings. He cannot ever know of this fate, if He does not already. Or is He aware, and makes this choice between that life in death and the utter destruction of mankind? If so, my respect for my father grows.
As the guns of the Warmaster pound at the walls of the Palace, perhaps this miserable reality is the best that can be hoped for. Perhaps this is what I must die to ensure.

The hunger came for my father. The puppets of the Dark Gods clashed with the hunger for the pleasure of killing Him. There was a warrior in gold before the throne, surrounded by my father’s Custodians and other heroes who, mighty though they were, paled next to the lords of our days. There they fought, and there they died. The vision ended as the devourer of flesh and the devourers of souls closed in on my lord and creator. There was despair only, despair and more despair. But before I woke something more. I sensed stirring in the warp, and the touch of my father, His mind made anew, and the knowledge that all might be well.

As I am fated to, so too did this golden warrior lay down his life to protect my father. The precious seconds he bought with his blood could change everything, or they could change nothing. Maybe the vision is false. I pray the future is mutable, and so it has proved in the past. All but the moment that draws near, the reckoning when I must face my brother. That I cannot avoid.
I do not know who this golden warrior was. He appeared similar to my Herald, and I saw my own face depicted upon his mask, but he was not me, and he wore a form of armour I do not know. It is certain that he was one of my sons, and whether his sacrifice will prove to be in vain or not, I know this: that he was a noble warrior, true and purer than any of his age, and I love him for that, for it means that my works for the Emperor, at least, have not been undertaken in vain, and that my unavoidable death might also prove fruitful."</div></div>

<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%">
Another prophecy concerning Dante comes from the WotDM infobook. In-universe, this prophecy was made by Sargon Eregesh, the Storm Oracle of the [[Black Legion]].
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">

{{Topquote|In the Time of Ending, we will see the final flight of the Dead Angel’s Host. They rise above us on howling wings. They fall upon us in a celestial storm. At their vanguard flies the Last Archangel. To the Neverborn, he will be the Death-that-Soars. To you and I, he will be a mortal man bearing the immortal face of his fallen father. To the Imperium of Man, he will be hope. A warrior of infinite courage. A soldier of infinite sorrows. Beware the golden mask that forever stares and never smiles, weeping tears of frozen gold.|The Mourner’s Prophecies.}}

This prophecy is independent of the one made by Sanguinius, but it is clear that the fluff has Dante fated for some epic climax. He is tired after sixteen hundred years of service, and clings onto the prospect of a final battle as personal motivation in these dark times.

<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%">
Finally, this account of Dante's situation from the ''Shield of Baal: Exterminatus''.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
For over a thousand years, Commander Dante has been Chapter Master of the Blood Angels. Amongst the greatest of Adeptus Astartes lords, he has overseen centuries of war across the length and breadth of the Imperium. Always clad in ancient gold artificer armour, he wears the Death Mask of Sanguinius, which bears the likeness of his Primarch. To the Emperor’s armies Dante is a golden god and the doom of the enemies of Mankind, while to the Blood Angels he is revered and respected like no other since the days of Sanguinius. Dante’s deeds are legend across the Imperium, from slaying the Bloodthirster Skarbrand before the gates of Pandemonium to vanquishing the Eldar pirates of Ruden III; from freeing the Tau bond-world of Vetrim from its deceitful overlords, to winning victory during the Second War for Armageddon against the Ork hordes of Warboss Ghazghkull. And yet for all his triumphs a shadow hangs over Dante. The Chapter Master feels the weight of years of war heavy upon him. He has been forced to witness the slow degeneration of his battle-brothers as they succumb to their genetic curse. Like Sanguinary High Priest Corbulo, Dante hopes for a cure to the blood madness that afflicts his kin. Yet with every passing year that hope dwindles a little more. Only one thing keeps Dante from giving in completely to these doubts, a prophecy recorded in the oldest of the Chapter’s records. Penned by the Primarch himself, it speaks of a golden warrior standing in defence of the Emperor’s throne during the final battle for Mankind. Dante believes that he is the one the scroll speaks of, and so he fights on, awaiting the day when he will be needed to hold back the darkness one last time.</div></div></div></div>

The ''Devastation of Baal'' gives strong traction to the possibility Dante is the Golden Warrior of Sanguinius' prophecies.

==Miscellaneous==
[[File:Dante old art.jpg|400px|thumb|right|<s>Trainers</s> Chaos hates him. Here he is, the Last Archangel, falling upon the enemies of man.]]
===Music===
Dante has his own theme leitmotif in the Warhammer 40k Armageddon video game. It is titled 'Dante's Retribution' and is an epic boss type music that lets you know shit is about to go down. Not surprising, cause Dante is the Imperium's big bad boss to kick the shit out of enemy bosses like Skarbrand and Ghazghkull. You can listen to it here https://soundcloud.com/danbewick/dantes-retribution-from-the-warhammer-40k-armageddon-ogs. The composer is Dan Bewick.

Damn, just think of that score playing when Dante beats the crap out of Skarbrand and Ghazghkull. The ominous intro transitions to a heroic action beat, climaxing into the score of a victorious Imperium. THE EMPEROR PROTECTS!

===Video games===
Dante's dialogues in the Warhammer 40k Armageddon video game can be heard on playthroughs of the game on Youtube. He is also an HQ Unit in the Blood Angels mod for Soulstorm.

===Card games===
Dante and the Blood Angels were featured in the Warhammer 40k cardgames by Sabertooth Games. These are ''Siege of Malogrim Hive'' and ''Dark Millennium''. Note that Sabertooth Games is now defunct, and the cardgames no longer supported.

===Board games===
Dante and the Blood Angels are featured in the ''Battle for Armageddon'' board game.

==On the Tabletop==
[[File:99800101001 CommanderDanteNEW 01.jpg|300px|right|thumb|His Model]]

8th Edition Dante!

{| class=wikitable
! || Pts || WS || BS || S || T || W || A || Ld || Sv
|-
| '''Commander Dante:''' || 175 || 2+ || 2+ || 4 || 4 || 6 || 6 || 9 || 2+/4++
|}

Commander Dante himself, one of the [[Logan Grimnar|big]] [[Marneus Calgar|three]], and damn does it show. As of 8th Edition, he has changed. First off, his ability to hit or shoot anything on a flat 2+ is a great buff, but when combined with his ''Chapter Master'' ability which allows him and other units with the Blood Angels keyword within 6" to reroll failed hits, he and any force he accompanies quickly become a terror to behold. His Death Mask now inflicts a -1 modifier to enemy leadership for units within 3" of him.

As befitting of the oldest and most fabulous space vampire, he is no slouch in combat and has some great equipment. He comes with an inferno pistol that still has a 6" range, but it's an AP-4 weapon with D6 damage that gets to shoot while in melee. The Axe Mortalis has completely changed from seventh edition. It is now a S+2 AP-3 axe that does D3 damage and can reroll failed wound rolls against characters. Throw him at enemy characters and laugh as you tear them down while rerolling failed hit and wound rolls. Did I mention he has 6 attacks now? With lucky rolls, that's a potential 18 damage inflicted on one character or 6 elite models being struck down by this stone cold pimp.

{{Marines-Characters}}

[[Category:Space Marines Chapter Masters]]
[[Category:Blood Angels]]

Blood Angels

2019-09-25T00:24:18Z

2600:1006:B105:8611:58CC:338D:D9D2:B1D4: /* Black Rage */

{{Infobox Spess Mahreen Chapter
|Name = Blood Angels
|Heraldry = [[Image:Blood_Angels_Pauldron.jpeg|center|140px]]
|Battle Cry = <br>"For the Emperor and Sanguinius!"
|Number = IX
|Founding = [[First Founding]]
|Original Name = Eaters of the Dead, Revenant Legion, the Charnel Feast
|Successor Chapters = [[Angels Encarmine]]<br>Angels Penitent<br>[[Angels Sanguine]]<br>[[Angels Vermillion]]<br>[[Blood Drinkers]]<br>[[Blood Legion]]<br>[[Blood Swords]] (claimed otherwise in Codex: Blood Angels 5th Edition by [[Matt Ward]], so take that as you will)<br>[[Exsanguinators]]<br>[[Flesh Eaters]]<br>[[Flesh Tearers]]<br>[[Knights of Blood]]<br>[[Knights Sanguine]]<br>[[Lamenters]]<br>[[Red Wings]]<br>[[Carmine Blades]]<br>[[Knights of the Chalice]]
|Chapter Master = [[Dante]]
|Primarch = [[Sanguinius]]
|Homeworld = [[Baal]]
|Specialty = Rapid assaults, close combat, being ''fabulous''
|Strength = ~1000 Marines
|Allegiance = [[Imperium]]
|Colours = Red with black detailing
}}
{{awesome}}
{{Topquote|Man is neither angel nor beast, and the misfortune is that he who would act the angel acts the beast.|Blaise Pascal}}
{{Topquote|From his Blood are we born! From his essence are we made! From his passion comes our art! From his nobility comes beauty. From his might stems justice. From his thirst is born righteous rage!|The Final Charge of the [[Lord of the Rings|Rohirrim]]--err, Blood angels.}}
{{Topquote|We are born of the blood, made men by the blood, undone by the blood; Fear the old blood.|Provost Willem, ''Bloodborne''}}

The '''Blood Angels''' were the 9th [[Space Marine]] Legion created by the [[Emperor]]. They are so named because of their tendency to
use blood as a central symbol of their particular warrior-monk rituals, and because of their susceptibility to the [[Red Thirst]], a wild bloodlust that arises in them during battle. If he fails to control his Red Thirst, a Blood Angel may succumb to the [[Black Rage]] (the [[Grimdark|Grimdarkest]] of Daddy Issues), after which he becomes a completely insane killing machine with no regard for his own safety who will try to destroy the Emperor's foes even if all he has left is a bloody stump of one leg. This has led to the Blood Angels being viewed as basically vampires [[Meme|IN SPEHSS]], and unfortunately as the [[Twilight|Team Edward]] to the [[Space Wolves]] [[Twilight|Team Jacob]]. If you are not already completely indignant, see the second image at the bottom of the page for additional [[rage]]. We'll wait. …...Yeah, how much does that blow? Here's the good news, though: that's pretty much the only thing that sucks (PUN) about the Blood Angels. Everything else is [[awesome]] apart maybe from [[Skub|'nipple' armour]], but the rest is all cool, angelic and bloody and all.

The cause of the Black Rage basically amounts to the most epic case of an absent-daddy complex ever. Just with a high chance of being skullfuckingly angry/awesome at the same time. You see, during the [[Horus Heresy]], the Blood Angels' [[Primarch]], [[Sanguinius]], was slain by [[Horus]] himself just before the Emperor destroyed Horus. This subsequently [[RAGE|fucked up]] the mental stability of all future generations of Blood Angels, and when one of them is overtaken by the Black Rage, he literally believes he is Sanguinius and relives in vivid detail the final battle with Horus and his traitor legions at the Battle of [[Terra]].

==History==
The IX legion were not mentioned for many of the early actions of the unification wars. Their purpose was separate and unsightly. Their designed function was to utterly obliterate the enemy like an inferno, only growing in strength as the wars raged on and leaving nothing in their wake. So they were commonly deployed to radiation poisoned warzones, fighting against mutants and other undesirables that the Terrans would rather forget or ignore.

To this end, the IX Legion had a very peculiar gene-seed quirk: where other legions had to be fairly selective with the genetic purity of their recruits, the Ninth could recruit from practically anyone, not only the broken and downtrodden, but also deformed mutants that might not even be considered human anymore. The IX gene-seed allowed miraculous transformations that created uniformly elegant and fair Astartes from any source, meaning the legion could recruit from practically any world, no matter how poisoned. [[Derp|Gotta wonder why this wasn’t standard...]]

In the early days, their reputation for such transformations meant they were followed around by throngs of pilgrims, all baying and petitioning for the chance to become Astartes, eventually forming a "cult" called the '''Red Brothers''' who wove a tradition of mysticism around the Angels of the Ninth, collecting cast-off munitions and damaged armour plate; They even started attempting to sponsor good candidates for Astartes and weeding out the weaker ones. Sufficed to say, such a cult would not last when the [[Emperor]] proclaimed his [[Imperial Truth]], and somewhat ironically, the Ninth would be the ones to destroy them.

===Coming of the Primarch===

[[File:Blood angel aspirants.jpg|300px|thumb|left|Welcome motherfuckers, have some blood. You'll be as pretty as us in no time.]]

The Blood Angels' Primarch was [[Sanguinius]], who was best known for being a [[Pretty_Marines|pretty]] [[Mutant]], a charismatic guy with a bad temper that made him look like Satan, and he was apparently a total bro. Basically, to the Space Marine legions and the rest of the Primarchs, he was [[This Guy]]. They all loved him. Even Horus, after he fell to [[Chaos]], lamented that Sanguinius in particular was no longer by his side. Sanguinius was so charismatic and batshit loyal that when he met the Emperor for the first time, he dropped to his knees and simply begged that the lives of those who worshiped him be spared, and the Emperor [[awesome|agreed and withheld the Imperial Truth from Baal.]] He also had a pair of huge, angel-like wings; no one is sure if this had something to do with the radiation on Baal or if he just came out of his birthing pod like that, but the citizens of Baal nearly killed him for it when he was found at the site now known as Angel's Fall. ([[Emperor|Emprah]] have mercy on anyone who uses the [[Mutant|m-word]] around the Blood Angels, though.) Many of the Blood Angels imitate the power and majesty of their beloved Primarch's wings by focusing on jump pack assaults, so the Blood Angels and their successor chapters doctrinally see a lot more [[Assault Squad]]s than the typical Space Marine army. Their current Chapter Master is [[Dante]], the oldest non-Dreadnought-interred loyalist Space Marine in history.

They had a brotherly rivalry with the [[World Eaters]] (if only the [[Imperial Fists]]/[[Iron Warriors]] and [[Ultramarines]]/[[Word Bearers]] could have managed that…) which got pretty messy when the [[Horus Heresy]] started. Also, they are one of the only chapters that can call on its successor chapters and reasonably expect more than just a courtesy call back, [[Angels Vermillion|even the ones]] [[Flesh Tearers|that don't like them all that much]]. The only other ones that we can find who can do that are the [[Dark Angels]] (<s>for obvious reasons</s> ANY IDEA THAT THE DARK ANGELS AND THEIR SUCCESSORS ARE CONNECTED IS FALSE THE DARK ANGELS ARE THE MOST LOYAL TO THE IMPERIUM!), [[Imperial Fists]] and the [[Wat|Ultramarines]] (redundant statements since the majority of chapters with successors do this, since the Wolves and Salamanders don't even have successors that just leaves two chapters with successors who can't). This is pretty justified for the Blood Angels, as all Blood Angel descendants are united by the twin curses/blessings of Sanguinius. So you mess with one of them too much, you might just get an entire legion attacking you. Or if it were during the Time of Ending, you might get them to unite to defend their ancestral homeworld, Baal.

[[File:Warhammer 40K blood angels wallpaper (1).jpg|300px|thumbnail|right|A Marine putting the 'blood' in 'Blood Angel'.]]

In times of dire need, they are aided by the [[Sanguinor]], a guy who seems to be a Blood Angel in a more literal sense. Maybe he's some psychic manifestation of the Chapter. Maybe he's a ghost of Sanguinius. Nobody knows. The important thing is that he enjoys piledriving [[Bloodthirsters]] from space, killing [[Eldar]] [[Khaine|Avatars]], and killing a bunch of Night Lords, saving Dante's life in the process as it was otherwise a textbook suicide mission, a redemptive one, to be specific.

Oh, and [[Hive Fleet Leviathan]] have been coming to devour their homeworld [[Baal]] for a few editions while it is also being attacked by a [[Khorne|Khornate]] army led by their ancient enemy, the [[Bloodthirster]] [[Ka'bandha]]. 8th edition "progressed" the story with the attack and [[Devastation of Baal|devastation of the Baal]] system where the Blood Angels and almost all their successor chapters were ready to receive them. Both moons were stripped of all life (yummy yummy radioactive wastes) and the main planet was wrecked with trillions of bugs, with the last survivors making one last charge--facing their fate like men in the ruins of the planet.

This is when the [[Great Rift]] opened up and cut Baal from the real space, yet the [[Tyranids]] on the ground forgot about the synapse shenanigans and continued to enjoy their first winning campaign since like forever. By the time the Warp was stable, all the bug-ships had vanished and Ka'Bandha had wiped out everything on one of Baal's moons--but in an odd show of his tsundere side for the Blood Angels, primarily summoned his lesser ilk to fight off the Tyranids, until the chapter master of the [[Knights of Blood]] chapter, Sentor Jool, engaged the Bloodthirster in single combat, which sounds stupid, but actually comes off completely fuckawesome and manly...while also being a pretty stupid thing to do.

Luckily for them the cicatrix maledictum had royally fucked up the hive fleet, completely disappearing some portions and annihilating the rest. The Blood Angels last stand culminated in Dante further fucking over the hive mind in a good bout of fisticuffs with the [[Swarmlord]]. The [[Legion of the Damned]] and the [[Sanguinor]] provided timely reinforcement, appearing to lead his Blood Angels brethren in a heroic last stand against Hive Fleet Leviathan, where the squad sergeant [[anal circumference|punched a hole in a Carnifex's chest]] [[Awesome|after being impaled, allowing the rest of his squad to live]]. The Sanguinor took off after that, but not after he managed to [[Noblebright|renew the Astartes' faith in humanity.]] [[Derp|True salvation]] arrived when the warp storms abated and the arrival of the [[Indomitus Crusade]]. Though [[Roboute Guilliman]] confided later that all they really had to do was finish off the stragglers that had survived the fleet and the warp storms--which was a nice clean way to provide some dignity to the severely depleted Sons of Sanguinius for the fanboys who had already been rolling their eyes over their [[Spiritual Liege]] coming to save them.

Baal Primus is a blasted shithole now (well...more of one, anyway) and is now uninhabited. In an odd show of [[noblebright]], Guilliman ordered the mechanicus to terraform Baal Secundus back into its paradisal state before the long night, [[Wat|apparently something they've long been able to do, they just kept it shitty to make for better (read:Tougher) recruits.]] Afterwards Big Bobby-G in a decidedly bro-tier move made Commander Dante the Warden of Imperium Nihilus--effectively ceding command of wholly HALF of the Imperium (the shitty half maybe...) and restored their ability to create new marines, provided fresh [[gene-seed]] and were granted the ability to produce new [[Primaris Space Marines]] along with all of the existing Primaris marines with Sanguinius' bloodline. They capped off the noblebright with allowing all the mortal boys who fought in defense of Baal to become Blood Angels, no questions asked, as they had already proven their worth defending their world. So a bit of a rollercoaster of emotions that day, to say the least.

==Combat Doctrine==

[[File:Helmet Colours.jpg|200px|thumb|right|Helmets for the Blood Angels play a very important part in their chapter—easy color coding to identify squad type ''and'' an incentive to keep your sexy face covered to [[Nemeroth|prevent easily avoidable death by helmetlessness]].]]

The Blood Angels took the establishment of the [[Codex Astartes]] as official Space Marine doctrine with [[Imperial Fists|notably less]] [[Space Wolves|bitching than]] [[Salamanders|other chapters]] due to the death of their Primarch and the onset of the Black Rage. They follow the strictures of the Codex as far as they see wisdom in it: the chapter is comprised of a thousand Blood Angels and divided into ten companies, each of which is headed by a captain. The First Company is comprised of veterans, and the Tenth Company is comprised of Scouts and Neophytes who have not yet become full Marines. Obviously though, none of the blood rituals and other [[Pretend|weird shit]] is Codex-approved.

Like their brethren in the [[Raven Guard]] though, the Blood Angels have a natural predilection for using jump packs and their own free will ([[Ultramarines|as opposed to blindly]] [[Red Scorpions|following the Codex]]). Due to their chapter's [[Black Rage|curse]], they have had to tweak things a bit; once they complete their training as Scouts, Blood Angels immediately go into [[Assault Squad|Assault Squads]] rather than [[Devastator Squad|Devastator Squads]], as the Codex Astartes would have it, though not only because of these little scamps' brashness. The constant close combat also allows Blood Angel officers to identify the noobs who can control their Red Thirst as well as those who cannot, and thereafter keep tabs on the latter group. Devastator Squads in the Blood Angels Chapter are reserved for Marines who have better control of the Red Thirst than most, because heavy fire support isn't very useful when the people providing it have psychopathic ADD.

The few Blood Angels that decide they don't like jumping like maniacs into swarms of enemies, and instead prefer biking like maniacs into swarms of enemies, are regarded as some of the best biker Marines in the Imperium, following closely behind the [[White Scars]] and the Dark Angels' [[Ravenwing]].

==Tools of the Trade==

[[File:Tumblr niexunCRca1tvfheeo1 1280.jpg|300px|left|thumb|[[Sanguinius]] proclaimed, "War is an art form," and the Blood Angels said, "Well, that sounds [[Pretty Marines|absolutely fabulous]]. Get me some gold."]]

Blood Angels are known throughout the Imperium to be master artisans. Their long lifespans allow them time to perfect whatever trade they set their mind to, whether they are crafting the infamous, hand-sculpted artificer 'nipple' armour, [[What|bolters worth more than an Imperial hive city]], or even if they're simply painting vehicles and power armour. The philosophy behind this practice is that you cannot hope to know the value of what you're fighting for if you cannot understand its beauty.

Blood Angels are also known for their prevalent use of [[flamer|flamers]] and [[melta]] weapons. While they don't employ them as plentifully as the [[Salamanders]] do, they are nearly as masterfully constructed. The Sons of Sanguinius have taken a liking to the hand flamer, which gives them the assault capability of a flamer, but leaves their sword arm free to use in close combat. Heavy flamers can also be found in many of their Tactical Squads as an assault deterrent as well as on the side sponsons of Baal Predators to complement the Flamestorm Cannon, which ruins any infantry unit's day.

They also reeeeeeally like the Inferno pistol. Nearly everyone has one, including the [[Dante|Chapter Master]].

The aforementioned Baal Predator is a unique tank manufactured by the Blood Angels. It is an anti-infantry assault tank equipped with [[Dakka|twin-linked assault cannons and heavy flamers]] that was acquired in a pre-heresy campaign that nearly broke all their relationships with the Mechanicus. Even to this day, things are still a bit touchy. Luckily, the Techmarines of the chapter quickly reverse engineered the overcharged "Lucifer-class" engines onto nearly all their vehicles.

The Blood Angels' de facto relic weapons are called Glaive Encarmines—'glaive' apparently meaning 'sword' in this case rather than the halberd-type weapon it's associated with ("glaives" comes from the Latin "gladius", the common short sword of the legionnaire so there you go). They're made out of a mono-filament metal called 'angel-steel' and are purportedly so perfectly crafted that they never bend or warp. The secrets to their manufacture are jealously guarded by their Artificers. This is represented by their master-crafted universal special rule. They come in two flavors, a Carmine Sword or a Carmine Axe.

==Gene Seed==
The Blood Angels' themes and motifs are drawn from vampire and Faustian mythology as well as some Catholic traditions. They [[Beakie|commonly fly (with jump packs)]], [[Twilight|are eternally youthful]], [[Vampire|drink blood, and sleep in coffins]].

The Blood Angels are noted for naturally living longer on average than the Marines of any other chapter. Although, since there is no baseline standard for how long Astartes are supposed to live in the first place, and no Space Marine has ever been shown or described to have ever died of anything resembling old age, this claim kinda rings a little hollow. Even [[Dante]]'s age of over 1000 years isn't unique to his lineage, as there have been several other notable Astartes from other legion bloodlines that have managed a similar lifespan. By and large, Space Marines only die when they are killed, so, the only real ways Blood Angels can live considerably longer than "normal" space marines is if they either [[Reasonable Marines|don't put themselves at risk as much as normal marines]], or [[Rip and tear|they're so ded 'ard that they're just harder to kill than normal marines]].

Horus Heresy: Malevolence explains the longevity in a somewhat ironic fashion, given what we already know of Astartes physiology. The Ninth Legion were renowned for their long lifespans even during the early Great Crusade. What was less known was that the Legion had a habit of eating their dead captains after they fell in battle, with the Omophagea implant allowing the memories and battle experience to be retained for a future generation. Some recipients of these memories would take up the identity of the dead officer and give the outward appearance that they had never died at all. It was said that the Legion's master prior to Sanguinius recovery had gone through several such reincarnations before his final death when the body was destroyed beyond recognition. Sufficed to say that after Sanguinius arrival, things changed and thereafter took being called the ''"Eaters of the Dead"'' as cause for grievous offense. Which is dumb because using the Omophagea like this is brilliant and means each Astartes would be far more competent than he normally would be. Many Marines would gain veteran levels of experience and skill without having to spend decades or centuries gaining it. What did Sanguinius think the Omophagea was for? Not eating people? Pfft.

When a Blood Angel does die, a [[Sanguinary Priest]] (what they call their [[Apothecaries]]) extracts his gene-seed using a device called an exsanguinator. When it comes time to implant it in an Initiate, the Initiate must receive it by drinking from a Blood Chalice ('insanguination'), which also contains the essence of Sanguinius. The story of [[Mephiston]], the Blood Angels' chief librarian, closely parallels the legend of Faust, a scholar who sells his soul to the devil in return for great knowledge and power (hell, he's named after the manifestation of the devil in the story, Mephistopheles or Mephisto). The names of their special characters and vehicles have an Italian flavor—Dante, the Furioso Dreadnought, Brother Corbulo. Corbulo, known as the chapter's High Sanguinary Priest, carries the Red Grail, which contains the blood of Sanguinius himself. Also, do we have to point out that the word 'sanguis' literally means 'blood' in Latin? Well, there you go.

The Blood Angels and their successor chapters have a genetic defect in their gene-seed known euphemistically as "The Flaw". It seems to have much more representation in the [[fluff]] than in the [[crunch]], but that's standard fare for a life-threatening, damnation-courting mutation that can pop up at any time. One chapter, Angels Penitent, managed to stave the defects off until they were fucked over by Chaos.

===Red Thirst===

[[File:BA's.jpg|thumb|left|500px|[[Ultramarines|You'll never see a Blood Angel go]] "Oh nooooes, a fleet of nice squishy flesh-bugs coming to devour our system, we're doooomed...". Maybe because it's an excellent way to let loose for a bit.]]

The Red Thirst is what makes the Blood Angels space vampires,<s> or Team Edward </s> {{BLAM}} {{BLAM|PURGE THE UNCOMFORTABLE THEMATIC PARALLELS OF POPULAR CULTURE!}}

The [[Red Thirst]] has been a part of being a Blood Angel since the [[Great Crusade]]. Sanguinius went to great lengths to hide it from the Emperor for fear of being [[First Founding#Two Unknown Legions|expunged from the Imperium]], although odds are that the Emperor already knew. He even introduced [[Chaplain]]s to the Blood Angels legions before the Edict of Nikaea, not just to monitor psykers, but to look out for brothers who might be giving in to their bloodlust.

In the lore the general effect is that the Red Thirst makes a Blood Angel an [[Angry Marine]] with a literal thirst for actual goddamn blood. Thus most Blood Angel Chaplains require certification for anger management therapy before they get the job. Their duty is to ensure that the assorted Marines are not showing signs of bloodlust, and to throw them into a battle if they are [[Grimdark|so they can stave off total madness a bit longer]]. However, all battle-brothers who suffer the effects of the Flaw long enough will eventually become overrun with their rather literal thirst for vengeance, succumbing to the Black Rage. After this, their lives will consist of utterly suicidal front-line charges to [[rip and tear]] the enemy as much as possible, before they eventually receive an honorable death in combat against the Emperor's foes. Those unlucky enough to survive to the end of the battle will either be given [[Blam|the Emperor's Peace]] by [[Astorath]], or [[Grimdark|imprisoned within the Tower of the Lost as a hopeless, dribbling maniac until they are required on the field of battle once more.]] This happened in Devastation of Baal, where the victims of the curse were seen as having mutated into hulking beasts who moved on all fours like gorillas. They were released to hold off the hordes of Daemons and Tyranids.

[[File:Blood-angel-dantewontdie.jpg|thumb|right|300px|I told you about the Red Thirst bro!]]Some chapters are more susceptible than others. The imaginatively named "[[Blood Drinkers]]" are notorious amongst their allies for allegedly leaving exsanguinated corpses wherever they show up. On the upside, Blood Drinkers are one of the few chapters who have [[Deathwatch (RPG)|tangible rules]] regarding how they handle the Red Thirst: if they have recently sated themselves, they gain a boost to WS, and suffer penalties to morale checks if they refrain from feeding.

On the tabletop, this has historically been changed in every single incarnation of the rules as GW continually changed their minds over how the Thirst should be represented; in 7th edition, they just give the flat bonus of Furious Charge to everything (including dreadnoughts); but if you get a bunch of Blood Angels together in the correct FOC or formation, then they also get +1 to Initiative when charging (''á la'' old-school Furious Charge), which is a very strong advantage. In 6th edition, Red Thirst had the odd consequence of occasionally making a unit Fearless and Furious Chargers if they give into the temptation, though independent characters had enough control over themselves that they were mostly immune, with a [[Erasmus Tycho|few]] exceptions. Going further back, into 3rd edition, the Red Thirst made a bit more sense and was something to actually be wary of, as your units had a potential to lose control at the thought of blood and move out of position towards the enemy. This really wasn't [[fun]], especially if your Devastator Squads didn't pull that critical round of shooting.

New in 8th it comes back with a vengeance. Allowing any infantry who charged, has been charged, or is performing a heroic intervention, to add +1 to the to wound roll. Meaning, when red thirst is in affect, [[awesome|you'll never be wounding on anything worse than 5+]].

===Black Rage===

[[File:Death company by fonteart-d6ay2k7.jpg|250px|thumb|left|Note the ancient, unfathomable fury, and run away pissing yourself.]]

On the other hand, the [[Black Rage]] is the Red Thirst's angrier, more troublesome brother. You know, the one who dresses in black all the time, and who shows up at random times to complicate your life and embarrass your family. It's a terminal state in which the battle brother has not only succumbed to the Red Thirst, but has had a total psychotic breakdown. Or if you're feeling particularly poetic: it's the psychic scream of a dying demi-god that got stuck in his progeny.

Battle-brothers who succumb to the Black Rage are overcome with visions of Blood Angel battles during the [[Horus Heresy]], and a few even imagine themselves to be [[Pretend|Sanguinius battling Horus on his battle barge]]. This of course has the unfortunate side effect of making them completely lose touch with reality, fighting a battle that they can never ever win since the outcome of the hallucinations has already occurred. On the plus side though, their disconnection with what is going on around them turns them into immensely powerful warriors, since each and every one of them believe in some way that they are Sanguinius. You’re basically left with Sanguinius with an Astartes body and the Primarch’s incredible skill. [[Awesome|It’s as terrifying and awesome as it sounds.]]

Long story short, a Marine afflicted with the Black Rage will become even angrier than an [[Angry Marine]], and with even less self-control(which means they are effectively each Nightbringer crossed with Commissar Fuklaw. If you happen to be in the same star system of one of these, pray to the god emperor they don't sense you. If you don't happen to worship the God-Emperor, silently hope your gods are OK with suicide, because the alternative is too nightmarishly gruesome for even Games Workshop to describe in sufficient detail). If this happens in a war zone, they are quietly organized into small squads and their armor is painted black by a chaplain before the worst of the hallucinations take over. If they aren't killed in battle or get off the leash somehow, [[Astorath]] will come and execute them on the battlefield since no other Blood Angel has the stomach (or outright skill) to kill his own battle brothers.

[[File:True Blood Angels.jpg|150px|thumb|Blood Angel confronts his true form. And you thought the [[Wulfen]] looked weird]]
The [[Death Company]] is a group of Blood Angels on the battlefield who are afflicted by the [[Black Rage]]. Every force of Blood Angels and their successor chapters has one, though [[Flesh Tearers|some]] are more susceptible than [[Lamenters|others]], which makes those chapters' responses to the occurrence of Black Rage quite varied. The [[Flesh Tearers]] and the renegade [[Knights of Blood]] chapters both have an uncanny predilection for all-out, balls-to-the-wall assault—hoping to die in battle honorably before the rage takes them. In the Knights of Blood's case, they fought with the zeal of the [[Black Templars]], the fury of the [[World Eaters]], and the excess of the [[Marines Malevolent]] in such a perfect way that they got kicked out of the [[Imperium of Man|cool kids club]] and branded renegades for their excess collateral damage against allied forces. The Flesh Tearers very nearly joined that shit list, and were only forgiven by the Blood Angels when [[Plot armor|Astorath personally intervened on their behalf, citing that their brutality would be a necessity in the near future]].

On the tabletop, this essentially allows you to bring a squad of [[Khorne Berserkers]] without the [[Khorne]], but with more customization options. You can also take several squads if Astorath has shown up, as he always seems to know where and when his brothers will succumb.

As with the Red Thirst, [[Games Workshop|GW]] keep changing the rules with these guys; nowadays you can purchase units of Death Company as Elite choices for your army at a not-insignificant cost, whilst in 6th they were Troops, but were so far down the path of being drooling lunatics that they couldn't hold objectives, and you could only have one squad unless [[Astorath]] was watching. In ancient times, it used to happen spontaneously for free, and you had to roll for squads at the start of battle, potentially losing members of squads you already paid for to bulk up your Death Company, which made fluff-sense. But at least you chose which model to take off, and sending a veteran sergeant to the Death Company was the only way of giving power weapon/fists (excluding the chaplain) to the squad. Losing a [[Terminator|Termie]] or tooled-up honour guard made you cry though...

==Daily rituals of the Blood Angels==

[[File:Dawn of War.jpg|200px|thumb|left|alt text|Dante pwns some noobs as [[Astorath]] and [[Mephiston]] look on.]]

04:00 - Reveille - The Blood Angels are roused from their coffins to start the day.<br>
04:10 - Grooming - The Blood Angels take the time to comb their hair and brush their teeth. Special attention is given to their fangs. Even more special attention is given to their long, flowing, golden hair.<br>
04:30 - Morning meal - A light meal is prepared by the chapter serfs for the Blood Angels. Consuming a chapter serf is explicitly prohibited.<br>
05:00 - Morning prayer.<br>
06:00 - Morning firing rituals - The Blood Angels assemble for target practice. Due to an ancient clerical error, the Blood Angels are in possession of an excessive amount of a heretical series of books from the pre-Imperial days of Terra called the [[Twilight|Twilight Saga]], which they use for target practice by the thousands.<br>
07:00 - Battle practice - The Blood Angels begin practice in the battle cages. Frequently, the Blood Angels will forgo their bolters for melee weapons. The usage of fangs in combat practice is considered heresy. Using fangs to drink blood is extra Khornate heresy.<br>
12:00 - Midday meal - The Blood Angels consume a light meal made for them by the chapter serfs. The chapter serfs are still explicitly off the menu.<br>
13:00 - Deep strike training - The Blood Angels practice their deep strike maneuvers. Pretending to fly like a bat is heresy. Transforming into a bat or black mist to fly is extra Tzeentchian heresy.<br>
16:00 - Evening firing rituals. During this time, several Blood Angels also practice the shooting style of a legendary Terran gunslinger known as Nosferatu Alucard, a proto-Blood Angel who was said to have slain thousands of daemons alone using only two blessed stub pistols.<br>
16:55 - Milk and Cookies Break. Drinking blood instead of milk or dipping cookies in milk is strictly banned. Doing both is considered heresy. Dipping cookies in blood is extra Khornate heresy.<br>
17:00 - Staring contests - Dumbasses who want to challenge Chief Librarian Mephiston to a menacing staring contest do so now. Usually it's just the neophytes who don't know any better.<br>
17:15 - Round up - Staring contests end, and those who went mad while staring into Mephiston's eyes must be tracked down in the fortress-monastery and culled.<br>
17:30 - Evening prayer. Special attention is given to how fabulous Sanguinius was and why they can't wait to tear the heretical Chaos faggots multiple new assholes (hint, it involves blood). <br>
19:00 - Evening meal - A feast is prepared by the chapter serfs, usually of animals who were killed during the deep strike training. The chapter serfs ''may'' be consumed depending on how good the first two meals were. Using the Red Grail in drinking contests is explicitly prohibited by order of the Sanguinary Priests.<br>
19:30- All loose [[Death Company]] personnel are rounded up, heavily sedated, and locked into their stasis cell for the night.<br>
20:00 - Free time - The Blood Angels are allowed a few hours of free time to do as they please. Some reflect on their duty to the Emperor and the deeds of Sanguinius. Others play vidya games. [[Pretty Marines|Some just pose moodily and bare-chested in front of a mirror]]. Still others will engage in artistic activities. A GOOD vampire movie is often shown for the Blood Angels' entertainment.<br>
00:00 - Rest - The Blood Angels retire to their coffins for the evening.

==Notable Members of the Blood Angels==
*[[Sanguinius]] - Primarch. Snaps [[Bloodthirster]] spines over his knee and decapitates [[Keeper of Secrets|Keepers of Secrets]] for the [[lulz]]. Sacrificed himself to aid in the ultimate defeat of [[Horus]]. May he rest in peace.
*[[Meros]] - Apothecary during the Horus Heresy. Sacrificed himself so that Sanguinius could righteously fuck up a Keeper of Secrets.
*Dominion Zephon - Crippled Blood Angel who represented the Legion on Terra before the Heresy. [[Awesome|Took on Drach'nyen in the Webway]] with a chainsword despite only recently having the feeling restored in his limbs, living out the "drive me closer" meme. All around elegan/tg/entleman able to play the harp well enough to make mutants weep and able to fight just as well. Counteracts the insipid autism of Diocletion Coros during Master of mankind by being just a swell dude. Also, makes a Knight Baroness' panties reenact Genesis 7:17
*[[Dante]] - Current Chapter Master. Resident badass sexy-grandpa. Seriously, dude's hella old and prefers not to mention anything about having a Necron's cell phone number.
*[[Mephiston]] - Chief Librarian and resident rape train. Scariest motherfucker this side of the [[Eye of Terror]].
*[[Corbulo]] - High [[Sanguinary Priest]]. Sees far, just not far enough, into the future.
*[[Astorath]] - Keeper of Sanctity and the dude who kills Death Company nutjobs when they nutjob way too hard.
*[[Lemartes]] - Chaplain and the Guardian of the Lost, and the only Blood Angel to hold the Black Rage in check. Ranks #2 behind the Eversor Assassin as the most 40K and [[grimdark]] thing in 40K.
*[[Karlaen|Arenos Karlaen]] - 1st Company captain and total bro. Has a model thanks to 7E's Deathstorm Box.
*[[Donatos Aphael]]- 2nd company captain. Very supportive of blood drinking, with good results to back his actions.
*[[Erasmus Tycho]] - 3rd company captain. Proof that [[Your dudes]] has a reason to exist. Sadly could not quell the Black Rage, but still worth a fight no doubt. No longer among the living.
*[[Moriar the Chosen]] - Matt Ward's excuse for making generic Death Company Dreadnoughts a thing.
*[[Rafen]] - Longest living Blood Angel mook in any of the Blood Angels book series. Single handedly bested Arkio (possessed monster) and further aided Mephiston in staving off the Black Rage for a second time. Also wielded the Spear of Tolesto, though only briefly.
*[[Sanguinor]] - Started off being a random dude who was chosen to be Sanguinius' herald during [[Imperium Secundus]], then later stood in his Primarch's place on Davin and got drawn into the warp while transforming into an angelic being. Nowadays he may be Sanguinius reborn...or Azkaellon...or a warp entity created by the longings of the Blood Angels...DAMMIT! IT'S COMPLICATED.
*[[Acrion]] - Random captain that thought he could stand up to [[Abaddon]] during the 7th Black Crusade. He couldn't.
*[[Thalastian Jorus]] - Fuckawesome Reclusiarch that succeeded in standing up to Abaddon--killed ''all'' his [[Bringers of Despair|Honour Guard]], thoroughly wrecked the [[Black Legion]] by utilizing [[Wat|guerrilla tactics with the Death Company of all things]] AND became one of like 3 people in the Imperium to go toe to toe with the despoiler and come out on top, gravely wounding Abby before the Chaplain was killed by the Black Legion.
*[[Chapter Master Slamguinius|Brother Slamguinius, the Slambane, 9th lord of slamfuckery]] - The newest hope to rise out of the Blood Angel's 8th edition codex, and by far the punchiest thing to ever come out of one of our codices from a basic Captain template in recent years.

==See Also==
*[[Warhammer 40,000/Tactics/Blood Angels(8E)|Tactics/Blood Angels]]
*[[Bloodquest]] - A comic & audio drama centered around the redemption quest of a fallen Captain and his crew.

==Gallery==
<gallery widths="210" position="center" spacing="small">
File:The Red Angel.jpg|Manly Vampires, IN SPESS!
File:Admit It.jpg|You know it to be true.
File:BloodAngels3rd.jpg|Older Blood Angels art. Is that Christopher Lee in the lower left corner? Well, using Dracula as a model makes sense...
File:CrusadeEraBloodAngels.jpg|A older picture of the Blood Angels without their nipple armor.
</gallery>

{{Template:Marines-Official}}
{{Blood Angels}}

Blood Angels

2019-09-25T00:04:10Z

2600:1006:B105:8611:58CC:338D:D9D2:B1D4: /* Gene Seed */

{{Infobox Spess Mahreen Chapter
|Name = Blood Angels
|Heraldry = [[Image:Blood_Angels_Pauldron.jpeg|center|140px]]
|Battle Cry = <br>"For the Emperor and Sanguinius!"
|Number = IX
|Founding = [[First Founding]]
|Original Name = Eaters of the Dead, Revenant Legion, the Charnel Feast
|Successor Chapters = [[Angels Encarmine]]<br>Angels Penitent<br>[[Angels Sanguine]]<br>[[Angels Vermillion]]<br>[[Blood Drinkers]]<br>[[Blood Legion]]<br>[[Blood Swords]] (claimed otherwise in Codex: Blood Angels 5th Edition by [[Matt Ward]], so take that as you will)<br>[[Exsanguinators]]<br>[[Flesh Eaters]]<br>[[Flesh Tearers]]<br>[[Knights of Blood]]<br>[[Knights Sanguine]]<br>[[Lamenters]]<br>[[Red Wings]]<br>[[Carmine Blades]]<br>[[Knights of the Chalice]]
|Chapter Master = [[Dante]]
|Primarch = [[Sanguinius]]
|Homeworld = [[Baal]]
|Specialty = Rapid assaults, close combat, being ''fabulous''
|Strength = ~1000 Marines
|Allegiance = [[Imperium]]
|Colours = Red with black detailing
}}
{{awesome}}
{{Topquote|Man is neither angel nor beast, and the misfortune is that he who would act the angel acts the beast.|Blaise Pascal}}
{{Topquote|From his Blood are we born! From his essence are we made! From his passion comes our art! From his nobility comes beauty. From his might stems justice. From his thirst is born righteous rage!|The Final Charge of the [[Lord of the Rings|Rohirrim]]--err, Blood angels.}}
{{Topquote|We are born of the blood, made men by the blood, undone by the blood; Fear the old blood.|Provost Willem, ''Bloodborne''}}

The '''Blood Angels''' were the 9th [[Space Marine]] Legion created by the [[Emperor]]. They are so named because of their tendency to
use blood as a central symbol of their particular warrior-monk rituals, and because of their susceptibility to the [[Red Thirst]], a wild bloodlust that arises in them during battle. If he fails to control his Red Thirst, a Blood Angel may succumb to the [[Black Rage]] (the [[Grimdark|Grimdarkest]] of Daddy Issues), after which he becomes a completely insane killing machine with no regard for his own safety who will try to destroy the Emperor's foes even if all he has left is a bloody stump of one leg. This has led to the Blood Angels being viewed as basically vampires [[Meme|IN SPEHSS]], and unfortunately as the [[Twilight|Team Edward]] to the [[Space Wolves]] [[Twilight|Team Jacob]]. If you are not already completely indignant, see the second image at the bottom of the page for additional [[rage]]. We'll wait. …...Yeah, how much does that blow? Here's the good news, though: that's pretty much the only thing that sucks (PUN) about the Blood Angels. Everything else is [[awesome]] apart maybe from [[Skub|'nipple' armour]], but the rest is all cool, angelic and bloody and all.

The cause of the Black Rage basically amounts to the most epic case of an absent-daddy complex ever. Just with a high chance of being skullfuckingly angry/awesome at the same time. You see, during the [[Horus Heresy]], the Blood Angels' [[Primarch]], [[Sanguinius]], was slain by [[Horus]] himself just before the Emperor destroyed Horus. This subsequently [[RAGE|fucked up]] the mental stability of all future generations of Blood Angels, and when one of them is overtaken by the Black Rage, he literally believes he is Sanguinius and relives in vivid detail the final battle with Horus and his traitor legions at the Battle of [[Terra]].

==History==
The IX legion were not mentioned for many of the early actions of the unification wars. Their purpose was separate and unsightly. Their designed function was to utterly obliterate the enemy like an inferno, only growing in strength as the wars raged on and leaving nothing in their wake. So they were commonly deployed to radiation poisoned warzones, fighting against mutants and other undesirables that the Terrans would rather forget or ignore.

To this end, the IX Legion had a very peculiar gene-seed quirk: where other legions had to be fairly selective with the genetic purity of their recruits, the Ninth could recruit from practically anyone, not only the broken and downtrodden, but also deformed mutants that might not even be considered human anymore. The IX gene-seed allowed miraculous transformations that created uniformly elegant and fair Astartes from any source, meaning the legion could recruit from practically any world, no matter how poisoned. [[Derp|Gotta wonder why this wasn’t standard...]]

In the early days, their reputation for such transformations meant they were followed around by throngs of pilgrims, all baying and petitioning for the chance to become Astartes, eventually forming a "cult" called the '''Red Brothers''' who wove a tradition of mysticism around the Angels of the Ninth, collecting cast-off munitions and damaged armour plate; They even started attempting to sponsor good candidates for Astartes and weeding out the weaker ones. Sufficed to say, such a cult would not last when the [[Emperor]] proclaimed his [[Imperial Truth]], and somewhat ironically, the Ninth would be the ones to destroy them.

===Coming of the Primarch===

[[File:Blood angel aspirants.jpg|300px|thumb|left|Welcome motherfuckers, have some blood. You'll be as pretty as us in no time.]]

The Blood Angels' Primarch was [[Sanguinius]], who was best known for being a [[Pretty_Marines|pretty]] [[Mutant]], a charismatic guy with a bad temper that made him look like Satan, and he was apparently a total bro. Basically, to the Space Marine legions and the rest of the Primarchs, he was [[This Guy]]. They all loved him. Even Horus, after he fell to [[Chaos]], lamented that Sanguinius in particular was no longer by his side. Sanguinius was so charismatic and batshit loyal that when he met the Emperor for the first time, he dropped to his knees and simply begged that the lives of those who worshiped him be spared, and the Emperor [[awesome|agreed and withheld the Imperial Truth from Baal.]] He also had a pair of huge, angel-like wings; no one is sure if this had something to do with the radiation on Baal or if he just came out of his birthing pod like that, but the citizens of Baal nearly killed him for it when he was found at the site now known as Angel's Fall. ([[Emperor|Emprah]] have mercy on anyone who uses the [[Mutant|m-word]] around the Blood Angels, though.) Many of the Blood Angels imitate the power and majesty of their beloved Primarch's wings by focusing on jump pack assaults, so the Blood Angels and their successor chapters doctrinally see a lot more [[Assault Squad]]s than the typical Space Marine army. Their current Chapter Master is [[Dante]], the oldest non-Dreadnought-interred loyalist Space Marine in history.

They had a brotherly rivalry with the [[World Eaters]] (if only the [[Imperial Fists]]/[[Iron Warriors]] and [[Ultramarines]]/[[Word Bearers]] could have managed that…) which got pretty messy when the [[Horus Heresy]] started. Also, they are one of the only chapters that can call on its successor chapters and reasonably expect more than just a courtesy call back, [[Angels Vermillion|even the ones]] [[Flesh Tearers|that don't like them all that much]]. The only other ones that we can find who can do that are the [[Dark Angels]] (<s>for obvious reasons</s> ANY IDEA THAT THE DARK ANGELS AND THEIR SUCCESSORS ARE CONNECTED IS FALSE THE DARK ANGELS ARE THE MOST LOYAL TO THE IMPERIUM!), [[Imperial Fists]] and the [[Wat|Ultramarines]] (redundant statements since the majority of chapters with successors do this, since the Wolves and Salamanders don't even have successors that just leaves two chapters with successors who can't). This is pretty justified for the Blood Angels, as all Blood Angel descendants are united by the twin curses/blessings of Sanguinius. So you mess with one of them too much, you might just get an entire legion attacking you. Or if it were during the Time of Ending, you might get them to unite to defend their ancestral homeworld, Baal.

[[File:Warhammer 40K blood angels wallpaper (1).jpg|300px|thumbnail|right|A Marine putting the 'blood' in 'Blood Angel'.]]

In times of dire need, they are aided by the [[Sanguinor]], a guy who seems to be a Blood Angel in a more literal sense. Maybe he's some psychic manifestation of the Chapter. Maybe he's a ghost of Sanguinius. Nobody knows. The important thing is that he enjoys piledriving [[Bloodthirsters]] from space, killing [[Eldar]] [[Khaine|Avatars]], and killing a bunch of Night Lords, saving Dante's life in the process as it was otherwise a textbook suicide mission, a redemptive one, to be specific.

Oh, and [[Hive Fleet Leviathan]] have been coming to devour their homeworld [[Baal]] for a few editions while it is also being attacked by a [[Khorne|Khornate]] army led by their ancient enemy, the [[Bloodthirster]] [[Ka'bandha]]. 8th edition "progressed" the story with the attack and [[Devastation of Baal|devastation of the Baal]] system where the Blood Angels and almost all their successor chapters were ready to receive them. Both moons were stripped of all life (yummy yummy radioactive wastes) and the main planet was wrecked with trillions of bugs, with the last survivors making one last charge--facing their fate like men in the ruins of the planet.

This is when the [[Great Rift]] opened up and cut Baal from the real space, yet the [[Tyranids]] on the ground forgot about the synapse shenanigans and continued to enjoy their first winning campaign since like forever. By the time the Warp was stable, all the bug-ships had vanished and Ka'Bandha had wiped out everything on one of Baal's moons--but in an odd show of his tsundere side for the Blood Angels, primarily summoned his lesser ilk to fight off the Tyranids, until the chapter master of the [[Knights of Blood]] chapter, Sentor Jool, engaged the Bloodthirster in single combat, which sounds stupid, but actually comes off completely fuckawesome and manly...while also being a pretty stupid thing to do.

Luckily for them the cicatrix maledictum had royally fucked up the hive fleet, completely disappearing some portions and annihilating the rest. The Blood Angels last stand culminated in Dante further fucking over the hive mind in a good bout of fisticuffs with the [[Swarmlord]]. The [[Legion of the Damned]] and the [[Sanguinor]] provided timely reinforcement, appearing to lead his Blood Angels brethren in a heroic last stand against Hive Fleet Leviathan, where the squad sergeant [[anal circumference|punched a hole in a Carnifex's chest]] [[Awesome|after being impaled, allowing the rest of his squad to live]]. The Sanguinor took off after that, but not after he managed to [[Noblebright|renew the Astartes' faith in humanity.]] [[Derp|True salvation]] arrived when the warp storms abated and the arrival of the [[Indomitus Crusade]]. Though [[Roboute Guilliman]] confided later that all they really had to do was finish off the stragglers that had survived the fleet and the warp storms--which was a nice clean way to provide some dignity to the severely depleted Sons of Sanguinius for the fanboys who had already been rolling their eyes over their [[Spiritual Liege]] coming to save them.

Baal Primus is a blasted shithole now (well...more of one, anyway) and is now uninhabited. In an odd show of [[noblebright]], Guilliman ordered the mechanicus to terraform Baal Secundus back into its paradisal state before the long night, [[Wat|apparently something they've long been able to do, they just kept it shitty to make for better (read:Tougher) recruits.]] Afterwards Big Bobby-G in a decidedly bro-tier move made Commander Dante the Warden of Imperium Nihilus--effectively ceding command of wholly HALF of the Imperium (the shitty half maybe...) and restored their ability to create new marines, provided fresh [[gene-seed]] and were granted the ability to produce new [[Primaris Space Marines]] along with all of the existing Primaris marines with Sanguinius' bloodline. They capped off the noblebright with allowing all the mortal boys who fought in defense of Baal to become Blood Angels, no questions asked, as they had already proven their worth defending their world. So a bit of a rollercoaster of emotions that day, to say the least.

==Combat Doctrine==

[[File:Helmet Colours.jpg|200px|thumb|right|Helmets for the Blood Angels play a very important part in their chapter—easy color coding to identify squad type ''and'' an incentive to keep your sexy face covered to [[Nemeroth|prevent easily avoidable death by helmetlessness]].]]

The Blood Angels took the establishment of the [[Codex Astartes]] as official Space Marine doctrine with [[Imperial Fists|notably less]] [[Space Wolves|bitching than]] [[Salamanders|other chapters]] due to the death of their Primarch and the onset of the Black Rage. They follow the strictures of the Codex as far as they see wisdom in it: the chapter is comprised of a thousand Blood Angels and divided into ten companies, each of which is headed by a captain. The First Company is comprised of veterans, and the Tenth Company is comprised of Scouts and Neophytes who have not yet become full Marines. Obviously though, none of the blood rituals and other [[Pretend|weird shit]] is Codex-approved.

Like their brethren in the [[Raven Guard]] though, the Blood Angels have a natural predilection for using jump packs and their own free will ([[Ultramarines|as opposed to blindly]] [[Red Scorpions|following the Codex]]). Due to their chapter's [[Black Rage|curse]], they have had to tweak things a bit; once they complete their training as Scouts, Blood Angels immediately go into [[Assault Squad|Assault Squads]] rather than [[Devastator Squad|Devastator Squads]], as the Codex Astartes would have it, though not only because of these little scamps' brashness. The constant close combat also allows Blood Angel officers to identify the noobs who can control their Red Thirst as well as those who cannot, and thereafter keep tabs on the latter group. Devastator Squads in the Blood Angels Chapter are reserved for Marines who have better control of the Red Thirst than most, because heavy fire support isn't very useful when the people providing it have psychopathic ADD.

The few Blood Angels that decide they don't like jumping like maniacs into swarms of enemies, and instead prefer biking like maniacs into swarms of enemies, are regarded as some of the best biker Marines in the Imperium, following closely behind the [[White Scars]] and the Dark Angels' [[Ravenwing]].

==Tools of the Trade==

[[File:Tumblr niexunCRca1tvfheeo1 1280.jpg|300px|left|thumb|[[Sanguinius]] proclaimed, "War is an art form," and the Blood Angels said, "Well, that sounds [[Pretty Marines|absolutely fabulous]]. Get me some gold."]]

Blood Angels are known throughout the Imperium to be master artisans. Their long lifespans allow them time to perfect whatever trade they set their mind to, whether they are crafting the infamous, hand-sculpted artificer 'nipple' armour, [[What|bolters worth more than an Imperial hive city]], or even if they're simply painting vehicles and power armour. The philosophy behind this practice is that you cannot hope to know the value of what you're fighting for if you cannot understand its beauty.

Blood Angels are also known for their prevalent use of [[flamer|flamers]] and [[melta]] weapons. While they don't employ them as plentifully as the [[Salamanders]] do, they are nearly as masterfully constructed. The Sons of Sanguinius have taken a liking to the hand flamer, which gives them the assault capability of a flamer, but leaves their sword arm free to use in close combat. Heavy flamers can also be found in many of their Tactical Squads as an assault deterrent as well as on the side sponsons of Baal Predators to complement the Flamestorm Cannon, which ruins any infantry unit's day.

They also reeeeeeally like the Inferno pistol. Nearly everyone has one, including the [[Dante|Chapter Master]].

The aforementioned Baal Predator is a unique tank manufactured by the Blood Angels. It is an anti-infantry assault tank equipped with [[Dakka|twin-linked assault cannons and heavy flamers]] that was acquired in a pre-heresy campaign that nearly broke all their relationships with the Mechanicus. Even to this day, things are still a bit touchy. Luckily, the Techmarines of the chapter quickly reverse engineered the overcharged "Lucifer-class" engines onto nearly all their vehicles.

The Blood Angels' de facto relic weapons are called Glaive Encarmines—'glaive' apparently meaning 'sword' in this case rather than the halberd-type weapon it's associated with ("glaives" comes from the Latin "gladius", the common short sword of the legionnaire so there you go). They're made out of a mono-filament metal called 'angel-steel' and are purportedly so perfectly crafted that they never bend or warp. The secrets to their manufacture are jealously guarded by their Artificers. This is represented by their master-crafted universal special rule. They come in two flavors, a Carmine Sword or a Carmine Axe.

==Gene Seed==
The Blood Angels' themes and motifs are drawn from vampire and Faustian mythology as well as some Catholic traditions. They [[Beakie|commonly fly (with jump packs)]], [[Twilight|are eternally youthful]], [[Vampire|drink blood, and sleep in coffins]].

The Blood Angels are noted for naturally living longer on average than the Marines of any other chapter. Although, since there is no baseline standard for how long Astartes are supposed to live in the first place, and no Space Marine has ever been shown or described to have ever died of anything resembling old age, this claim kinda rings a little hollow. Even [[Dante]]'s age of over 1000 years isn't unique to his lineage, as there have been several other notable Astartes from other legion bloodlines that have managed a similar lifespan. By and large, Space Marines only die when they are killed, so, the only real ways Blood Angels can live considerably longer than "normal" space marines is if they either [[Reasonable Marines|don't put themselves at risk as much as normal marines]], or [[Rip and tear|they're so ded 'ard that they're just harder to kill than normal marines]].

Horus Heresy: Malevolence explains the longevity in a somewhat ironic fashion, given what we already know of Astartes physiology. The Ninth Legion were renowned for their long lifespans even during the early Great Crusade. What was less known was that the Legion had a habit of eating their dead captains after they fell in battle, with the Omophagea implant allowing the memories and battle experience to be retained for a future generation. Some recipients of these memories would take up the identity of the dead officer and give the outward appearance that they had never died at all. It was said that the Legion's master prior to Sanguinius recovery had gone through several such reincarnations before his final death when the body was destroyed beyond recognition. Sufficed to say that after Sanguinius arrival, things changed and thereafter took being called the ''"Eaters of the Dead"'' as cause for grievous offense. Which is dumb because using the Omophagea like this is brilliant and means each Astartes would be far more competent than he normally would be. Many Marines would gain veteran levels of experience and skill without having to spend decades or centuries gaining it. What did Sanguinius think the Omophagea was for? Not eating people? Pfft.

When a Blood Angel does die, a [[Sanguinary Priest]] (what they call their [[Apothecaries]]) extracts his gene-seed using a device called an exsanguinator. When it comes time to implant it in an Initiate, the Initiate must receive it by drinking from a Blood Chalice ('insanguination'), which also contains the essence of Sanguinius. The story of [[Mephiston]], the Blood Angels' chief librarian, closely parallels the legend of Faust, a scholar who sells his soul to the devil in return for great knowledge and power (hell, he's named after the manifestation of the devil in the story, Mephistopheles or Mephisto). The names of their special characters and vehicles have an Italian flavor—Dante, the Furioso Dreadnought, Brother Corbulo. Corbulo, known as the chapter's High Sanguinary Priest, carries the Red Grail, which contains the blood of Sanguinius himself. Also, do we have to point out that the word 'sanguis' literally means 'blood' in Latin? Well, there you go.

The Blood Angels and their successor chapters have a genetic defect in their gene-seed known euphemistically as "The Flaw". It seems to have much more representation in the [[fluff]] than in the [[crunch]], but that's standard fare for a life-threatening, damnation-courting mutation that can pop up at any time. One chapter, Angels Penitent, managed to stave the defects off until they were fucked over by Chaos.

===Red Thirst===

[[File:BA's.jpg|thumb|left|500px|[[Ultramarines|You'll never see a Blood Angel go]] "Oh nooooes, a fleet of nice squishy flesh-bugs coming to devour our system, we're doooomed...". Maybe because it's an excellent way to let loose for a bit.]]

The Red Thirst is what makes the Blood Angels space vampires,<s> or Team Edward </s> {{BLAM}} {{BLAM|PURGE THE UNCOMFORTABLE THEMATIC PARALLELS OF POPULAR CULTURE!}}

The [[Red Thirst]] has been a part of being a Blood Angel since the [[Great Crusade]]. Sanguinius went to great lengths to hide it from the Emperor for fear of being [[First Founding#Two Unknown Legions|expunged from the Imperium]], although odds are that the Emperor already knew. He even introduced [[Chaplain]]s to the Blood Angels legions before the Edict of Nikaea, not just to monitor psykers, but to look out for brothers who might be giving in to their bloodlust.

In the lore the general effect is that the Red Thirst makes a Blood Angel an [[Angry Marine]] with a literal thirst for actual goddamn blood. Thus most Blood Angel Chaplains require certification for anger management therapy before they get the job. Their duty is to ensure that the assorted Marines are not showing signs of bloodlust, and to throw them into a battle if they are [[Grimdark|so they can stave off total madness a bit longer]]. However, all battle-brothers who suffer the effects of the Flaw long enough will eventually become overrun with their rather literal thirst for vengeance, succumbing to the Black Rage. After this, their lives will consist of utterly suicidal front-line charges to [[rip and tear]] the enemy as much as possible, before they eventually receive an honorable death in combat against the Emperor's foes. Those unlucky enough to survive to the end of the battle will either be given [[Blam|the Emperor's Peace]] by [[Astorath]], or [[Grimdark|imprisoned within the Tower of the Lost as a hopeless, dribbling maniac until they are required on the field of battle once more.]] This happened in Devastation of Baal, where the victims of the curse were seen as having mutated into hulking beasts who moved on all fours like gorillas. They were released to hold off the hordes of Daemons and Tyranids.

[[File:Blood-angel-dantewontdie.jpg|thumb|right|300px|I told you about the Red Thirst bro!]]Some chapters are more susceptible than others. The imaginatively named "[[Blood Drinkers]]" are notorious amongst their allies for allegedly leaving exsanguinated corpses wherever they show up. On the upside, Blood Drinkers are one of the few chapters who have [[Deathwatch (RPG)|tangible rules]] regarding how they handle the Red Thirst: if they have recently sated themselves, they gain a boost to WS, and suffer penalties to morale checks if they refrain from feeding.

On the tabletop, this has historically been changed in every single incarnation of the rules as GW continually changed their minds over how the Thirst should be represented; in 7th edition, they just give the flat bonus of Furious Charge to everything (including dreadnoughts); but if you get a bunch of Blood Angels together in the correct FOC or formation, then they also get +1 to Initiative when charging (''á la'' old-school Furious Charge), which is a very strong advantage. In 6th edition, Red Thirst had the odd consequence of occasionally making a unit Fearless and Furious Chargers if they give into the temptation, though independent characters had enough control over themselves that they were mostly immune, with a [[Erasmus Tycho|few]] exceptions. Going further back, into 3rd edition, the Red Thirst made a bit more sense and was something to actually be wary of, as your units had a potential to lose control at the thought of blood and move out of position towards the enemy. This really wasn't [[fun]], especially if your Devastator Squads didn't pull that critical round of shooting.

New in 8th it comes back with a vengeance. Allowing any infantry who charged, has been charged, or is performing a heroic intervention, to add +1 to the to wound roll. Meaning, when red thirst is in affect, [[awesome|you'll never be wounding on anything worse than 5+]].

===Black Rage===

[[File:Death company by fonteart-d6ay2k7.jpg|250px|thumb|left|Note the ancient, unfathomable fury, and run away pissing yourself.]]

On the other hand, the [[Black Rage]] is the Red Thirst's angrier, more troublesome brother. You know, the one who dresses in black all the time, and who shows up at random times to complicate your life and embarrass your family. It's a terminal state in which the battle brother has not only succumbed to the Red Thirst, but has had a total psychotic breakdown. Or if you're feeling particularly poetic: it's the psychic scream of a dying demi-god that got stuck in his progeny.

Battle-brothers who succumb to the Black Rage are overcome with visions of Blood Angel battles during the [[Horus Heresy]], and a few even imagine themselves to be [[Pretend|Sanguinius battling Horus on his battle barge]]. This of course has the unfortunate side effect of making them completely lose touch with reality, fighting a battle that they can never ever win since the outcome of the hallucinations has already occurred. On the plus side though, their disconnection with what is going on around them turns them into immensely powerful warriors, since each and every one of them believe in some way that they are Sanguinius.

Long story short, a Marine afflicted with the Black Rage will become even angrier than an [[Angry Marine]], and with even less self-control(which means they are effectively each Nightbringer crossed with Commissar Fuklaw. If you happen to be in the same star system of one of these, pray to the god emperor they don't sense you. If you don't happen to worship the God-Emperor, silently hope your gods are OK with suicide, because the alternative is too nightmarishly gruesome for even Games Workshop to describe in sufficient detail). If this happens in a war zone, they are quietly organized into small squads and their armor is painted black by a chaplain before the worst of the hallucinations take over. If they aren't killed in battle or get off the leash somehow, [[Astorath]] will come and execute them on the battlefield since no other Blood Angel has the stomach (or outright skill) to kill his own battle brothers.

[[File:True Blood Angels.jpg|150px|thumb|Blood Angel confronts his true form. And you thought the [[Wulfen]] looked weird]]
The [[Death Company]] is a group of Blood Angels on the battlefield who are afflicted by the [[Black Rage]]. Every force of Blood Angels and their successor chapters has one, though [[Flesh Tearers|some]] are more susceptible than [[Lamenters|others]], which makes those chapters' responses to the occurrence of Black Rage quite varied. The [[Flesh Tearers]] and the renegade [[Knights of Blood]] chapters both have an uncanny predilection for all-out, balls-to-the-wall assault—hoping to die in battle honorably before the rage takes them. In the Knights of Blood's case, they fought with the zeal of the [[Black Templars]], the fury of the [[World Eaters]], and the excess of the [[Marines Malevolent]] in such a perfect way that they got kicked out of the [[Imperium of Man|cool kids club]] and branded renegades for their excess collateral damage against allied forces. The Flesh Tearers very nearly joined that shit list, and were only forgiven by the Blood Angels when [[Plot armor|Astorath personally intervened on their behalf, citing that their brutality would be a necessity in the near future]].

On the tabletop, this essentially allows you to bring a squad of [[Khorne Berserkers]] without the [[Khorne]], but with more customization options. You can also take several squads if Astorath has shown up, as he always seems to know where and when his brothers will succumb.

As with the Red Thirst, [[Games Workshop|GW]] keep changing the rules with these guys; nowadays you can purchase units of Death Company as Elite choices for your army at a not-insignificant cost, whilst in 6th they were Troops, but were so far down the path of being drooling lunatics that they couldn't hold objectives, and you could only have one squad unless [[Astorath]] was watching. In ancient times, it used to happen spontaneously for free, and you had to roll for squads at the start of battle, potentially losing members of squads you already paid for to bulk up your Death Company, which made fluff-sense. But at least you chose which model to take off, and sending a veteran sergeant to the Death Company was the only way of giving power weapon/fists (excluding the chaplain) to the squad. Losing a [[Terminator|Termie]] or tooled-up honour guard made you cry though...

==Daily rituals of the Blood Angels==

[[File:Dawn of War.jpg|200px|thumb|left|alt text|Dante pwns some noobs as [[Astorath]] and [[Mephiston]] look on.]]

04:00 - Reveille - The Blood Angels are roused from their coffins to start the day.<br>
04:10 - Grooming - The Blood Angels take the time to comb their hair and brush their teeth. Special attention is given to their fangs. Even more special attention is given to their long, flowing, golden hair.<br>
04:30 - Morning meal - A light meal is prepared by the chapter serfs for the Blood Angels. Consuming a chapter serf is explicitly prohibited.<br>
05:00 - Morning prayer.<br>
06:00 - Morning firing rituals - The Blood Angels assemble for target practice. Due to an ancient clerical error, the Blood Angels are in possession of an excessive amount of a heretical series of books from the pre-Imperial days of Terra called the [[Twilight|Twilight Saga]], which they use for target practice by the thousands.<br>
07:00 - Battle practice - The Blood Angels begin practice in the battle cages. Frequently, the Blood Angels will forgo their bolters for melee weapons. The usage of fangs in combat practice is considered heresy. Using fangs to drink blood is extra Khornate heresy.<br>
12:00 - Midday meal - The Blood Angels consume a light meal made for them by the chapter serfs. The chapter serfs are still explicitly off the menu.<br>
13:00 - Deep strike training - The Blood Angels practice their deep strike maneuvers. Pretending to fly like a bat is heresy. Transforming into a bat or black mist to fly is extra Tzeentchian heresy.<br>
16:00 - Evening firing rituals. During this time, several Blood Angels also practice the shooting style of a legendary Terran gunslinger known as Nosferatu Alucard, a proto-Blood Angel who was said to have slain thousands of daemons alone using only two blessed stub pistols.<br>
16:55 - Milk and Cookies Break. Drinking blood instead of milk or dipping cookies in milk is strictly banned. Doing both is considered heresy. Dipping cookies in blood is extra Khornate heresy.<br>
17:00 - Staring contests - Dumbasses who want to challenge Chief Librarian Mephiston to a menacing staring contest do so now. Usually it's just the neophytes who don't know any better.<br>
17:15 - Round up - Staring contests end, and those who went mad while staring into Mephiston's eyes must be tracked down in the fortress-monastery and culled.<br>
17:30 - Evening prayer. Special attention is given to how fabulous Sanguinius was and why they can't wait to tear the heretical Chaos faggots multiple new assholes (hint, it involves blood). <br>
19:00 - Evening meal - A feast is prepared by the chapter serfs, usually of animals who were killed during the deep strike training. The chapter serfs ''may'' be consumed depending on how good the first two meals were. Using the Red Grail in drinking contests is explicitly prohibited by order of the Sanguinary Priests.<br>
19:30- All loose [[Death Company]] personnel are rounded up, heavily sedated, and locked into their stasis cell for the night.<br>
20:00 - Free time - The Blood Angels are allowed a few hours of free time to do as they please. Some reflect on their duty to the Emperor and the deeds of Sanguinius. Others play vidya games. [[Pretty Marines|Some just pose moodily and bare-chested in front of a mirror]]. Still others will engage in artistic activities. A GOOD vampire movie is often shown for the Blood Angels' entertainment.<br>
00:00 - Rest - The Blood Angels retire to their coffins for the evening.

==Notable Members of the Blood Angels==
*[[Sanguinius]] - Primarch. Snaps [[Bloodthirster]] spines over his knee and decapitates [[Keeper of Secrets|Keepers of Secrets]] for the [[lulz]]. Sacrificed himself to aid in the ultimate defeat of [[Horus]]. May he rest in peace.
*[[Meros]] - Apothecary during the Horus Heresy. Sacrificed himself so that Sanguinius could righteously fuck up a Keeper of Secrets.
*Dominion Zephon - Crippled Blood Angel who represented the Legion on Terra before the Heresy. [[Awesome|Took on Drach'nyen in the Webway]] with a chainsword despite only recently having the feeling restored in his limbs, living out the "drive me closer" meme. All around elegan/tg/entleman able to play the harp well enough to make mutants weep and able to fight just as well. Counteracts the insipid autism of Diocletion Coros during Master of mankind by being just a swell dude. Also, makes a Knight Baroness' panties reenact Genesis 7:17
*[[Dante]] - Current Chapter Master. Resident badass sexy-grandpa. Seriously, dude's hella old and prefers not to mention anything about having a Necron's cell phone number.
*[[Mephiston]] - Chief Librarian and resident rape train. Scariest motherfucker this side of the [[Eye of Terror]].
*[[Corbulo]] - High [[Sanguinary Priest]]. Sees far, just not far enough, into the future.
*[[Astorath]] - Keeper of Sanctity and the dude who kills Death Company nutjobs when they nutjob way too hard.
*[[Lemartes]] - Chaplain and the Guardian of the Lost, and the only Blood Angel to hold the Black Rage in check. Ranks #2 behind the Eversor Assassin as the most 40K and [[grimdark]] thing in 40K.
*[[Karlaen|Arenos Karlaen]] - 1st Company captain and total bro. Has a model thanks to 7E's Deathstorm Box.
*[[Donatos Aphael]]- 2nd company captain. Very supportive of blood drinking, with good results to back his actions.
*[[Erasmus Tycho]] - 3rd company captain. Proof that [[Your dudes]] has a reason to exist. Sadly could not quell the Black Rage, but still worth a fight no doubt. No longer among the living.
*[[Moriar the Chosen]] - Matt Ward's excuse for making generic Death Company Dreadnoughts a thing.
*[[Rafen]] - Longest living Blood Angel mook in any of the Blood Angels book series. Single handedly bested Arkio (possessed monster) and further aided Mephiston in staving off the Black Rage for a second time. Also wielded the Spear of Tolesto, though only briefly.
*[[Sanguinor]] - Started off being a random dude who was chosen to be Sanguinius' herald during [[Imperium Secundus]], then later stood in his Primarch's place on Davin and got drawn into the warp while transforming into an angelic being. Nowadays he may be Sanguinius reborn...or Azkaellon...or a warp entity created by the longings of the Blood Angels...DAMMIT! IT'S COMPLICATED.
*[[Acrion]] - Random captain that thought he could stand up to [[Abaddon]] during the 7th Black Crusade. He couldn't.
*[[Thalastian Jorus]] - Fuckawesome Reclusiarch that succeeded in standing up to Abaddon--killed ''all'' his [[Bringers of Despair|Honour Guard]], thoroughly wrecked the [[Black Legion]] by utilizing [[Wat|guerrilla tactics with the Death Company of all things]] AND became one of like 3 people in the Imperium to go toe to toe with the despoiler and come out on top, gravely wounding Abby before the Chaplain was killed by the Black Legion.
*[[Chapter Master Slamguinius|Brother Slamguinius, the Slambane, 9th lord of slamfuckery]] - The newest hope to rise out of the Blood Angel's 8th edition codex, and by far the punchiest thing to ever come out of one of our codices from a basic Captain template in recent years.

==See Also==
*[[Warhammer 40,000/Tactics/Blood Angels(8E)|Tactics/Blood Angels]]
*[[Bloodquest]] - A comic & audio drama centered around the redemption quest of a fallen Captain and his crew.

==Gallery==
<gallery widths="210" position="center" spacing="small">
File:The Red Angel.jpg|Manly Vampires, IN SPESS!
File:Admit It.jpg|You know it to be true.
File:BloodAngels3rd.jpg|Older Blood Angels art. Is that Christopher Lee in the lower left corner? Well, using Dracula as a model makes sense...
File:CrusadeEraBloodAngels.jpg|A older picture of the Blood Angels without their nipple armor.
</gallery>

{{Template:Marines-Official}}
{{Blood Angels}}

Blood Angels

2019-09-24T19:08:23Z

2600:1006:B105:8611:58CC:338D:D9D2:B1D4: /* History */

{{Infobox Spess Mahreen Chapter
|Name = Blood Angels
|Heraldry = [[Image:Blood_Angels_Pauldron.jpeg|center|140px]]
|Battle Cry = <br>"For the Emperor and Sanguinius!"
|Number = IX
|Founding = [[First Founding]]
|Original Name = Eaters of the Dead, Revenant Legion, the Charnel Feast
|Successor Chapters = [[Angels Encarmine]]<br>Angels Penitent<br>[[Angels Sanguine]]<br>[[Angels Vermillion]]<br>[[Blood Drinkers]]<br>[[Blood Legion]]<br>[[Blood Swords]] (claimed otherwise in Codex: Blood Angels 5th Edition by [[Matt Ward]], so take that as you will)<br>[[Exsanguinators]]<br>[[Flesh Eaters]]<br>[[Flesh Tearers]]<br>[[Knights of Blood]]<br>[[Knights Sanguine]]<br>[[Lamenters]]<br>[[Red Wings]]<br>[[Carmine Blades]]<br>[[Knights of the Chalice]]
|Chapter Master = [[Dante]]
|Primarch = [[Sanguinius]]
|Homeworld = [[Baal]]
|Specialty = Rapid assaults, close combat, being ''fabulous''
|Strength = ~1000 Marines
|Allegiance = [[Imperium]]
|Colours = Red with black detailing
}}
{{awesome}}
{{Topquote|Man is neither angel nor beast, and the misfortune is that he who would act the angel acts the beast.|Blaise Pascal}}
{{Topquote|From his Blood are we born! From his essence are we made! From his passion comes our art! From his nobility comes beauty. From his might stems justice. From his thirst is born righteous rage!|The Final Charge of the [[Lord of the Rings|Rohirrim]]--err, Blood angels.}}
{{Topquote|We are born of the blood, made men by the blood, undone by the blood; Fear the old blood.|Provost Willem, ''Bloodborne''}}

The '''Blood Angels''' were the 9th [[Space Marine]] Legion created by the [[Emperor]]. They are so named because of their tendency to
use blood as a central symbol of their particular warrior-monk rituals, and because of their susceptibility to the [[Red Thirst]], a wild bloodlust that arises in them during battle. If he fails to control his Red Thirst, a Blood Angel may succumb to the [[Black Rage]] (the [[Grimdark|Grimdarkest]] of Daddy Issues), after which he becomes a completely insane killing machine with no regard for his own safety who will try to destroy the Emperor's foes even if all he has left is a bloody stump of one leg. This has led to the Blood Angels being viewed as basically vampires [[Meme|IN SPEHSS]], and unfortunately as the [[Twilight|Team Edward]] to the [[Space Wolves]] [[Twilight|Team Jacob]]. If you are not already completely indignant, see the second image at the bottom of the page for additional [[rage]]. We'll wait. …...Yeah, how much does that blow? Here's the good news, though: that's pretty much the only thing that sucks (PUN) about the Blood Angels. Everything else is [[awesome]] apart maybe from [[Skub|'nipple' armour]], but the rest is all cool, angelic and bloody and all.

The cause of the Black Rage basically amounts to the most epic case of an absent-daddy complex ever. Just with a high chance of being skullfuckingly angry/awesome at the same time. You see, during the [[Horus Heresy]], the Blood Angels' [[Primarch]], [[Sanguinius]], was slain by [[Horus]] himself just before the Emperor destroyed Horus. This subsequently [[RAGE|fucked up]] the mental stability of all future generations of Blood Angels, and when one of them is overtaken by the Black Rage, he literally believes he is Sanguinius and relives in vivid detail the final battle with Horus and his traitor legions at the Battle of [[Terra]].

==History==
The IX legion were not mentioned for many of the early actions of the unification wars. Their purpose was separate and unsightly. Their designed function was to utterly obliterate the enemy like an inferno, only growing in strength as the wars raged on and leaving nothing in their wake. So they were commonly deployed to radiation poisoned warzones, fighting against mutants and other undesirables that the Terrans would rather forget or ignore.

To this end, the IX Legion had a very peculiar gene-seed quirk: where other legions had to be fairly selective with the genetic purity of their recruits, the Ninth could recruit from practically anyone, not only the broken and downtrodden, but also deformed mutants that might not even be considered human anymore. The IX gene-seed allowed miraculous transformations that created uniformly elegant and fair Astartes from any source, meaning the legion could recruit from practically any world, no matter how poisoned. [[Derp|Gotta wonder why this wasn’t standard...]]

In the early days, their reputation for such transformations meant they were followed around by throngs of pilgrims, all baying and petitioning for the chance to become Astartes, eventually forming a "cult" called the '''Red Brothers''' who wove a tradition of mysticism around the Angels of the Ninth, collecting cast-off munitions and damaged armour plate; They even started attempting to sponsor good candidates for Astartes and weeding out the weaker ones. Sufficed to say, such a cult would not last when the [[Emperor]] proclaimed his [[Imperial Truth]], and somewhat ironically, the Ninth would be the ones to destroy them.

===Coming of the Primarch===

[[File:Blood angel aspirants.jpg|300px|thumb|left|Welcome motherfuckers, have some blood. You'll be as pretty as us in no time.]]

The Blood Angels' Primarch was [[Sanguinius]], who was best known for being a [[Pretty_Marines|pretty]] [[Mutant]], a charismatic guy with a bad temper that made him look like Satan, and he was apparently a total bro. Basically, to the Space Marine legions and the rest of the Primarchs, he was [[This Guy]]. They all loved him. Even Horus, after he fell to [[Chaos]], lamented that Sanguinius in particular was no longer by his side. Sanguinius was so charismatic and batshit loyal that when he met the Emperor for the first time, he dropped to his knees and simply begged that the lives of those who worshiped him be spared, and the Emperor [[awesome|agreed and withheld the Imperial Truth from Baal.]] He also had a pair of huge, angel-like wings; no one is sure if this had something to do with the radiation on Baal or if he just came out of his birthing pod like that, but the citizens of Baal nearly killed him for it when he was found at the site now known as Angel's Fall. ([[Emperor|Emprah]] have mercy on anyone who uses the [[Mutant|m-word]] around the Blood Angels, though.) Many of the Blood Angels imitate the power and majesty of their beloved Primarch's wings by focusing on jump pack assaults, so the Blood Angels and their successor chapters doctrinally see a lot more [[Assault Squad]]s than the typical Space Marine army. Their current Chapter Master is [[Dante]], the oldest non-Dreadnought-interred loyalist Space Marine in history.

They had a brotherly rivalry with the [[World Eaters]] (if only the [[Imperial Fists]]/[[Iron Warriors]] and [[Ultramarines]]/[[Word Bearers]] could have managed that…) which got pretty messy when the [[Horus Heresy]] started. Also, they are one of the only chapters that can call on its successor chapters and reasonably expect more than just a courtesy call back, [[Angels Vermillion|even the ones]] [[Flesh Tearers|that don't like them all that much]]. The only other ones that we can find who can do that are the [[Dark Angels]] (<s>for obvious reasons</s> ANY IDEA THAT THE DARK ANGELS AND THEIR SUCCESSORS ARE CONNECTED IS FALSE THE DARK ANGELS ARE THE MOST LOYAL TO THE IMPERIUM!), [[Imperial Fists]] and the [[Wat|Ultramarines]] (redundant statements since the majority of chapters with successors do this, since the Wolves and Salamanders don't even have successors that just leaves two chapters with successors who can't). This is pretty justified for the Blood Angels, as all Blood Angel descendants are united by the twin curses/blessings of Sanguinius. So you mess with one of them too much, you might just get an entire legion attacking you. Or if it were during the Time of Ending, you might get them to unite to defend their ancestral homeworld, Baal.

[[File:Warhammer 40K blood angels wallpaper (1).jpg|300px|thumbnail|right|A Marine putting the 'blood' in 'Blood Angel'.]]

In times of dire need, they are aided by the [[Sanguinor]], a guy who seems to be a Blood Angel in a more literal sense. Maybe he's some psychic manifestation of the Chapter. Maybe he's a ghost of Sanguinius. Nobody knows. The important thing is that he enjoys piledriving [[Bloodthirsters]] from space, killing [[Eldar]] [[Khaine|Avatars]], and killing a bunch of Night Lords, saving Dante's life in the process as it was otherwise a textbook suicide mission, a redemptive one, to be specific.

Oh, and [[Hive Fleet Leviathan]] have been coming to devour their homeworld [[Baal]] for a few editions while it is also being attacked by a [[Khorne|Khornate]] army led by their ancient enemy, the [[Bloodthirster]] [[Ka'bandha]]. 8th edition "progressed" the story with the attack and [[Devastation of Baal|devastation of the Baal]] system where the Blood Angels and almost all their successor chapters were ready to receive them. Both moons were stripped of all life (yummy yummy radioactive wastes) and the main planet was wrecked with trillions of bugs, with the last survivors making one last charge--facing their fate like men in the ruins of the planet.

This is when the [[Great Rift]] opened up and cut Baal from the real space, yet the [[Tyranids]] on the ground forgot about the synapse shenanigans and continued to enjoy their first winning campaign since like forever. By the time the Warp was stable, all the bug-ships had vanished and Ka'Bandha had wiped out everything on one of Baal's moons--but in an odd show of his tsundere side for the Blood Angels, primarily summoned his lesser ilk to fight off the Tyranids, until the chapter master of the [[Knights of Blood]] chapter, Sentor Jool, engaged the Bloodthirster in single combat, which sounds stupid, but actually comes off completely fuckawesome and manly...while also being a pretty stupid thing to do.

Luckily for them the cicatrix maledictum had royally fucked up the hive fleet, completely disappearing some portions and annihilating the rest. The Blood Angels last stand culminated in Dante further fucking over the hive mind in a good bout of fisticuffs with the [[Swarmlord]]. The [[Legion of the Damned]] and the [[Sanguinor]] provided timely reinforcement, appearing to lead his Blood Angels brethren in a heroic last stand against Hive Fleet Leviathan, where the squad sergeant [[anal circumference|punched a hole in a Carnifex's chest]] [[Awesome|after being impaled, allowing the rest of his squad to live]]. The Sanguinor took off after that, but not after he managed to [[Noblebright|renew the Astartes' faith in humanity.]] [[Derp|True salvation]] arrived when the warp storms abated and the arrival of the [[Indomitus Crusade]]. Though [[Roboute Guilliman]] confided later that all they really had to do was finish off the stragglers that had survived the fleet and the warp storms--which was a nice clean way to provide some dignity to the severely depleted Sons of Sanguinius for the fanboys who had already been rolling their eyes over their [[Spiritual Liege]] coming to save them.

Baal Primus is a blasted shithole now (well...more of one, anyway) and is now uninhabited. In an odd show of [[noblebright]], Guilliman ordered the mechanicus to terraform Baal Secundus back into its paradisal state before the long night, [[Wat|apparently something they've long been able to do, they just kept it shitty to make for better (read:Tougher) recruits.]] Afterwards Big Bobby-G in a decidedly bro-tier move made Commander Dante the Warden of Imperium Nihilus--effectively ceding command of wholly HALF of the Imperium (the shitty half maybe...) and restored their ability to create new marines, provided fresh [[gene-seed]] and were granted the ability to produce new [[Primaris Space Marines]] along with all of the existing Primaris marines with Sanguinius' bloodline. They capped off the noblebright with allowing all the mortal boys who fought in defense of Baal to become Blood Angels, no questions asked, as they had already proven their worth defending their world. So a bit of a rollercoaster of emotions that day, to say the least.

==Combat Doctrine==

[[File:Helmet Colours.jpg|200px|thumb|right|Helmets for the Blood Angels play a very important part in their chapter—easy color coding to identify squad type ''and'' an incentive to keep your sexy face covered to [[Nemeroth|prevent easily avoidable death by helmetlessness]].]]

The Blood Angels took the establishment of the [[Codex Astartes]] as official Space Marine doctrine with [[Imperial Fists|notably less]] [[Space Wolves|bitching than]] [[Salamanders|other chapters]] due to the death of their Primarch and the onset of the Black Rage. They follow the strictures of the Codex as far as they see wisdom in it: the chapter is comprised of a thousand Blood Angels and divided into ten companies, each of which is headed by a captain. The First Company is comprised of veterans, and the Tenth Company is comprised of Scouts and Neophytes who have not yet become full Marines. Obviously though, none of the blood rituals and other [[Pretend|weird shit]] is Codex-approved.

Like their brethren in the [[Raven Guard]] though, the Blood Angels have a natural predilection for using jump packs and their own free will ([[Ultramarines|as opposed to blindly]] [[Red Scorpions|following the Codex]]). Due to their chapter's [[Black Rage|curse]], they have had to tweak things a bit; once they complete their training as Scouts, Blood Angels immediately go into [[Assault Squad|Assault Squads]] rather than [[Devastator Squad|Devastator Squads]], as the Codex Astartes would have it, though not only because of these little scamps' brashness. The constant close combat also allows Blood Angel officers to identify the noobs who can control their Red Thirst as well as those who cannot, and thereafter keep tabs on the latter group. Devastator Squads in the Blood Angels Chapter are reserved for Marines who have better control of the Red Thirst than most, because heavy fire support isn't very useful when the people providing it have psychopathic ADD.

The few Blood Angels that decide they don't like jumping like maniacs into swarms of enemies, and instead prefer biking like maniacs into swarms of enemies, are regarded as some of the best biker Marines in the Imperium, following closely behind the [[White Scars]] and the Dark Angels' [[Ravenwing]].

==Tools of the Trade==

[[File:Tumblr niexunCRca1tvfheeo1 1280.jpg|300px|left|thumb|[[Sanguinius]] proclaimed, "War is an art form," and the Blood Angels said, "Well, that sounds [[Pretty Marines|absolutely fabulous]]. Get me some gold."]]

Blood Angels are known throughout the Imperium to be master artisans. Their long lifespans allow them time to perfect whatever trade they set their mind to, whether they are crafting the infamous, hand-sculpted artificer 'nipple' armour, [[What|bolters worth more than an Imperial hive city]], or even if they're simply painting vehicles and power armour. The philosophy behind this practice is that you cannot hope to know the value of what you're fighting for if you cannot understand its beauty.

Blood Angels are also known for their prevalent use of [[flamer|flamers]] and [[melta]] weapons. While they don't employ them as plentifully as the [[Salamanders]] do, they are nearly as masterfully constructed. The Sons of Sanguinius have taken a liking to the hand flamer, which gives them the assault capability of a flamer, but leaves their sword arm free to use in close combat. Heavy flamers can also be found in many of their Tactical Squads as an assault deterrent as well as on the side sponsons of Baal Predators to complement the Flamestorm Cannon, which ruins any infantry unit's day.

They also reeeeeeally like the Inferno pistol. Nearly everyone has one, including the [[Dante|Chapter Master]].

The aforementioned Baal Predator is a unique tank manufactured by the Blood Angels. It is an anti-infantry assault tank equipped with [[Dakka|twin-linked assault cannons and heavy flamers]] that was acquired in a pre-heresy campaign that nearly broke all their relationships with the Mechanicus. Even to this day, things are still a bit touchy. Luckily, the Techmarines of the chapter quickly reverse engineered the overcharged "Lucifer-class" engines onto nearly all their vehicles.

The Blood Angels' de facto relic weapons are called Glaive Encarmines—'glaive' apparently meaning 'sword' in this case rather than the halberd-type weapon it's associated with ("glaives" comes from the Latin "gladius", the common short sword of the legionnaire so there you go). They're made out of a mono-filament metal called 'angel-steel' and are purportedly so perfectly crafted that they never bend or warp. The secrets to their manufacture are jealously guarded by their Artificers. This is represented by their master-crafted universal special rule. They come in two flavors, a Carmine Sword or a Carmine Axe.

==Gene Seed==
The Blood Angels' themes and motifs are drawn from vampire and Faustian mythology as well as some Catholic traditions. They [[Beakie|commonly fly (with jump packs)]], [[Twilight|are eternally youthful]], [[Vampire|drink blood, and sleep in coffins]].

The Blood Angels are noted for naturally living longer on average than the Marines of any other chapter. Although, since there is no baseline standard for how long Astartes are supposed to live in the first place, and no Space Marine has ever been shown or described to have ever died of anything resembling old age, this claim kinda rings a little hollow. Even [[Dante]]'s age of over 1000 years isn't unique to his lineage, as there have been several other notable Astartes from other legion bloodlines that have managed a similar lifespan. By and large, Space Marines only die when they are killed, so, the only real ways Blood Angels can live considerably longer than "normal" space marines is if they either [[Reasonable Marines|don't put themselves at risk as much as normal marines]], or [[Rip and tear|they're so ded 'ard that they're just harder to kill than normal marines]].

Horus Heresy: Malevolence explains the longevity in a somewhat ironic fashion, given what we already know of Astartes physiology. The Ninth Legion were renowned for their long lifespans even during the early Great Crusade. What was less known was that the Legion had a habit of eating their dead captains after they fell in battle, with the Omophagea implant allowing the memories and battle experience to be retained for a future generation. Some recipients of these memories would take up the identity of the dead officer and give the outward appearance that they had never died at all. It was said that the Legion's master prior to Sanguinius recovery had gone through several such reincarnations before his final death when the body was destroyed beyond recognition. Sufficed to say that after Sanguinius arrival, things changed and thereafter took being called the ''"Eaters of the Dead"'' as cause for grievous offense.

When a Blood Angel does die, a [[Sanguinary Priest]] (what they call their [[Apothecaries]]) extracts his gene-seed using a device called an exsanguinator. When it comes time to implant it in an Initiate, the Initiate must receive it by drinking from a Blood Chalice ('insanguination'), which also contains the essence of Sanguinius. The story of [[Mephiston]], the Blood Angels' chief librarian, closely parallels the legend of Faust, a scholar who sells his soul to the devil in return for great knowledge and power (hell, he's named after the manifestation of the devil in the story, Mephistopheles or Mephisto). The names of their special characters and vehicles have an Italian flavor—Dante, the Furioso Dreadnought, Brother Corbulo. Corbulo, known as the chapter's High Sanguinary Priest, carries the Red Grail, which contains the blood of Sanguinius himself. Also, do we have to point out that the word 'sanguis' literally means 'blood' in Latin? Well, there you go.

The Blood Angels and their successor chapters have a genetic defect in their gene-seed known euphemistically as "The Flaw". It seems to have much more representation in the [[fluff]] than in the [[crunch]], but that's standard fare for a life-threatening, damnation-courting mutation that can pop up at any time. One chapter, Angels Penitent, managed to stave the defects off until they were fucked over by Chaos.

===Red Thirst===

[[File:BA's.jpg|thumb|left|500px|[[Ultramarines|You'll never see a Blood Angel go]] "Oh nooooes, a fleet of nice squishy flesh-bugs coming to devour our system, we're doooomed...". Maybe because it's an excellent way to let loose for a bit.]]

The Red Thirst is what makes the Blood Angels space vampires,<s> or Team Edward </s> {{BLAM}} {{BLAM|PURGE THE UNCOMFORTABLE THEMATIC PARALLELS OF POPULAR CULTURE!}}

The [[Red Thirst]] has been a part of being a Blood Angel since the [[Great Crusade]]. Sanguinius went to great lengths to hide it from the Emperor for fear of being [[First Founding#Two Unknown Legions|expunged from the Imperium]], although odds are that the Emperor already knew. He even introduced [[Chaplain]]s to the Blood Angels legions before the Edict of Nikaea, not just to monitor psykers, but to look out for brothers who might be giving in to their bloodlust.

In the lore the general effect is that the Red Thirst makes a Blood Angel an [[Angry Marine]] with a literal thirst for actual goddamn blood. Thus most Blood Angel Chaplains require certification for anger management therapy before they get the job. Their duty is to ensure that the assorted Marines are not showing signs of bloodlust, and to throw them into a battle if they are [[Grimdark|so they can stave off total madness a bit longer]]. However, all battle-brothers who suffer the effects of the Flaw long enough will eventually become overrun with their rather literal thirst for vengeance, succumbing to the Black Rage. After this, their lives will consist of utterly suicidal front-line charges to [[rip and tear]] the enemy as much as possible, before they eventually receive an honorable death in combat against the Emperor's foes. Those unlucky enough to survive to the end of the battle will either be given [[Blam|the Emperor's Peace]] by [[Astorath]], or [[Grimdark|imprisoned within the Tower of the Lost as a hopeless, dribbling maniac until they are required on the field of battle once more.]] This happened in Devastation of Baal, where the victims of the curse were seen as having mutated into hulking beasts who moved on all fours like gorillas. They were released to hold off the hordes of Daemons and Tyranids.

[[File:Blood-angel-dantewontdie.jpg|thumb|right|300px|I told you about the Red Thirst bro!]]Some chapters are more susceptible than others. The imaginatively named "[[Blood Drinkers]]" are notorious amongst their allies for allegedly leaving exsanguinated corpses wherever they show up. On the upside, Blood Drinkers are one of the few chapters who have [[Deathwatch (RPG)|tangible rules]] regarding how they handle the Red Thirst: if they have recently sated themselves, they gain a boost to WS, and suffer penalties to morale checks if they refrain from feeding.

On the tabletop, this has historically been changed in every single incarnation of the rules as GW continually changed their minds over how the Thirst should be represented; in 7th edition, they just give the flat bonus of Furious Charge to everything (including dreadnoughts); but if you get a bunch of Blood Angels together in the correct FOC or formation, then they also get +1 to Initiative when charging (''á la'' old-school Furious Charge), which is a very strong advantage. In 6th edition, Red Thirst had the odd consequence of occasionally making a unit Fearless and Furious Chargers if they give into the temptation, though independent characters had enough control over themselves that they were mostly immune, with a [[Erasmus Tycho|few]] exceptions. Going further back, into 3rd edition, the Red Thirst made a bit more sense and was something to actually be wary of, as your units had a potential to lose control at the thought of blood and move out of position towards the enemy. This really wasn't [[fun]], especially if your Devastator Squads didn't pull that critical round of shooting.

New in 8th it comes back with a vengeance. Allowing any infantry who charged, has been charged, or is performing a heroic intervention, to add +1 to the to wound roll. Meaning, when red thirst is in affect, [[awesome|you'll never be wounding on anything worse than 5+]].

===Black Rage===

[[File:Death company by fonteart-d6ay2k7.jpg|250px|thumb|left|Note the ancient, unfathomable fury, and run away pissing yourself.]]

On the other hand, the [[Black Rage]] is the Red Thirst's angrier, more troublesome brother. You know, the one who dresses in black all the time, and who shows up at random times to complicate your life and embarrass your family. It's a terminal state in which the battle brother has not only succumbed to the Red Thirst, but has had a total psychotic breakdown. Or if you're feeling particularly poetic: it's the psychic scream of a dying demi-god that got stuck in his progeny.

Battle-brothers who succumb to the Black Rage are overcome with visions of Blood Angel battles during the [[Horus Heresy]], and a few even imagine themselves to be [[Pretend|Sanguinius battling Horus on his battle barge]]. This of course has the unfortunate side effect of making them completely lose touch with reality, fighting a battle that they can never ever win since the outcome of the hallucinations has already occurred. On the plus side though, their disconnection with what is going on around them turns them into immensely powerful warriors, since each and every one of them believe in some way that they are Sanguinius.

Long story short, a Marine afflicted with the Black Rage will become even angrier than an [[Angry Marine]], and with even less self-control(which means they are effectively each Nightbringer crossed with Commissar Fuklaw. If you happen to be in the same star system of one of these, pray to the god emperor they don't sense you. If you don't happen to worship the God-Emperor, silently hope your gods are OK with suicide, because the alternative is too nightmarishly gruesome for even Games Workshop to describe in sufficient detail). If this happens in a war zone, they are quietly organized into small squads and their armor is painted black by a chaplain before the worst of the hallucinations take over. If they aren't killed in battle or get off the leash somehow, [[Astorath]] will come and execute them on the battlefield since no other Blood Angel has the stomach (or outright skill) to kill his own battle brothers.

[[File:True Blood Angels.jpg|150px|thumb|Blood Angel confronts his true form. And you thought the [[Wulfen]] looked weird]]
The [[Death Company]] is a group of Blood Angels on the battlefield who are afflicted by the [[Black Rage]]. Every force of Blood Angels and their successor chapters has one, though [[Flesh Tearers|some]] are more susceptible than [[Lamenters|others]], which makes those chapters' responses to the occurrence of Black Rage quite varied. The [[Flesh Tearers]] and the renegade [[Knights of Blood]] chapters both have an uncanny predilection for all-out, balls-to-the-wall assault—hoping to die in battle honorably before the rage takes them. In the Knights of Blood's case, they fought with the zeal of the [[Black Templars]], the fury of the [[World Eaters]], and the excess of the [[Marines Malevolent]] in such a perfect way that they got kicked out of the [[Imperium of Man|cool kids club]] and branded renegades for their excess collateral damage against allied forces. The Flesh Tearers very nearly joined that shit list, and were only forgiven by the Blood Angels when [[Plot armor|Astorath personally intervened on their behalf, citing that their brutality would be a necessity in the near future]].

On the tabletop, this essentially allows you to bring a squad of [[Khorne Berserkers]] without the [[Khorne]], but with more customization options. You can also take several squads if Astorath has shown up, as he always seems to know where and when his brothers will succumb.

As with the Red Thirst, [[Games Workshop|GW]] keep changing the rules with these guys; nowadays you can purchase units of Death Company as Elite choices for your army at a not-insignificant cost, whilst in 6th they were Troops, but were so far down the path of being drooling lunatics that they couldn't hold objectives, and you could only have one squad unless [[Astorath]] was watching. In ancient times, it used to happen spontaneously for free, and you had to roll for squads at the start of battle, potentially losing members of squads you already paid for to bulk up your Death Company, which made fluff-sense. But at least you chose which model to take off, and sending a veteran sergeant to the Death Company was the only way of giving power weapon/fists (excluding the chaplain) to the squad. Losing a [[Terminator|Termie]] or tooled-up honour guard made you cry though...

==Daily rituals of the Blood Angels==

[[File:Dawn of War.jpg|200px|thumb|left|alt text|Dante pwns some noobs as [[Astorath]] and [[Mephiston]] look on.]]

04:00 - Reveille - The Blood Angels are roused from their coffins to start the day.<br>
04:10 - Grooming - The Blood Angels take the time to comb their hair and brush their teeth. Special attention is given to their fangs. Even more special attention is given to their long, flowing, golden hair.<br>
04:30 - Morning meal - A light meal is prepared by the chapter serfs for the Blood Angels. Consuming a chapter serf is explicitly prohibited.<br>
05:00 - Morning prayer.<br>
06:00 - Morning firing rituals - The Blood Angels assemble for target practice. Due to an ancient clerical error, the Blood Angels are in possession of an excessive amount of a heretical series of books from the pre-Imperial days of Terra called the [[Twilight|Twilight Saga]], which they use for target practice by the thousands.<br>
07:00 - Battle practice - The Blood Angels begin practice in the battle cages. Frequently, the Blood Angels will forgo their bolters for melee weapons. The usage of fangs in combat practice is considered heresy. Using fangs to drink blood is extra Khornate heresy.<br>
12:00 - Midday meal - The Blood Angels consume a light meal made for them by the chapter serfs. The chapter serfs are still explicitly off the menu.<br>
13:00 - Deep strike training - The Blood Angels practice their deep strike maneuvers. Pretending to fly like a bat is heresy. Transforming into a bat or black mist to fly is extra Tzeentchian heresy.<br>
16:00 - Evening firing rituals. During this time, several Blood Angels also practice the shooting style of a legendary Terran gunslinger known as Nosferatu Alucard, a proto-Blood Angel who was said to have slain thousands of daemons alone using only two blessed stub pistols.<br>
16:55 - Milk and Cookies Break. Drinking blood instead of milk or dipping cookies in milk is strictly banned. Doing both is considered heresy. Dipping cookies in blood is extra Khornate heresy.<br>
17:00 - Staring contests - Dumbasses who want to challenge Chief Librarian Mephiston to a menacing staring contest do so now. Usually it's just the neophytes who don't know any better.<br>
17:15 - Round up - Staring contests end, and those who went mad while staring into Mephiston's eyes must be tracked down in the fortress-monastery and culled.<br>
17:30 - Evening prayer. Special attention is given to how fabulous Sanguinius was and why they can't wait to tear the heretical Chaos faggots multiple new assholes (hint, it involves blood). <br>
19:00 - Evening meal - A feast is prepared by the chapter serfs, usually of animals who were killed during the deep strike training. The chapter serfs ''may'' be consumed depending on how good the first two meals were. Using the Red Grail in drinking contests is explicitly prohibited by order of the Sanguinary Priests.<br>
19:30- All loose [[Death Company]] personnel are rounded up, heavily sedated, and locked into their stasis cell for the night.<br>
20:00 - Free time - The Blood Angels are allowed a few hours of free time to do as they please. Some reflect on their duty to the Emperor and the deeds of Sanguinius. Others play vidya games. [[Pretty Marines|Some just pose moodily and bare-chested in front of a mirror]]. Still others will engage in artistic activities. A GOOD vampire movie is often shown for the Blood Angels' entertainment.<br>
00:00 - Rest - The Blood Angels retire to their coffins for the evening.

==Notable Members of the Blood Angels==
*[[Sanguinius]] - Primarch. Snaps [[Bloodthirster]] spines over his knee and decapitates [[Keeper of Secrets|Keepers of Secrets]] for the [[lulz]]. Sacrificed himself to aid in the ultimate defeat of [[Horus]]. May he rest in peace.
*[[Meros]] - Apothecary during the Horus Heresy. Sacrificed himself so that Sanguinius could righteously fuck up a Keeper of Secrets.
*Dominion Zephon - Crippled Blood Angel who represented the Legion on Terra before the Heresy. [[Awesome|Took on Drach'nyen in the Webway]] with a chainsword despite only recently having the feeling restored in his limbs, living out the "drive me closer" meme. All around elegan/tg/entleman able to play the harp well enough to make mutants weep and able to fight just as well. Counteracts the insipid autism of Diocletion Coros during Master of mankind by being just a swell dude. Also, makes a Knight Baroness' panties reenact Genesis 7:17
*[[Dante]] - Current Chapter Master. Resident badass sexy-grandpa. Seriously, dude's hella old and prefers not to mention anything about having a Necron's cell phone number.
*[[Mephiston]] - Chief Librarian and resident rape train. Scariest motherfucker this side of the [[Eye of Terror]].
*[[Corbulo]] - High [[Sanguinary Priest]]. Sees far, just not far enough, into the future.
*[[Astorath]] - Keeper of Sanctity and the dude who kills Death Company nutjobs when they nutjob way too hard.
*[[Lemartes]] - Chaplain and the Guardian of the Lost, and the only Blood Angel to hold the Black Rage in check. Ranks #2 behind the Eversor Assassin as the most 40K and [[grimdark]] thing in 40K.
*[[Karlaen|Arenos Karlaen]] - 1st Company captain and total bro. Has a model thanks to 7E's Deathstorm Box.
*[[Donatos Aphael]]- 2nd company captain. Very supportive of blood drinking, with good results to back his actions.
*[[Erasmus Tycho]] - 3rd company captain. Proof that [[Your dudes]] has a reason to exist. Sadly could not quell the Black Rage, but still worth a fight no doubt. No longer among the living.
*[[Moriar the Chosen]] - Matt Ward's excuse for making generic Death Company Dreadnoughts a thing.
*[[Rafen]] - Longest living Blood Angel mook in any of the Blood Angels book series. Single handedly bested Arkio (possessed monster) and further aided Mephiston in staving off the Black Rage for a second time. Also wielded the Spear of Tolesto, though only briefly.
*[[Sanguinor]] - Started off being a random dude who was chosen to be Sanguinius' herald during [[Imperium Secundus]], then later stood in his Primarch's place on Davin and got drawn into the warp while transforming into an angelic being. Nowadays he may be Sanguinius reborn...or Azkaellon...or a warp entity created by the longings of the Blood Angels...DAMMIT! IT'S COMPLICATED.
*[[Acrion]] - Random captain that thought he could stand up to [[Abaddon]] during the 7th Black Crusade. He couldn't.
*[[Thalastian Jorus]] - Fuckawesome Reclusiarch that succeeded in standing up to Abaddon--killed ''all'' his [[Bringers of Despair|Honour Guard]], thoroughly wrecked the [[Black Legion]] by utilizing [[Wat|guerrilla tactics with the Death Company of all things]] AND became one of like 3 people in the Imperium to go toe to toe with the despoiler and come out on top, gravely wounding Abby before the Chaplain was killed by the Black Legion.
*[[Chapter Master Slamguinius|Brother Slamguinius, the Slambane, 9th lord of slamfuckery]] - The newest hope to rise out of the Blood Angel's 8th edition codex, and by far the punchiest thing to ever come out of one of our codices from a basic Captain template in recent years.

==See Also==
*[[Warhammer 40,000/Tactics/Blood Angels(8E)|Tactics/Blood Angels]]
*[[Bloodquest]] - A comic & audio drama centered around the redemption quest of a fallen Captain and his crew.

==Gallery==
<gallery widths="210" position="center" spacing="small">
File:The Red Angel.jpg|Manly Vampires, IN SPESS!
File:Admit It.jpg|You know it to be true.
File:BloodAngels3rd.jpg|Older Blood Angels art. Is that Christopher Lee in the lower left corner? Well, using Dracula as a model makes sense...
File:CrusadeEraBloodAngels.jpg|A older picture of the Blood Angels without their nipple armor.
</gallery>

{{Template:Marines-Official}}
{{Blood Angels}}

Mephiston

2019-09-24T19:00:39Z

2600:1006:B105:8611:58CC:338D:D9D2:B1D4: /* For All You Illiterate Folks */

{{Awesome}}
{{topquote|And Samson said, Let me die with the Philistines. And he bowed himself with all his might; and the house fell upon the lords, and upon all the people that were therein. So the dead which he slew at his death were more than they which he slew in his life.|Judges xvi, 30}}
[[File:DeathstormMephiston.png|350px|thumb|Whoever [[Kaldor Draigo|you are]], Mephiston eats like ten of your sorry asses for breakfast.|right]]
'''Mephiston''' a.k.a. angry Lucius Malfoy in SPEEHHSS is the Chief [[Librarian]] of the [[Blood Angels]] [[Space Marine]] chapter, one of the most powerful [[psykers]] in the [[Imperium]], and he bears the title "Lord of Death" for A FUCKING REASON! He's a monstrous creature in artificer armour and his sole purpose in life is to [[RAPE]] you in close combat. He often contends with the likes of [[Ahzek Ahriman]], [[Njal Stormcaller]], [[Eldrad |that dick]], [[Varro Tigurius]], [[Swarmlord|THE SWARMLORD]] and [[Kaldor Draigo]] for the title of baddest psychic motherfucker in the galaxy that's still mortal. Well, technically Space Marines are functionally immortal but are killed in action long before it can be considered relevant.

==Origin and History==
Once upon a time, Mephiston was called Brother Calistarius, one of many librarians of the Blood Angels (and possibly the same from the Sin of Damnation book, which would also make him the same Librarian Calistarius in the Space Hulk games). You know, just your average 8-foot tall, superhuman killing machine with psychic powers and [[vampire]]-ish tendencies. Nothing that special. Then one day, he was overcome by the effects of the Red Thirst.

Once a Blood Angel is overcome with the Red Thirst, he is afflicted by the [[Black Rage]] and is inducted into the [[Death Company]]. Death Company Marines are bat-shit crazy, berserker, vampire Space Marines. Since there's no cure for the Black Rage, the only thing that can be done for the Death Company is to use them as shock troops and throw them onto the front lines of the most brutal, meat grinder, suicide assaults and let them find a glorious death on the battlefield, like Samson in the House of Dagon.

During the second war for Armageddon, Brother Calistarius, as a Death Company Marine, was used to assault the [[Orks]] holding up in the Ecclesorium building of Hades Hive. As he and his fellow bat-shit crazy, berserker, vampire Space Marine brothers [[RIP AND TEAR|hacked, slashed and raped]] their way through the Orks' defences, they might have gotten a little bit too enthusiastic. As in, they brought the entire fucking building down on their heads.

Calistarius was the only one left alive, buried in the rubble with his body crushed and broken. Trapped, denied his glorious death, and unable to vent his rage by raping the shit out of the enemy, he was forced to sit and stew in his blind fury for seven days and seven nights. The madness of the Black Rage was tearing at his mind, screaming for blood and death, causing him to trip balls with out-of-this-world, fucked up visions that had driven all before him right off the deep end!

With nowhere to go and nothing to do, he had no choice but to stare down the visions and fight the madness. At midnight on the seventh day, he finally overcame the Black Rage and the Red Thirst and was reborn as Mephiston, LORD OF DEATH!

Having done what no Blood Angel had EVER done, he was reborn with new strength and power unlike anything he had ever felt before. Feeling the utter RAAAAAGE! and fury of Mephiston's rebirth, the thousand tons of rubble that had been crushing down on him and keeping him trapped SHIT ITSELF (how does rubble shit itself, you ask? Mephiston was angry with it, that's how!) and tried to escape, allowing Mephiston to burst free.

[[File:Lord of Death.PNG|250px|thumb|[[RAGE|A real champion is he who doesn't piss his pants at the mere presence of this bastard.]]|left]]As he burst free, he attracted the attention of a nearby Ork band. Now, there were several hundred heavily armed Orks and Mephiston was alone, his armour was shredded, he had no weapons, and was exhausted after what had just occurred. Given all this, it's clear Mephy wasn't really at his best. The odds were stacked against him, so it's fairly obvious what happened next...'''he fucked them ''right'' up!''' He butchered them, tore them apart with his bare hands. Then he grabbed hold of the biggest motherfucking Ork, PUNCHED A HOLE THROUGH HIS CHEST, AND TORE OUT HIS MOTHERFUCKING HEART. Then he skull fucked him while the other Orks just watched and cried girly tears of fear and defeat.

After this, because of his awesome power and the fact that the other Blood Angels were a bit scared of him and wouldn't refuse his application for promotion when he applied for one, he quickly rose through the ranks to the position of Chief Librarian.

===The Cybele Incident===
Mephiston was involved in, and helped to resolve, a conflict that nearly tore the Blood Angels Chapter apart. In the novels ''Blood Angels: Deus Encarmine'' and ''Blood Angels: Deus Sanguinius'', a schism occurs within the chapter during a campaign against the forces of [[Chaos]] on Cybele. A young Marine, Arkio, grew wings and then got all uppity and powerful, proclaiming himself to be the reincarnation of [[Sanguinius]], the Blood Angels' late [[Primarch]]. While many of his fellow Marines swore fealty to him, a number of others, including his older brother Rafen (his actual biological brother as well as fellow Blood Angel), refused to acknowledge any truth to his claim. As it turns out, they were right; the whole shebang turned out to be a typically dickish [[Tzeentch|Tzeentchian]] plot intended to tear the Blood Angels apart and turn them to Chaos, and was orchestrated by Inquisitor Remius Stele, a traitor and agent of Chaos.

Eventually, [[Dante|Commander Dante]], who was suspicious of the events on Cybele, sent Mephiston to assess the situation and decide if Arkio really was the reincarnation of Sanguinius. Almost immediately upon arriving, Mephiston sensed the taint of Chaos in Arkio, denounced him as a fraud, and identified Inquisitor Stele as a [[HERESY|heretic]] and a traitor, because Mephiston is a fucking discerning motherfucker and was way too smart for any of those asshats. But Arkio persisted in his claims, and Mephiston, feeling unusually gracious, allowed Rafen to kill him instead of just [[RIP AND TEAR|eviscerating]] the little bastard himself. Still, Mephiston got to annihilate scores of other Chaos Marines and cultists while he was there, so it was a good time overall.

===Divinatus Prime===
In ''Mephiston: Blood of Sanguinius'' it was revealed that while Mephiston had been "cured" of the Black Rage, whenever he tried to unleash his full might he would be overcome by a bout of UNSTOPPABLE RAGE (seriously, he conjured miniature Warp Storms several times in this book). Furthermore, his body was slowly changing (his skin turned darker, his RAGE became harder and harder to stop, etc.).

Mephiston sought the Blade Petrific, a Xenos artifact which could amplify its user's psychic power, as an answer to his problem. The Blade was housed on the shrine world of Divinatus Prime, which had been lost to the Astronomican (Mephiston and his retinue had to jump, and traverse the Immaterium blind). Two Chaos Sorcerers, vying to be the protege of a third one, decided to make a little contest: Both of them would try to manipulate Divinatus Prime's populations to wage a civil war to see who would get the blade first.

Unfortunately, in the end, one of them escaped with the blade. [[Just as planned]], Mephiston deliberately let her to lead him to the third Chaos Sorcerer (whose identity he was implied to know.) Mephiston also realized that there was no salvation for him (his body had almost completely changed), but he said he "would be the Blood Angels' hope." This also shows his deep loyalty. Rather than take the blade to save himself, he sacrificed his possible chance simply for a lead to a threat against humanity so he could destroy it.

==For All You Illiterate Folks==
Mephiston, however, is not based on a vampire, regardless of the Blood Angels connection. He is based on Mephistopheles, or Mephisto, a demon of Satan, marvel comic character and one of the Seven Chief (see the connection?) Devils. Mephistopheles was the demon who turned up to take [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faust Faust's] soul when he made a deal with the Devil, or Satan. When Mephistopheles first appeared to Faust, he actually advised Faust not to sell his soul. Mephistopheles didn't spend his time finding people to corrupt, but came to collect on souls from people who were close, or already, damned.

So you see, Faust is Brother Calistarius and Mephistopheles is Mephiston. Calistarius overcomes the Black Rage (his soul is already damned) and becomes Mephiston (sells his soul for great power). This theory is further reinforced by the fact that, in the Blood Angels Codex itself, it says (paraphrased) "in over coming the Black Rage, he became something much worse". As in, he sold his soul to overcome the torment of the Black Rage and in doing so became a demon, or one of the Seven Chief Devils of Satan.

This similarity is is touched upon in the Lord of Death book, in which a lost Blood Angel chaplain accuses Mephiston of losing his [[Black Rage|"soul"]], referencing the twin curses of the chapter as being the heart and soul of who the Blood Angels are—and the reason for their humility and nobility. Mephiston rebukes him, stating that while part of the Blood Angels' humility was acquired by their suffering, it was in fact the tenets and beliefs of Sanguinius that truly fostered it. The chaplain dismisses this and [[rip and tear|very nearly comes to realize how very much of Mephiston's "soul" is still there.]] In the end, Mephy proves his loyalties as [[Doombreed]] himself screams to Khorne that he cannot [[Star Wars|sway Mephiston to turn to Chaos]]. Doombreed then leaves with Mephy knowing that he should have died right then and there

It should also be noted that [[Gabriel Seth]], [[Chapter Master]] of the [[Flesh Tearers]], of all people considers Mephiston a monster and an abomination. This sentiment earned him the scorn of basically every Chapter Master of every Blood Angels' successor chapter with Malakim of the Lamenters straight up saying that Seth's boys murder more people horribly than any one of the Lamenter's Death Company. Take that as you will. Although, Seth has too much of a fixation on the flaws. His main reason for disliking the Primaris Marines, for example, is their lack of the flaws which he believes are what defines the Sons of Sanguinius.

==On the Tabletop==
{| class=wikitable
! || Pts || M || WS || BS || S || T || W || A || Ld || Sv
|-
| '''Mephiston:''' || 160 || 7" || 2+ || 2+ || 5 || 5 || 5 || 4 || 9 || 2+
|}

Mephiston is similar to last edition, with 5s for S, T, and W instead of 6s like the days of yore (or 4s for a standard librarian), but he makes up for it in other ways. His Sanguine Sword is now a Power Fist with no to-hit penalty; his other benefits include M7 (although he has no jump pack), BS2+ with his Plasma Pistol, A4 like a Primaris, a 2+ save, a 5+++ FNP, Denying 2 powers instead of 1, and knowing 3 powers instead of 2, but that last is particularly lackluster, as he can still only cast 2; you'll probably want to take Unleash Rage (or Quickening, if you want him to buff himself better [[derp|since THERE CAN ONLY BE ONE MEPHISTON!]]), Shield of Sanguinius, and Wings of Sanguinius on him, then only cast the third power when you really need to get him into position. All of those benefits will cost you 57 points over a normal Librarian, or 52 more than a Primaris Librarian (which has the same W and A as him).

Mephiston has an excellent statline, lots of melee power (combined with a Sanguinary Priest, he can hit at S12!), can buff himself and/or others well, and is priced decently. He makes a good HQ (although his warlord trait is lackluster). His only weaknesses are no way to generate anything better than a 5++, allowing basic power swords to hurt him, and no means to deep strike with other choppy units. otherwise he can perform any HQ role quite well. He's in direct competition with a librarian dreadnought, given how much of his special character oomph was directed into making him beatstickier.

Mephiston with Quickening and Red Rampage stratagem adds 2d3 extra s10 ap-3 d3 damage attacks that wound everything up to toughness 9 on 2s...holy shit it won't matter if there can be only one, there's gonna be nothing left!

==Gallery==
<gallery>
File:Mephiston.jpg|He's as pissed off as an [[Angry Marine]]—on one of his quiet days.
File:Will power incarnate.jpg|Sheer willpower is what keeps him from tearing his own guys apart. ([[Mark Gibbons|MG]])
File:Warhammer-40000-Mephiston.jpeg|Some artworks depict his hair as blonde, others make it look silver/white...
File:Awesome Art.jpeg|Mephiston has a lot of awesome artworks. Choosing a favorite is indeed hard.
File:Lord Mephiston.jpg|Kain of Nosgoth called, he wants his aesthetic back.
</gallery>

{{Marines-Characters}}

[[Category:Blood Angels]]

Mephiston

2019-09-24T18:56:45Z

2600:1006:B105:8611:58CC:338D:D9D2:B1D4: /* Divinatus Prime */

{{Awesome}}
{{topquote|And Samson said, Let me die with the Philistines. And he bowed himself with all his might; and the house fell upon the lords, and upon all the people that were therein. So the dead which he slew at his death were more than they which he slew in his life.|Judges xvi, 30}}
[[File:DeathstormMephiston.png|350px|thumb|Whoever [[Kaldor Draigo|you are]], Mephiston eats like ten of your sorry asses for breakfast.|right]]
'''Mephiston''' a.k.a. angry Lucius Malfoy in SPEEHHSS is the Chief [[Librarian]] of the [[Blood Angels]] [[Space Marine]] chapter, one of the most powerful [[psykers]] in the [[Imperium]], and he bears the title "Lord of Death" for A FUCKING REASON! He's a monstrous creature in artificer armour and his sole purpose in life is to [[RAPE]] you in close combat. He often contends with the likes of [[Ahzek Ahriman]], [[Njal Stormcaller]], [[Eldrad |that dick]], [[Varro Tigurius]], [[Swarmlord|THE SWARMLORD]] and [[Kaldor Draigo]] for the title of baddest psychic motherfucker in the galaxy that's still mortal. Well, technically Space Marines are functionally immortal but are killed in action long before it can be considered relevant.

==Origin and History==
Once upon a time, Mephiston was called Brother Calistarius, one of many librarians of the Blood Angels (and possibly the same from the Sin of Damnation book, which would also make him the same Librarian Calistarius in the Space Hulk games). You know, just your average 8-foot tall, superhuman killing machine with psychic powers and [[vampire]]-ish tendencies. Nothing that special. Then one day, he was overcome by the effects of the Red Thirst.

Once a Blood Angel is overcome with the Red Thirst, he is afflicted by the [[Black Rage]] and is inducted into the [[Death Company]]. Death Company Marines are bat-shit crazy, berserker, vampire Space Marines. Since there's no cure for the Black Rage, the only thing that can be done for the Death Company is to use them as shock troops and throw them onto the front lines of the most brutal, meat grinder, suicide assaults and let them find a glorious death on the battlefield, like Samson in the House of Dagon.

During the second war for Armageddon, Brother Calistarius, as a Death Company Marine, was used to assault the [[Orks]] holding up in the Ecclesorium building of Hades Hive. As he and his fellow bat-shit crazy, berserker, vampire Space Marine brothers [[RIP AND TEAR|hacked, slashed and raped]] their way through the Orks' defences, they might have gotten a little bit too enthusiastic. As in, they brought the entire fucking building down on their heads.

Calistarius was the only one left alive, buried in the rubble with his body crushed and broken. Trapped, denied his glorious death, and unable to vent his rage by raping the shit out of the enemy, he was forced to sit and stew in his blind fury for seven days and seven nights. The madness of the Black Rage was tearing at his mind, screaming for blood and death, causing him to trip balls with out-of-this-world, fucked up visions that had driven all before him right off the deep end!

With nowhere to go and nothing to do, he had no choice but to stare down the visions and fight the madness. At midnight on the seventh day, he finally overcame the Black Rage and the Red Thirst and was reborn as Mephiston, LORD OF DEATH!

Having done what no Blood Angel had EVER done, he was reborn with new strength and power unlike anything he had ever felt before. Feeling the utter RAAAAAGE! and fury of Mephiston's rebirth, the thousand tons of rubble that had been crushing down on him and keeping him trapped SHIT ITSELF (how does rubble shit itself, you ask? Mephiston was angry with it, that's how!) and tried to escape, allowing Mephiston to burst free.

[[File:Lord of Death.PNG|250px|thumb|[[RAGE|A real champion is he who doesn't piss his pants at the mere presence of this bastard.]]|left]]As he burst free, he attracted the attention of a nearby Ork band. Now, there were several hundred heavily armed Orks and Mephiston was alone, his armour was shredded, he had no weapons, and was exhausted after what had just occurred. Given all this, it's clear Mephy wasn't really at his best. The odds were stacked against him, so it's fairly obvious what happened next...'''he fucked them ''right'' up!''' He butchered them, tore them apart with his bare hands. Then he grabbed hold of the biggest motherfucking Ork, PUNCHED A HOLE THROUGH HIS CHEST, AND TORE OUT HIS MOTHERFUCKING HEART. Then he skull fucked him while the other Orks just watched and cried girly tears of fear and defeat.

After this, because of his awesome power and the fact that the other Blood Angels were a bit scared of him and wouldn't refuse his application for promotion when he applied for one, he quickly rose through the ranks to the position of Chief Librarian.

===The Cybele Incident===
Mephiston was involved in, and helped to resolve, a conflict that nearly tore the Blood Angels Chapter apart. In the novels ''Blood Angels: Deus Encarmine'' and ''Blood Angels: Deus Sanguinius'', a schism occurs within the chapter during a campaign against the forces of [[Chaos]] on Cybele. A young Marine, Arkio, grew wings and then got all uppity and powerful, proclaiming himself to be the reincarnation of [[Sanguinius]], the Blood Angels' late [[Primarch]]. While many of his fellow Marines swore fealty to him, a number of others, including his older brother Rafen (his actual biological brother as well as fellow Blood Angel), refused to acknowledge any truth to his claim. As it turns out, they were right; the whole shebang turned out to be a typically dickish [[Tzeentch|Tzeentchian]] plot intended to tear the Blood Angels apart and turn them to Chaos, and was orchestrated by Inquisitor Remius Stele, a traitor and agent of Chaos.

Eventually, [[Dante|Commander Dante]], who was suspicious of the events on Cybele, sent Mephiston to assess the situation and decide if Arkio really was the reincarnation of Sanguinius. Almost immediately upon arriving, Mephiston sensed the taint of Chaos in Arkio, denounced him as a fraud, and identified Inquisitor Stele as a [[HERESY|heretic]] and a traitor, because Mephiston is a fucking discerning motherfucker and was way too smart for any of those asshats. But Arkio persisted in his claims, and Mephiston, feeling unusually gracious, allowed Rafen to kill him instead of just [[RIP AND TEAR|eviscerating]] the little bastard himself. Still, Mephiston got to annihilate scores of other Chaos Marines and cultists while he was there, so it was a good time overall.

===Divinatus Prime===
In ''Mephiston: Blood of Sanguinius'' it was revealed that while Mephiston had been "cured" of the Black Rage, whenever he tried to unleash his full might he would be overcome by a bout of UNSTOPPABLE RAGE (seriously, he conjured miniature Warp Storms several times in this book). Furthermore, his body was slowly changing (his skin turned darker, his RAGE became harder and harder to stop, etc.).

Mephiston sought the Blade Petrific, a Xenos artifact which could amplify its user's psychic power, as an answer to his problem. The Blade was housed on the shrine world of Divinatus Prime, which had been lost to the Astronomican (Mephiston and his retinue had to jump, and traverse the Immaterium blind). Two Chaos Sorcerers, vying to be the protege of a third one, decided to make a little contest: Both of them would try to manipulate Divinatus Prime's populations to wage a civil war to see who would get the blade first.

Unfortunately, in the end, one of them escaped with the blade. [[Just as planned]], Mephiston deliberately let her to lead him to the third Chaos Sorcerer (whose identity he was implied to know.) Mephiston also realized that there was no salvation for him (his body had almost completely changed), but he said he "would be the Blood Angels' hope." This also shows his deep loyalty. Rather than take the blade to save himself, he sacrificed his possible chance simply for a lead to a threat against humanity so he could destroy it.

==For All You Illiterate Folks==
Mephiston, however, is not based on a vampire, regardless of the Blood Angels connection. He is based on Mephistopheles, or Mephisto, a demon of Satan, marvel comic character and one of the Seven Chief (see the connection?) Devils. Mephistopheles was the demon who turned up to take [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faust Faust's] soul when he made a deal with the Devil, or Satan. When Mephistopheles first appeared to Faust, he actually advised Faust not to sell his soul. Mephistopheles didn't spend his time finding people to corrupt, but came to collect on souls from people who were close, or already, damned.

So you see, Faust is Brother Calistarius and Mephistopheles is Mephiston. Calistarius overcomes the Black Rage (his soul is already damned) and becomes Mephiston (sells his soul for great power). This theory is further reinforced by the fact that, in the Blood Angels Codex itself, it says (paraphrased) "in over coming the Black Rage, he became something much worse". As in, he sold his soul to overcome the torment of the Black Rage and in doing so became a demon, or one of the Seven Chief Devils of Satan.

This similarity is is touched upon in the Lord of Death book, in which a lost Blood Angel chaplain accuses Mephiston of losing his [[Black Rage|"soul"]], referencing the twin curses of the chapter as being the heart and soul of who the Blood Angels are—and the reason for their humility and nobility. Mephiston rebukes him, stating that while part of the Blood Angels' humility was acquired by their suffering, it was in fact the tenets and beliefs of Sanguinius that truly fostered it. The chaplain dismisses this and [[rip and tear|very nearly comes to realize how very much of Mephiston's "soul" is still there.]] In the end, Mephy proves his loyalties as [[Doombreed]] himself screams to Khorne that he cannot [[Star Wars|sway Mephiston to turn to Chaos]]. Doombreed then leaves with Mephy knowing that he should have died right then and there

It should also be noted that [[Gabriel Seth]], [[Chapter Master]] of the [[Flesh Tearers]], of all people considers Mephiston a monster and an abomination. This sentiment earned him the scorn of basically every Chapter Master of every Blood Angels' successor chapter with Malakim of the Lamenters straight up saying that Seth's boys murder more people horribly than any one of the Lamenter's Death Company. Take that as you will.

==On the Tabletop==
{| class=wikitable
! || Pts || M || WS || BS || S || T || W || A || Ld || Sv
|-
| '''Mephiston:''' || 160 || 7" || 2+ || 2+ || 5 || 5 || 5 || 4 || 9 || 2+
|}

Mephiston is similar to last edition, with 5s for S, T, and W instead of 6s like the days of yore (or 4s for a standard librarian), but he makes up for it in other ways. His Sanguine Sword is now a Power Fist with no to-hit penalty; his other benefits include M7 (although he has no jump pack), BS2+ with his Plasma Pistol, A4 like a Primaris, a 2+ save, a 5+++ FNP, Denying 2 powers instead of 1, and knowing 3 powers instead of 2, but that last is particularly lackluster, as he can still only cast 2; you'll probably want to take Unleash Rage (or Quickening, if you want him to buff himself better [[derp|since THERE CAN ONLY BE ONE MEPHISTON!]]), Shield of Sanguinius, and Wings of Sanguinius on him, then only cast the third power when you really need to get him into position. All of those benefits will cost you 57 points over a normal Librarian, or 52 more than a Primaris Librarian (which has the same W and A as him).

Mephiston has an excellent statline, lots of melee power (combined with a Sanguinary Priest, he can hit at S12!), can buff himself and/or others well, and is priced decently. He makes a good HQ (although his warlord trait is lackluster). His only weaknesses are no way to generate anything better than a 5++, allowing basic power swords to hurt him, and no means to deep strike with other choppy units. otherwise he can perform any HQ role quite well. He's in direct competition with a librarian dreadnought, given how much of his special character oomph was directed into making him beatstickier.

Mephiston with Quickening and Red Rampage stratagem adds 2d3 extra s10 ap-3 d3 damage attacks that wound everything up to toughness 9 on 2s...holy shit it won't matter if there can be only one, there's gonna be nothing left!

==Gallery==
<gallery>
File:Mephiston.jpg|He's as pissed off as an [[Angry Marine]]—on one of his quiet days.
File:Will power incarnate.jpg|Sheer willpower is what keeps him from tearing his own guys apart. ([[Mark Gibbons|MG]])
File:Warhammer-40000-Mephiston.jpeg|Some artworks depict his hair as blonde, others make it look silver/white...
File:Awesome Art.jpeg|Mephiston has a lot of awesome artworks. Choosing a favorite is indeed hard.
File:Lord Mephiston.jpg|Kain of Nosgoth called, he wants his aesthetic back.
</gallery>

{{Marines-Characters}}

[[Category:Blood Angels]]

Mantis Warriors

2019-09-24T18:47:36Z

2600:1006:B105:8611:58CC:338D:D9D2:B1D4:

{{Infobox Spess Mahreen Chapter
|Name=Mantis Warriors (previously known as Mantis Legion)
|Heraldry = [[Image:Mantis Warriors logo.png|center|140px]]
|Battle Cry = For The Emperor! For Redemption! For the Mantis Warriors!
|Number = Approximately 100 remain (probably more after the [[Indomitus Crusade]]'s [[Primaris Marines|Primaris]] boost in the 42nd Millenium)
|Successor Chapters = None
|Founding = 8th Founding. Mid-34th Millennium
|Successors of = [[Marauders]] ([[White Scars]] lineage)
|Chapter Master = Khoisan Neotera
|Primarch = [[Jaghatai Khan]]
|Homeworld = None (previously Ootheca)
|Specialty = Guerrilla warfare, hit-and-run, misdirection aided by divination by their Librarians, tactical applications of twinlinked [[C.S. Goto|multilasers]]
|Strength = ~100 Marines
|Allegiance = [[Imperium]]
|Colours = Emerald green, Camouflage
}}
[[File:Mantis Warrior.JPG|200px|thumbnail|left|How they really look...]]
[[File:Kamen rider space marine.jpeg|200px|thumbnail|left|[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOxO70s1U-M ...and how some would want to see them.]]]
The '''Mantis Warriors''' (formerly known as the Mantis Legion) are Ninjas '''in SPACE'''.
They were one of the chapters guarding the [[Maelstrom]] [[warp Storm]] in [[Segmentum|Ultima Segmentum]]. When the [[Astral Claws]] rebelled against the [[Imperium of Man]], which came to be known as the [[Badab War]], the Mantis Warriors joined them because they were allied for a long time and it seemed like a good opportunity for some ass-kicking. First, they looted a [[Fire Hawks]]' ship, shattered the [[Marines Errant]] attack force, and lost when two other loyalist chapters kicked their asses.

Only 300 or so Mantis Warriors survived the fighting. They have been granted [[God-Emperor of Mankind|Empy's]] pardon (since the now-[[Red Corsairs]] were corrupted by [[Chaos]], but no one knew about it) and sent on a 100-year penitent crusade during which they could not recruit new marines. The [[Space Sharks]], with a silent acknowledgement from the Fire Hawks, took an entire generation of Mantis Warriors' homeworld denizens and [[Grimdark|forced them to fight to the death]], taking those that survived with them to replenish their losses. The Mantis Warriors are notable for being one of the few chapters who used [[Reasonable Marines|camo patterns on their armour]] - during the Tranquility campaign, their armour had yellow and black tiger stripes pattern.

But most importantly, they are [[White Scars]] successors, which implies a heavy use of [[Bike Squad|bikes]] (even though their [[Forge World]] rules don't give much incentive for that), have subtle Henshin influences, have a specific mutation that grant them extraordinary focus and combat skills during battles, and name their companies after giant bugs that live on their homeworlds. This means that it is extremely likely that at least one of them is a grasshopper-themed biker ninja with extensive bionic enhancements. Yep, the Kamen Rider exists in 40k. And it is awesome.

In the "Warrior Brood" novel of [[C.S. Goto|Leprechaun "Multilassur" Goto]], the Mantis Warriors are now seen as outcasts but aren't Chaos or Renegade marines. While they were already given the Emperor's Pardon, the Imperium, being paranoid fucks to everything that casts a shadow, still holds a strong sense of distrust among the Mantis Warriors due to their treason during the [[Badab War]], so their only real home in the [[grimdark|grimdarkness]] of space is their [[Battle-barge]]. In the aftermath of their Herodian IV defense against the splinter [[Tyranid]] [[Hive Fleet]] alongside [[Deathwatch]] they were whittled down to about 100 dudes so the [[Inquisition]] decided to let the poor guys recruit more [[Scout|neophytes]] before the grimdark galaxy (read: their own paranoia) caused the end of their Chapter.

One other interesting trait of the Mantis Warriors is a [[gene-seed]] mutation similar to but distinct from the [[Blood Angels]]' [[Black Rage]]. Through deep religious meditation and acts of penance, the Mantis Warriors can enter a state of supreme focus known as Battle Haze that gives them bullet time-style ninja reflexes. Problem is, the state is permanent and those who enter it spend the rest of their lives completely catatonic whenever they're not in combat. Those who have entered the Haze have their own special [[Death Company]]-inspired unit called the "Mantis Religiosa." No idea why most of them don’t do this and just live in stasis when not deployed. I mean, look at the [[Charnel Guard]].

==Daily Rituals==
04:00: Wake Up. The Mantis Warriors climb out of their cocoons. As soon as it hits 04:59, the Mantis Warriors race to the chapel.

05:00: Morning Prayer. The Mantis Warriors will imitate an ancient Terran insect when praying to the Emperor. Most battle brothers can barely stand due to the sheer exhaustion from running full speed to the chapel. Those who cannot stand are typically yelled at by the Chaplain.

06:00: Morning Firing Rites. The Mantis Warriors fire on targets. These targets will often be comprised primarily of Tyranids. The use of twin linked multilasers is permitted only to those who believe they can hit a fly with it. Those that do are immediately put into important command positions.

07:00: Morning battle Practice. The Mantis Warriors attack the remaining Tyranids. Using multilasers to the face is heavily encouraged.

08:00: Morning Meal. The Mantis Warriors attempt to emulate the Raven Guard and be undetectable when eating their breakfast. This usually fails, and so the chapter serfs are knocked out to hide the evidence.

10:00: Tactical Indoctrination. The Mantis Warriors gather to study hit-and-run tactics. During this time, alien Mantis are released upon Tyranid microforms, so that the battle brothers may learn better how to deal with the threat.

12:00: Afternoon Meal. The Mantis warriors will eat any Tyranids they killed in the morning. This time, they stay in visible sight and will often try to hit each other and run away with the food. The chapter requires the Tyranid be cooked using a "Mantis" pattern multilaser.

13:00: Afternoon Firing Rites. The Mantis Warriors will fire their weapons upon Tyranid cutouts. This time, the entire chapter is permitted the use of twin linked multilasers.

15:00: Afternoon Battle practice. The Mantis Warriors descend to Tyranid contested worlds to capture new targets and food for later. Killing a Carnifex with a Power Swatter earns the battle brother the title of champion of the chapter.

17:00: Mantis Religiosa Training. The Mantis Warriors select battle brothers to become Mantis Religiosa. This ceremony involves copious prayer to the Emperor, meditation, and the application of an alien Mantis to the battle brothers head. Accidentally killing a Mantis during this ceremony is considered arch heresy and the offending marine is shot with multilasers.

18:00: Evening Meal. The Mantis Warriors consume a grand meal of food that would make even solar admirals envious. Any cold meat or food is heated with a mantis pattern multilaser.

20:00: Evening Prayer. The Mantis Warriors thank the Emperor for another day of killing Tyranids, for the holy twin linked multilaser, and their first captain, [[C.S.Goto|Constatine Stutendious Gotoral]]. Any brother caught praying to be a Mantis is inducted into the list to enter the Mantis Religiosa.

21:00: Free Time. The Mantis Warriors engage in recreational activities. Studying bugs and mantis is one of the most popular activities, while others prefer observing an ancient relic called "A Bug's Life". Making fun of Tyranids is also encouraged.

23:00 Bedtime. The Mantis Warriors return to their cocoons for the evening.

=Chapter Tactics=
Forge World has released rules for all the chapters in the Badab War. The Mantis Warriors are... a mixed bag. First, their non-bulky models gain Move Through Cover and Hammer of Wrath and if they declare a charge while in cover, they gain Furious Charge. The whole army can also re-roll Seize attempts.
It's an obviously melee-focused set but prevents terminators and jump infantry (traditional marine melee) from benefiting. However, it can be fairly puissant if coupled with pistol or shotgun scouts. For elite options, there's the honour guard or a veteran/command squad in an assault transport.

Eighth edition, of course, negated the above rules. They're probably best served as Blood Angels at this point, although the Black Templar chapter tactics could work, as well, if one wanted to keep them codex-complaint.

{{Marines-Official}}

Konrad Curze

2019-09-24T18:11:38Z

2600:1006:B105:8611:58CC:338D:D9D2:B1D4: /* Multiple Personality Disorder? */

{{awesome}}
{{heresy}}
[[File:Konrad Curze Mugshot.jpg|400px|thumb|right|"Yeah this guy seems nice." - Big E at some point.]]
{{Topquote|The horror, The horror...|[[Konrad Curze|Konrad]]'s real last words after probably describing to M'Shen [[40k|what he really saw in his visions]]}}
{{Topquote|He who fights with monsters should be careful lest he thereby become a monster. And if thou gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will also gaze into thee.|Friedrich Nietzsche}}
{{Topquote|There is no such thing as paranoia. Your worst fears can come true at any moment.|Hunter S. Thompson}}
{{Topquote|Know how I stayed alive this long? All these years? Fear. The spectacle of fearsome acts. Somebody steals from me: I cut off his hands. He offends me: I cut out his tongue. He rises against me: I cut off his head, stick it on a pike. Raise it high up so all in the streets can see. That's what preserves the order of things. Fear.|Bill the Butcher, Gangs of New York}}

'''Konrad Curze''' was the [[Primarch]] of the [[Night Lords]] Legion (his @ was '''Night Haunter'''). A [[Psyker]] (albeit a latent one), Curze is well-known for the fact that he was [[/b/|plagued from the moment of his awakening by visions of the most horrific future imaginable, terrifying waking dreams that would follow him from cradle to grave.]] Whilst [[/tg/]] has joked that he suffered the lamest death in history due to falling to a [[Callidus]] Assassin's blade (hence the ''"was"'' earlier), he remains a complete bad-ass compared to [[Roboute Guilliman|these]] [[Fulgrim|buffoons]].

Equal parts upstanding vigilante and psychosis-wracked terrorist, Curze's schtick was obedience through fear. To wit, if you're sat behind locked doors shitting yourself in terror for the majority of your existence, you're probably going to struggle to lead a life of crime. And if that logic doesn't make you reconsider your wayward ways, perhaps [[rip and tear|being skinned alive, then disembowelled and finally crucified]] will be the wake up call you need. Either way, Curze cut a somewhat tragic figure; he foresaw the events of the [[heresy]] only to be stitched up and censured by his [[Rogal Dorn|arsehole]] [[Fulgrim|brothers]], possibly due to [[rage|the fact he made for a nightmarish poker opponent]]. Of course, having a personality and approach that can be accurately summarized as "some unholy [[Batman]]-[[/co/|Punisher]]-[[Vampire|Vlad the Impaler]]-Predator-Santa hybrid" didn't win him many fans amongst his brothers, either.

His name is an oblique reference to ''Heart of Darkness''.

==History==
[[Image:Curzw-perturabo-Primarchs-.jpeg|thumb|400px|"Yeah he seems pretty balanced."]]
Curze wound up on the eternally-dark world of [[Nostramo]] after the Primarchs were scattered by [[Chaos]]. From the moment he landed Curze got fucked over as, unlike the usual stasis-pod-descending-from-a-beam-of-light type landing his brothers made, Konrad ''punched through the crust of the planet'' (the entire planet was made of adamantium, though...) and had to crawl his ass out from the core, all while being a TODDLER. Even after somehow surviving making an asteroid level impact, Curze's life somehow got worse as, again, unlike his brothers, he wound up with no one to take care of him. Konrad was forced to raise himself on this lawless hell-hole, where violence and cruelty was rampant (although there was no crime, of course, there not being any laws to break) and usually went unpunished, the rich openly exploited the poor, and depression and the inability to escape one's social standing were also rampant, leading to the population being largely kept down not through any fancy measures, but instead by suicide. As he grew older, Curze became more and more enraged by how this panned out, and eventually decided to take matters into his own hands.

Stalking the eternally-dark streets as a sort of [[Awesome|Space Marine Batman]], Curze began hunting down heretics and those who had been responsible for turning Nostramo into the cesspit it had become. Leaders of the corrupt administration disappeared, only to be found later hung from <s>Imperial</s> administration buildings and horribly mutilated, though their faces were often untouched so people would instantly recognize the victim. Notorious "criminals" (as defined by Konrad) were found out in the streets, eviscerated or impaled and left to die on the spires of manufactorum rooftops. The blood of those who had committed "crimes" flowed in the streets, with body parts stopping up storm drains.

But apparently Konrad still saw possible [[Noblebright]] futures of victims if he showed mercy. But he *knew* what his order demanded and killed them anyway. And apparently even saw suicide as a crime, and would show up to the person's apartment before hand. [[Grimdark|Not to talk them out of it. Just to make it painful and an example for others not to do it as well.]] What the fuck.

The really scary part? ''It worked''. Within a year, Curze had killed so fucking many dicks that the "crime" rate of Nostramo reached damned-near zero. Society went through a massive upheaval and curfews were imposed to minimize the casualties from [[Awesome|Space Marine Batman]]. Note that this was due to the fact that Nostramo was just that bad. Mothers began to threaten their kids that if they continued to misbehave, the Night Haunter would come for them - a story that came into common use on Nostramo, describing Curze, who stalked through the city, ready to disembowel any heretic or "criminal" foolish or bold enough to cross his path with anything on hand. His favored weapons, 'Lightning Claws', weren't used until he was found by the Emperor and united with his legion, which made armor and weapons available to him.

Curze became convinced of his choices being the right and just ones when he saw that the people of this world started to have hope again - he had become the only thing on the entire planet that people truly feared (and hated). Seizing the moment, Curze appeared before the few remaining nobles that had survived his vigilantist purges - the only ones who basically weren't complete assholes - and gave them a choice: Obey his rule, or die. One or two protested that he had imposed an order based on fear, but it made no difference. Curze, the Night Haunter, was made the ruler of Nostramo.

To the surprise of most, Curze proved to be a fairly capable ruler, surprisingly just and temperate. He made strong attempts to educate himself on absolutely everything he could learn, and was noted for his skills as an adjudicator, worthy of a [[Reasonable Marines|Reasonable Marine]]. This was, of course, until word of an injustice reached Curze's ears - at which point he would hunt down the transgressor himself, wearing them down, and killing them horribly. His unpredictable pattern of benevolence and wisdom contrasted by jaw-dropping levels of violence beyond that of an [[Eversor]] ushered in a new era of efficiency and honesty across Nostramo on a planetary scale, mainly as an act of capitulation in order to keep the Night Haunter from their doors. Needless to say, this peace did not come with a contentedness like some of his brothers achieved. Had he ever learned how to delegate to minions made up of the local populace, he might have been more effective, but alas. Or if he had followed the visions of noblebright if shown mercy he had of some of his victims.

===The Great Crusade===
[[Image:The viii primarch by saint max-d424fmh.jpg|right|thumb|350px|[[Castlevania|I was called here by ''huuuuuumans''. Who wish to pay meeeee ''tribute''.]]]]
Soon after Curze took over and began ruling the planet, the [[Emperor]]'s Great Crusade reached Nostramo; the coming of the Emperor of Man was an event long prophesied in Nostramo's history - an event which would eventually bring about the apocalypse. The Emperor and his delegation (which consisted of [[Rogal Dorn]], [[Ferrus Manus]], [[Lorgar|Lorgar Aurelian]], [[Fulgrim]], and their respective Legiones Astartes) proceeded to the Palace on foot, his radiance blinding the adapted-to-darkness onlookers and mesmerizing those who did not look directly at him.

At the end of the road leading to his Palace, Curze stood, waiting for the delegation, when he had one of his visions. He saw the fate of each of his brothers and his own death; he saw blood spurting from his own neck and no matter what he did he couldn't stop it. He would have succeeded in clawing his own eyes out if the Emperor hadn't stopped him. He and the Emperor then had this badass exchange:

''"Konrad Curze, be at peace, for I have arrived and intend to take you home."''<br>
''"That is not my name, Father. I am Night Haunter, and I know full well what you [[Just as planned|intend for me]]."''

Awesome. Curze began training under [[Fulgrim]], who taught him the Adeptus Astartes combat doctrines and began molding him to be a suitable leader for his role as the leader of the Eighth Space Marine Legion - the Night Lords. Later it was revealed that during his training under [[Fulgrim]], Curze had had one of his visions, this one about the Horus Heresy. While he told Fulgrim this in confidence, he would later learn that one flaw Fulgrim had (beside dressing like a peacock) was that Fulgrim didn't know the meaning of the word confidential or that the notion of what was told to him was done so in sacred trust between himself and his favored brother. Well, the joke seemed to be on Curze, as no sooner had he told Fulgrim about the vision than Fulgrim had run over to [[Rogal Dorn]] and told him everything. [[FAIL|Rogal Dorn comforted Curze and he got better.]]

Though Curze and his legion excelled in many different hot-zones throughout the Great Crusade, a disturbing tendency arose in short order; the Night Lords would never use anything other than total, decisive force to achieve their goals. Or maybe "force" is the wrong word; they didn't battle so much as terrify their enemies into submission. The Night Lords quickly adapted to Curze's combat and tactical ethos, becoming one of the most brutally effective, if not ruthless, legions in the Imperium. In one notorious example, one Night Lord recalls dealing with a non compliant planetary governor; Curze murdered the man and then broadcast the screams of the man’s daughter across an entire city for 3 HOURS to frighten the remaining remaining rebels into submission. The Night Lords decorated their armor with iconography designed to inspire terror in the enemy - a tactic that proved incredibly effective. Unsurprising, considering how terrifying Space Marines are without it. Where they struck, the Night Lords left examples - grim reminders of the price for disobeying the Imperium. In time, it became so that even the mere ''mention'' of the Night Lords' approach would cause a system to pay all outstanding tithes, cease all illegal activities, stop downloading torrents of ''Blossom'', and put to death any [[Furry|mutants or heretics]]. In hindsight, though, we here on /tg/ can't really be all that surprised by their brutality when we remember it was Fulgrim who tutored the VIII Legion's primarch. How else would the Night Haunter interpret the Phoenician's excessive battlefield perfectionism than a need for excessive violence?

Problems arose, however, as the Great Crusade dragged on - reinforcements to replace the Night Lords that fell in battle were, as was the case of the other Legions, selected from the population of Curze's homeworld, Nostramo. Unfortunately, in Curze's absence, the population collapsed into the same corruption, criminality, and despair that had ruled the roost before his arrival. Nostramo had no police force due to Curze insisting on being all of law enforcement by himself, which has all of the obvious problems. The most ruthless of the criminals were the only ones healthy and strong enough - and these were the most common replacement recruits for the Night Lords. Despite all the Space Marines indoctrination, ruthless psychopaths tend to make for poor soldiers. Insubordination to Curze's orders became more frequent and he began having to deal with his own measure of "fixing" things with the criminal scum that were inducted into his forces. Making matters worse, his visions continued to increase in both frequency and graphic severity.

Finally, it reached the point where Curze had no choice but to deal with the problem of his recruiting world turning into a [[Star Wars D20|wretched hive of scum and villainy]], but Fulgrim, the only Primarch Curze had any real connection with, was largely unavailable, and the other Primarchs, instead of listening to him and trying to help, bitched him out and said that it wasn't their problem.

The straw that would finally break the camel's back was during a joint operation between The Night Lords and the Imperial Fists.

[[Rogal Dorn]] had confronted Curze where he was overseeing the process of [[Grimdark|a long line of prisoners of war who were to be executed as a punitive action]], where Dorn had taken issue with Curze's way of doing things, saying that peace through fear was not what the Emperor of mankind had intended. Konrad Curze decided to prove his point to Dorn; that without the fear of consequences people wouldn't stay loyal. To illustrate this, Curze gave one of the prisoners a gun and then ordered his men not to kill him, no matter what might happen. Curze pointed the gun in the prisoner's hand right under his chin, saying [[Troll|"Go ahead, kill me."]] The prisoner refused, to which Curze stated his Astartes would not kill him. The prisoner, now confident that the Night Lords wouldn't shoot him and when Curze turned his back to him, immediately raised the gun, but Curze killed him before the prisoner could fire at him. Using intimidation and the predictable reaction to it, Curze "proved" his point: once the fear of consequence has been removed, people will feel no loyalty. Of course, he actually completely failed to do this, as he did not choose a loyal test subject to begin with, but Curze had never been one to understand the difference between a friend and an enemy.

Now, if [[Rogal Dorn]] had been better with people, he would just have left well enough alone, or perhaps sensibly told Curze that while fear was capable of enforcing obedience it could never create loyalty; and that his inability to differentiate the two was what was causing his problems. But as established before, the Emperor hadn't exactly designed the Primarchs with brains in mind. So in an effort to win the argument, Rogal revealed what Fulgrim had said to him about Curze's vision. (In all fairness, Dorn didn't know Fulgrim had broken his word by revealing him this. Still could have handled it better, though...) Angry at the betrayal of trust while in the grip of one of his visions, Curze attacked Dorn with his lightning claws, mauling him so badly that if he hadn't been a Primarch he would have died from his wounds.

As it was, Curze was just put on house arrest/grounded until the matter of an unsanctioned attack ''(read two missing primarchs)'' by one Primarch on another could be resolved. Curze, however, after reading a special batch of Nostraman tarot cards, said "Screw you guys, we're going home". After killing the Imperial Fists and Emperor's Children who were guarding him grimdark Batman-style, he and the Night Lords set course towards Nostramo. Curze tried to salvage things while on his homeworld, but the Emperor's arrival had removed the one last barrier the people of Nostramo had between themselves and utter despair: ignorance.

Of course, as the "Prince of Crows" heavily hints at, Curze didn't ''do'' anything other than horrifically kill people and incite fear by doing so. No improving the infrastructure, setting up a police force, or anything. And Curze refused to see this as a problem. This could only have lasted so long. In all actuality, the Emperor's arrival just sped things up. It wasn't the other Primarchs' problem, it was Konrad's mess and his one trick wasn't working anymore.

The knowledge of other worlds beyond Nostramo inflicted a hopelessness that guaranteed that nothing on Nostramo could ever change... which makes no sense given both the fact that many in the Imperium had massively improved their lives and that Nostramo had been trading its adamantium to several other human star systems long before the Imperium arrived (though "Prince of Crows" shows that this was because Curze made it so to ensure that there was nothing to do on Nostramo besides "behave and slowly die in an adamantium foundry" or "become a criminal and die either slowly or quickly (depending on Curze's mood)"), leaving the world to fester in corruption and depravity like a metastasized tumor. This was made worse by the Imperial governor appointed to rule Nostramo in Curze's absence, whose corruption-heavy regime more-or-less plunged the entire planet into the same shit that had given birth to the Night Haunter in the first place. Needless to say, Curze was absolutely pissed at his planet and his work going back to square one.

Imperial pursuit craft, determined to stop Curze for abandoning the Great Crusade and checking on his homeworld, arrived just in time to see the lance batteries of Curze's fleet put an end to the nightmare that the planet's inhabitants had found themselves in - the only way he knew how: remorseless mass murder. Curze destroyed the planet with sustained orbital fire to the fissures his own arrival created.

According to Curze's recollection/opinion exterminating Nostramo was to test the Night Lords themselves. Had they stopped Curze it would have proven that at least some of them were worth something in Curze's goal: to use fear to create a true order. But even Sevatar (whom Curze favored) simply followed orders. Ironically Curze's other equerry (who Curze thought was an ass kiss,) begged Sevatar to talk Konrad out of it. There were some Night Lords who did refuse to aid in Nostramo's destruction, but they got put down pretty quickly.

Curze's actions caused him to be especially vulnerable to the whispers of Chaos. The campaigns of the Night Lords became harder and harder to justify - terror campaigns leaving a trail of devastated worlds across the breadth of the galaxy. Curze abandoned his devotion to the Emperor, instead fighting only to spread death and fear. Eventually, it got so bad that the Emperor recalled the Night Lords and prepared to call Curze to task for his actions and that of his legion.

This was 20 years before the Horus Heresy mind you, and it is very likely that the Imperium thought he had gone rogue at that point, or at the very least, completely unhinged for blowing up his homeworld, especially since they had been recalled to account for their terror campaigns and war crimes. So it's a bit bizarre that the loyalists thought it was a good thing that the Night Lords showed up to support them at Isstvan and ''didn't'' see a double-cross coming. Probably didn't mind because the Night Lords have [[lulz|A talent for Murder.]]

===Horus Heresy===
[[File:NocturnusObsessoris-Final.jpg|300px|thumb|left|Konrad overlooking the spires of Nostramo. and looking badass while doing it.]]
When Horus turned against the Emperor with Fulgrim, Curze was quick to throw in his lot behind the brothers he had actually been able to relate to as opposed to [[Roboute Guilliman|the fucking asshole]]. He even ended up saving Lorgar from [[Corvus Corax]] (although after seeing the Gal Vorbak, the very first squad of [[Possessed Marine]]s, he felt it was a mistake). Said intervention also shook Corax himself to his very soul, as he saw in Konrad the very thing he might have become, had he fallen to [[Chaos]] and possibly adopted a different view on [[RIP AND TEAR|disemboweling innocent civilians]].

The Night Lords remained impious, siding with none of the Chaos Gods and instead using them as mere tools in their terror campaigns. Almost entirely populated by criminals and murderers, the Night Lords led the [[Dark Angels]] and the Lion all over the Eastern Fringe. The insanity doesn't end there. In the middle of dicking with the Angels, he invited [[Lion El'Jonson]] to a dead planet (future place of his new palace and his own death...) to deliver a message from Horus, which actually predicted the Dark Angels' fate of everyone hating their guts for not being on Terra because Curze had lead them all over the Eastern Fringe (HAR HAR HAR).

The Lion, who has [[Serious Business|zero tolerance]] for insults, proceeded to attack Curze and got a fantastic one-shot off on him, though that was all he'd get and the two descended into a brawl which had to be ended with the brothers getting pulled off of each other and dragged back to their respective fleets.

The Dark Angels would eventually get the upper hand, presumably because Curze was partly pre-occupied by his "guest" (see below) and because the Lion would start using a [[Heresy|powerful and sentient warp engine]] that allowed him to out maneuver the Night Lords and capture Curze temporarily, essentially breaking the back of the Night Lords Legion. Strangely enough, the most (or second most) brilliant strategist of the entire universe couldnt crack a thing or two when dealing with this one-trick <s>pony</s> batman psychopath, but had to rely on plot-device to bend his brother over (although the Thramas campaign was going to obviously end one way or the other and with the shit the DA can pull, not to mention their numbers probably meant that Lion could've fucked Curze up the ass without the warp engine). Anyway, with Curze out of the picture [[Sevatar]] ''took over'' the Legion. Read that as murderfucked most of the leading captains and told the fleet to disperse and do [[Rip and Tear|whatever it was they wanted]].

====Vulkan====
[[Vulkan]] became Konrad's prisoner after Isstvan V. Unfortunately, Vulkan is [[Perpetual|immortal or some shit]], so he kept coming back from the dead. This pissed the shit out of Curze, who decided to torture him instead (well actually his failure to kill Vulkan for good increasingly "frustrated" him so he started to get "creative"). Vulkan had to do all kinds of shit, including being forced to kill his own [[Salamanders]], watch prisoners starve themselves, and fight [[Corax]] in a dream. In the end, though, Curze couldn't bring Vulkan down to his level, causing massive amounts of [[rage]].

{{spoilers}}

Vulkan ended up in a maze built by [[Perturabo]], with his hammer at the end of it. Vulkan had a teleporter in his hammer, which he figured Curze didn't know about, which made him hopeful. He couldn't navigate the maze worth shit though, and he was pretty much fucked, but after a couple of days, he pissed off Curze, who then led him to the center so they could fight. Curze was all "fuck you, teleporters don't work here", to which Vulkan replied, "[[Lulz|It's also a hammer]]". Vulkan then proceeded to beat the shit out of Curze, but didn't kill him (because that would be stooping to his level, apparently).

When he was done, Vulkan said (essentially) "Fuck you Curze, ''I'M'' VULKAN! So MY teleporters work here. I just wanted to beat the shit out of you." He then escaped, leaving Curze more emo, depressed, and filled with more [[RAGE]] than ever before. Not that this mattered because Curze subsequently went on to take out his considerable ire against the entire Dark Angels Legion, leading to an impressively murderous trip to Macragge where he role-played a combination of every slasher movie killer and went with whatever felt natural; his ire got worse, however, when he went after big Bobby G's mother. He tried his usual shtick of freaking her out with how much of a creepy bastard he was. It worked for five seconds before she told him to piss off and die. He would have killed the Lion AND Roboute with a powerful explosion (he had set the chapel of Hera to explode with them in it) if it hadn't been for the power of friendship. Seriously...[[My Little Pony|friendship truly is magi-]]{{BLAM}}.

After having a running battle with Vulkan through the streets of Macragge in which he ended up killing Vulkan several times, taking a morbid delight in seeing how long it would take for him to revive after every kill, he ended up being jumped by a bottled demon and briefly being dragged into the warp. Curze managed to kill (as in completely, not just banishing) the demon, and was dumped back onto Macragge. He had yet to reappear but had the entire planet on curfew while he was still (theoretically) around.

After spending some time terrifying the locals, he eventually snuck into Sanguinius’s throne room. After talking for a while about how “It’s all daddy’s fault”, Curze and Sanguinius ended up fighting each other. Despite Curze outmatching Sanguinius - as he was fully armed and armoured, and Sanguinius was not - he was also fully aware that he could not kill Sanguinius (even if he wanted to) due to the fact his destiny was to be eventually killed at Horus’s hands. Both Primarchs had visions of what could happen during the fight and were evenly matched due to their precognition. They eventually separated and Curze gave Sanguinius the chance to kill him, but Sanguinius stopped the blow in mid-air out of pity. Curze then proceeded to mutilate [[Sanguinary_Guard#Azkaellon|Azkaellon]] before blowing up a whole lot of Sanguinary Guard, threw what remained of Azkaellon off a cliff, and disappeared.

Despite having the resources of almost 3 full legions, the rulers of Imperium Secundus had great difficulty tracking Curze down. When it was revealed that Curze had never ever even left Macragge once in the years since his arrival, the Lion put the planet under almost total martial law and brought in his official Overkill brigade to deal with him. Curze had been fomenting rebellion amongst the Illyrians, a part of Macragge that had never really accepted the civilisation of Konor and Guilliman. After the Dark Angels massacred an entire nation in response, Curze laid his final endgame in a mountain fortress. The Lion, in response, broke his word to Guilliman, and contrived a devastating (and forbidden) orbital bombardment using droppods and assault rams converted into barrage bombs and torpedoes. When the smoke cleared, the Lion went solo hunting again, walking into the trap Curze had set for him. Unfortunately, for a precog, Curze hadn't anticipated that the Lion had already cleared all the traps set for him and he was captured after a duel (the Lion cheated by calling in Fire Raptors to prevent Curze from escaping). The Lion is considered to be the most brilliant tactician of the Primarchs for a reason.

Despite being finally caught, Curze had both the penultimate and last laugh. He managed to do what the Word Bearers, World Eaters, and Night Lords legion had not managed to do with soldiers and fleets, and broke the Imperium Secundus. His official court trial had barely started when he told Guilliman that that the Lion had broken his word by staging an ersatz orbital bombardment. Guilliman, having finally lost his patience with the Lion, snapped the Lion's sword in two and Sanguinius told him and his legion to GTFO of Imperium Secundus (because sending a legion into what he thinks is certain death by Warpstorm for the crime of shooting the bad guy and not even hurting anything but the damn fortress is a brilliant decision). However, just as the Lion was about to leave the system, he remembered Curze's words of prophecy, that his back, the Lion's sword, and word would be broken (as well as Curze's proclamation that he would be killed by an assassin sent by the Emperor). The Lion teleported back to Macragge, just as Curze was about to be executed and explained the situation. Guilliman had a mini breakdown over everything he had done on the premise the greater Imperium had fallen and Curze laughed himself into an aneurysm at the whole situation.

He would remain in custody throughout the journey back to Terra, initially kept under lock and key by the [[Dark Angels]], but was later "broken free" by Sanguinius, who dragged him down to '''Davin''' so that they could possibly change their destinies together. This frightened the absolute crap out of Curze, not least because of the potential fact that if Sanguinius could change his destiny to die by Horus' hands, then that would mean that Curze could avoid his own assassination later on, which in turn would make all of his life meaningless because he was such an evil bastard based on his absolute certainty of how events would unfold.

However, this would not be, as Sanguinius realised that to make the change in his fate, he would need to become something worse than even Horus, so he allowed fate to continue on course. What's worse is that although Sanguinius accepted his own fate, he threatened Curze with the possibility that the Emperor could even ''forgive'' him for all of his crimes, pushing Curze into silent horror at the thought that his universe was not what he thought it was. But in a cruel twist, Sanguinius decided to leave his brother to his destiny, while also pointing out that while he could pin down the actual time and location of his death to the bridge of the ''Vengeful Spirit'' at the [[Siege of Terra]]; Curze's assassination might not actually occur for millennia, and thus he promptly jettisoned his brother's stasis coffin into space.

These interactions firmly establish Sanguinius as a foil to ol' Konrad, in the sense that both were cursed from birth with precognitive abilities that would shape their personalities and ultimately their fates. Sanguinius believed it possible to avert and alter the path of his future, but accepted it instead upon realizing that doing so would entail becoming something even worse in the progress; Konrad actively rejected even the possibility of doing so, as he considered his fate to be set in stone, to the point he'd lived his whole life based on that notion. And as he had just discovered, Sanguinius was also a scary motherfucker in his own way.

===Death===
After being jettisoned into space, Curze's stasis coffin was picked up by a freighter. The future victims were eager to sell his coffin for a big payday instead of being smart and chucking it into a sun, so naturally Konrad escaped. When Curze got out Horus was long dead and took a moment to ask a crew member the date. [[Grimdark|Guess what Curze did to the crew.]] [[Rip and Tear|Please, fucking guess.]]

After the battle was lost, they fled back to Tsagualsa with what was left of the Legion. The Emperor, however, wishing to stop the Night Lords forevermore, dispatched an [[Officio Assassinorum]] operative from the [[Callidus|Callidus Temple]] to kill him.

Curze spent his last hours crafting a statue of Big E to whine about how daddy never loved him, and how his ways were necessary. [[Grimdark|By the way the statue was made of human flesh.]]

When his confession was done, he burned the corpse-statue of the Corpse-Emperor and walked in his corpse-fortress and put on his armor, told his Legion to fuck off his damn corpse-lawn, and sat down to wait for his corpse-mama to come.

Curze had foreseen everything, or had chosen a fate believing the future was set, just as Sanguinius had. With his final prediction coming true, Curze waited for his just punishment.

Confronted with the Callidus Assassin M'Shen, it is believed that Curze proceeded to make jokes about how she had [[Pretend|butt-sex]] with [[Macha]] before getting down to brass tacks and explaining why he'd allowed her in so easily:

<blockquote>''"Your presence does not surprise me, Assassin. I have known of you ever since your craft entered the Eastern Fringes. Why did I not have you killed? Because your mission and the act you are about to commit proves the truth of all I have ever said or done. I merely punished those who had wronged, just as your false Emperor now seeks to punish me. Death is nothing compared to vindication."''</blockquote>

Whilst it's never been confirmed who [[rape|came out on top]] (or whether or not the Callidus and he engaged in [[Heresy|hardcore ball-busting sex]]), it is believed by many that Curze allowed himself to be killed, having given explicit orders to the Night Lords to allow M'Shen to escape. Only one Night Lord, Apothecary Talos Valcoran of the 10th Company, pursued her out of vengeance (the Night Lords did eventually join in pursuit, but that was only after the senior Captains realized that M'Shen (no connection to Martin Sheen, none at all) had [[Ork|looted]] Curze of all his bling, which they wanted for themselves). It is believed that Curze had come to see himself as a murderous and corrupt villain - the very thing he had sought out to destroy (or perhaps he wished to prove that his decision to destroy Nostramo and join Horus was justified, as the Emperor had become one more tyrant who had to be slain). Maybe he was a heroic [[Awesome|Space Marine Batman]] who lived long enough to become the villain.

Even after Curze caused so much carnage, though, particularly to Ultramar and Macragge, it's interesting to note that Guilliman seems to still pity him. During the Plague Wars, Guilliman admits to an associate that, out of the whole fucked up Primarch family, only "poor Konrad" truly saw the Heresy coming, and that if he hadn't been insane, it all might've been avoided.

==Psychic Ability==
Although knowledge of his gifts apparently were not widespread amongst the ranks of his brother Primarchs, Curze was capable of mild feats of psychic display. This was first evidenced by what he would come to call his "affliction" or "curse". Namely, that Konrad was often wracked by horrible visions, likened to waking nightmares, of how people would die. He was no exception; as stated above, the Night Haunter had foreseen his own death from the moment he awoke on Nostramo. These visions also occasionally extended to those he would lay eyes upon. This included his brother Primarchs, and explained his fondness for [[Fulgrim]] - the one person who Konrad had not seen suffer a terrible death upon first meeting him. In fact, Konrad's vision after laying eyes on Fulgrim was often described as hazy or lacking in some quality. What was apparent was that Fulgrim somehow found a way to cheat death. It was when he laid eyes on [[Ferrus Manus]], immediately after, that he was shown Fulgrim would somehow be present at the site of Ferrus' demise. Despite this, he was the one primarch whom Konrad didn't foresee a [[Grimdark|misfortunate or ghastly future.]] It was this closeness that eventually led Konrad to confess to Fulgrim the nature of the visions he had received, as detailed in the popular duology of Black Library short stories ''The Dark King'' and ''The Lightning Tower''. Konrad claims to have seen a good and bad future at times, but always chose the [[grimdark]] future.

The Night Haunter also displayed a few other feats of psychic development, such as [[Psychic Disciplines|telekinetically]] destroying a series of lights to aid in his escape from a VII Legion detention chamber, and psychically conversing with Jago "Sevatar" Sevatarion. [[Sevatar]], a latent psyker, was exploring Konrad's psyche during the latter's unconsciousness resulting from wounds inflicted by the [[Lion El'Jonson]] during the [[Thramas Crusade]]. Apparently the Night Haunter had a role in helping to suppress Sevatar's psychic potential, as revealed in the conversation between them - and that, because Sevatar was not trained in their use, those psychic abilities would be increasingly [[Chaos|self-destructive.]] Why he simply did not start training him will probably forever remain a mystery. He must have been the legion's only psyker or there is no rationale explaining why Sevatar was not just passed over to the Night Lord's Librarius for training his abilities. (The ''Night Lords'' Trilogy explains this by an incompatibility between the gene-seed and the host, the visions being a 'side-effect' of that struggle as it grows worse over time.)

As the Primarch of the VIII Legion, Konrad had a servant throughout the Great Crusade named Ekra Trez (who bore the title of "Sin-Eater"). Trez was tasked with keeping a record of the Night Haunter's pre-cognitive visions in a massive tome, and would often make note of which ones had been proven correct or false. Trez was also more than aware of Sevatar's psychic ability, leaving some readers of the Black Library's Horus Heresy novels curious as to what role Trez may have played in the Primarch's psychic development - if any.

==Lasting Legacy==
The Night Haunter, in his death, may have continued to leave a lasting impression upon the Imperium as inspiration for one of it's many institutions. Although his legion continues to sow fear and discord amongst the stars, Konrad Curze's legacy of weaponized fear lives on within the Imperium through the Emperor's Holy Ordos of the [[Inquisition]]. Like the inquisitors of the 41st Millennium, Konrad brought loyal citizens into compliance through fear and threats of death/torture beyond imagining to those who weren't sure where their allegiances lay. Those who failed to comply were guaranteed either a swift death at the hands of his legion, or a slow death at the tender mercies of his legion's most depraved souls. Lastly, if those comparisons weren't enough, look at the fate of Nostramo - Konrad essentially carried out an act of Exterminatus. Just as Lorgar's teachings on the Emperor's divinity would later lay the foundation for the Imperial Creed of the [[Ecclesiarchy]], the Night Haunter could effectively be treated as the first author of the Inquisition's playbook. Not that they wouldn't BLAM you for heresy if you said that to their faces though.

Within the Night Lords, Curze and the Night Haunter each left their own legacy, which caused no small amount of schism. Officially, Curze appointed Zso Sahaal as his successor and Talonmaster, because Sahaal understood that a true warrior is more than just a murder machine. A true warrior has ''focus''. As you can probably predict, every other Night Lord captain decided that ''they'' were more deserving of being Curze's successor and tried to get Sahaal dethroned for being "weak" or whatever. Their logic was that Curze wasn't in charge, the Night Haunter was, and the Night Haunter was supposed to choose the ''true'' successor. After Sahaal became lost in the Warp, captain Krieg Acerbus "the Axemaster" slowly but surely took over huge swathes of the Night Lords and led them to become [[Chaos Undivided]] followers. Ironically, the Night Haunter had no intention of ever choosing a successor as he would have preferred that his legion die out completely for becoming everything he personally despised.

==Multiple Personality Disorder?==
Now, we all know the [[Black Library]] can range from the [[Dan Abnett|godly]] to the [[C.S.Goto|Goto]]. So this must be taken with a grain of salt. But ''Lord of the Night'' implies that Curze suffered from Dissociative Identity Disorder, such that he and the Night Haunter were two different people: Konrad, the just leader of men, and the Night Haunter, the murderous vigilante. ''Blood Reaver'' also implies it (a Night Lords sorcerer talking about how at one moment he was trying to teach his long-dead father some idealistic lesson, while at another he was only concerned about eating some slave's heart) and shows signs of other mental instability, such as when he has a bit of a manic episode and forgets that his First Captain died several years ago, indicating dementia or schizophrenia; ''Blood Reaver'' also suggests that the Emprah's DNA may not have entirely settled in Curze's body, explaining why he was so batshit crazy by the time of his death, not to mention the corpse-like appearance he was sporting near the end. The upshot of this is that ''only the Night Haunter'' fell to Chaos, while Curze remained clean. Which one got the other killed is unknown. Other books have inverted the relationship, suggesting that the Night Haunter was the "honest" monster that was needed to do the terrible things required, whilst Curze was the fallible human who fell to his own weaknesses.

Another thing perhaps tied with his Multiple Personality Disorder is that Konrad Curze towards the end had ended up hating his own legion. In a conversation with First Captain Sevatar, Konrad mentioned that he had spoken with Angron and Lorgar following the Istvaan III purge. Cleansing the untrustworthy elements of the World Eaters and the Word Bearers. The sheer absurdity of the idea was laughable to the Night Haunter, for his brothers knew exactly when to stop the killing of the weak, the treacherous and the corrupt within their bloodlines. He had no idea where to begin culling the Night Lords' ranks. His sons were no longer cast in his image. Less than a decade after he had departed Nostramo that world had sent him nothing but filth to integrate into the VIII Legion as Neophytes; the disgusting dregs of humanity his own Apothecaries had infused with his genetic material and reforged into transhumans. The VIII Legion had become poisoned by their presence. The VIII Legion was now composed of warriors who were murderers in the Primarch's own image, yet devoid of his conviction (which does not make any sense at all because, see above: <s>Every Space Marine is massively brain-washed during their ascension, and in the 41st millenium chapters even preferentially recruit from either backwater worlds - where killing someone because he has more shiny bling than you is still acceptable - or hive gangers over aristocrats on more developed worlds, simply because they are more likely to survive the transformation process.. Just think of the "blood games" many chapters perform to determine the most fitting candidates "hey, lets see who can work together and kill as many of the other aspirants as possible"</s> Extensive hypno-indoctrination only really became a thing AFTER the Heresy, specifically as a reaction to it to help ensure the loyalty of future marines. How much good it's done is debatable. During the Great Crusade and Heresy, they were churning out marines at a breakneck pace to keep up all those fuckhueg legion numbers, so a marine's personality remained much intact.). The Night Lords had become nothing more than killers and abusers, bleeding the weak for their own amusements because they enjoyed it as good sport. Fear became an end unto itself, and its propagation was all the Night Lords desired as they fed upon it.

This was made even more clear by what Curze told Talos before he and the Assassin gotten it on:<br>
''"Many will claim to lead our Legion in the years after I am gone. Many will claim that they - and they alone - are my appointed successor. I hate this Legion, Talos. I destroyed its world to stem the flow of poison. I will be vindicated soon, and the truest lesson of the Night Lords will be taught. Do you truly believe I care what happens to any of you after my death?"''

Now some might say he was overreacting a bit, but still, given how the criminal overlords he had spent most of his life on Nostramo eradicating, took over again as soon as he had left the planet and started sending their henchmen to be turned into Space Marines, it might be understandable. It was not for nothing that Horus had cause to [[Perturabo|muse that]] [[Angron|his generals]] [[Fulgrim|were psychopaths]] while the Emperor's were noble, statuesque leaders of men.

According to his novel Curze was tremendously crazy by the time of his death. He crafted a flesh golem of the Emperor to state his case to it. Soon after Curze heard a voice in his head that Curze might have thought was his statue.

He also thought Sevatar was still alive at the time, though Sevatar's death hasn't been confirmed yet.

An important detail no one mentioned is that the Night Lords are the Eighth Legion. Section Eight is a military discharge for basically being crazy.

==Tabletop==
[[Image:Konrad-Curze-1.jpg|thumb|right|Wristblades? Check. Stealth capabilities? Check. Skinning prey and taking trophies? Check. Now he just needs a shoulder mounted plasma gun and a muscle-bound Austrian and he'll be able to pass himself off as the Predator.]]

{| class=wikitable
! || WS || BS || S || T || W || I || A || Ld || Sv
|-
| '''Konrad Curze:''' || 8 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 7 || 5+1 || 10 || 2+/4++
|}

On the tabletop, Curze has the basic Primarch statline plus Shrouded and Stealth. He has several fear based abilities, such as granting fear to all Night Lords (those who already have Fear impose a -1 on the leadership test), fear tests when in combat with him are taken at -3LD, and if he kills a unit in close combat any unit subject to fear within 12' and line of sight must take a leadership test or fall back. Sire of the Night Lords also grants him the Acute Senses and Night Vision USR, and he may elect to have the first turn of any game have the Night Fighting rule, giving his sons 4+ cover in the open. His weapons are 2 Lightning Claws called Mercy and Forgiveness which have AP 2, the Murderous Strike rule and grants +1 attack (Paired) and his armour, the Nightmare Mantle, provides 2+ armour save and 4+ invulnerable save (like most Primarch Armour), plus when he charges, it grants him hit and run and Hammer of Wrath special rules (inflicting d3 HoW hits instead of the usual one).

Due to the combination of being Jump Infantry and his variety of Fear-based shenanigans, Curze is one of the easier Primarchs to use. The ability to ensure Night Fighting helps your force close to melee where it belongs, and Fear makes it more effective once you get there. He can Hit and Run, butchering high-value targets and [[Awesome|making enemies who see piss themselves in terror and flee.]] The real genius of his rules is that, like Mortarion, he's primed to annihilate a certain kind of unit and has the mobility to chase it down, while also making your legion better at what it already does well. That said, he doesn't provide any sort of morale bonus to the Night Lords, who desperately need one, and it's fucking embarassing that he can't even hurt AV13.

Best of all, his ranged weapon proves definitely that Konrad Curze is Batman. He figuratively uses Batarangs during the shooting phase. His ranged attack is called a "Widowmaker Volley", which is essentially 3 bolt pistol shots with a special rules that makes 4+ to hit precision shots: 6s to wound ignore both armor AND invulnerable saves. You can't save against the God-Damned Bat Man. The best part is the actual description of the weapons in the Horus Heresy rulebook: "The Widowmakers: Based on the micro-serrated throwing knives utilized for signature-kills by Nostraman assassin-cults, Curze favored the use of these vicious, yet highly precise weapons over more conventional firearms in battle, using them to disable and maim as he wished."

===Konrad Curze VS other Primarchs:===
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%">
Primarch fighting, while fun to see, isn't a very competitive thing to do as it'll usually tie up both Primarchs for the entire game without either of them dying. With that in mind this section is about how Konrad Curze fares against other Primarchs Mathhammer wise. Please note that all the various abilities are taken into accounts when possible and the match-ups assume the Primarchs are the only ones involved in the fighting, so various abilities like Angron's "The Butcher's Nails" and Rampage do not provide any bonuses. In essence, the fights are supposed to happen in a "Vacuum" for simplicity, but notes are added to make things clearer in particular instances. Also all of the Primarch use their most powerful weapons (because why have a contest if you don't do your best?).
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">

* Konrad Curze VS Horus
**Horus hits 3 times (Talon), wounds 2.667 times, 1.333 after saves and IWND will take that down to 1 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Konrad hits 3 times, wounds 2.25 times, 0.75 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.417.
**Konrad lose (not a big surprise) and as always Horus use his Talon 'cause, even though he would do more damage with Worldbreaker, the Talon allows him to make his opponent basically harmless after a couple of wounds.

* Konrad Curze VS Angron
**Angron Round 1: hits 5.333 times, wounds 4.444 times, 2.222 after saves, and IWND take it down to 1.889.
**Angron Round 2 and thereafter: hits 4 times, wounds 3.333 times, 1.667 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 1.333 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Curze hits 3 times, wounds 2.25 times (0.75 of which causes ID), 1 wounds after saves and FNP and IWND will take that down to 0.667 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Angron easily wins, doing a lot more damage and receiving less in turn.
**Note: Curze can Hit & Run, but by doing so he would only gain one more attack, while allowing Angron to reset his Hatred, thus actually making himself dies even faster. However he would be a much better fight: Konrad on the Charge would do 2.625 wounds (0.875 with ID) which become 1.168, plus 0.1389 for HoW and 0,359 for the Widowmakers, for a total of 1,666 wounds, or 1.333 after IWND. This, thanks to the -1 wound of Angron, actually means that they would kill each other on the fifth assault, at the same initiative step. Provided that Konrad always succeed in his escape, that is.

* Konrad Curze vs Mortarion
**Mortarion hits 2.5 times, wounds 1.667 times, 0.833 wounds after saves and 0.5 wounds after IWND.
**Curze hits 4 times, wounds 2.222 times, 1.11 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.555 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Curze lose as even though he does more damage, Mortarion has 1 more wound that will make him outlast the Night Haunter.
**Note: with the Hit & Run tactics Konrad would actually win, thanks to the +1 attack on the charge, HoW and the knives, butchering Mortarion in 9 rounds while Mortarion would need 11 (counting overwatch).

* Konrad Curze vs Fulgrim
**Fulgrim hits 3.5 times, wounds 2.333 times, 1.167 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.833 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Curze hits 3 times, wounds 2.25 times, 0.75 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.417 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Easy win for Fulgrim. Even with Hit & Run, Konrad would not win this fight. Still, he would outdamage Fulgrim on the charge (1.472 wounds after all saves, 1.139 after IWND) and he would lose only thanks to the superior initiative of the Phoenician, coming extremely close to claiming a surprising draw.

* Konrad Curze vs Ferrus Manus
**Ferrus hits 2.5 times, wounds 2.083 times, 1.042 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.709 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Curze hits 4 times, wounds 2.222 times, 0.741 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.407 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Ferrus win.
**Note: Even though with Hit & Run Konrad could close the gap and do almost the same exact damage as Ferrus over the course of the fight, mathematically winning thanks to his superior initiative, this tactics is not reliable against the Gorgon thanks to the Concussive & Strikedown of Forgebreaker.

* Konrad Curze VS Vulkan
**Vulkan hits 2 times, wounds 1.666 times, 0.833 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.5 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Curze hits 4 times, wounds 2.222 times, 0.741 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.185 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Vulkan is just too tanky for Konrad.
**Note: with the usual tactic of Hit & Run Curze would outdamage Vulkan, but this is hindered by the fact that Dawnbringer has Concussive, making it difficult to foresee: it could go either way. (Because it's also a Hammer.)

* Konrad Curze VS Lorgar
**Lorgar hits 2.5 times, wounds 2.0833 times,1.042 after saves and IWND will take that to 0.708 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Curze Round 1: hits 3.555 times, wounds 2.369 times, 1.184 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.851 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Curze Round 2: hits 4 times, wounds 3 times, 1.5 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 1.167 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Konrad wins.
**Note: as always, psychic powers not included. You know how it would end anyway...

*Konrad Curze VS Perturabo
**Perturabo hits 2 times, wounds 1.667, 0.833 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.5 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Curze hits 3 times, wounds 2.25 times, 0.75 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.417 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Konrad loses as Perturabo does marginally more damage.
**Note: With Hit & Run Konrad would win, but the chance he is not concussed in the round he wants to escape are pretty slim, meaning that Perturabo has still the edge in this fight.

* Konrad Curze VS Alpharius
**Alpharius hits 2.92 times and wounds 1.701 times, 0.851 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.517 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Curze hits 4 times, wounds 3 times, 1.5 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 1.167 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Konrad wins.

* Konrad Curze VS Rogal Dorn
**Dorn hits 2 times, wounds 1.5 times, 0.75 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.417 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Curze hits 3 times, wounds 2.25 times, 1.125 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.792 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Konrad wins thanks to his superior number of attacks.

* Konrad Curze VS Corvus Corax
**Corvus hits 4 times (Scourge)/3 times (Shadow-walk), wounds 3 times (Scourge)/2.25 times (Shadow-walk), 1.5 wounds (Scourge)/1.125 wounds (Shadow-walk) after saves and IWND will take that down to 1.167/0.792 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Curze hits 4 times/3 times, wounds 3 times/2.25 times, 2 wounds/1.5 after saves and IWND will take that down to 1.667/1.167 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Konrad wins.
**Note: even though they both got Hit & Run, Konrad doesn't get +1 attack to charge Corax, 'cause he has Shroud Bombs, and also doesn't get +1 S ans I, making Corax considerably stronger when he charge all things considered. All in all, a pretty balanced fight, even if the stats don't say so. Corax doesn't have Widowmakers, though...

* Roboute Guilliman (with the Hand of Domination) VS Konrad Curze
**Curze Round 1: hits 4 times, wounds 3 times, 1.5 times after the Invuln, 1.286 times after the re-roll and IWND will take that down to 0.953 at the start of the next turn.
**Curze Round 2 and thereafter: hits 3 times, wounds 2.25 times, 1.125 times after the Invuln, 0.911 times after the re-roll and IWND will take that down to 0.578 at the start of the next turn
**Guilliman Round 1/2: hits 2.5 times, wounds 2.083 times, 1.0416 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.7083 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Guilliman Round 3 and thereafter: hits 3.333 times, wounds 2.778 times, 1.339 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 1.055 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Guilliman easily wins this fight... theoritically
**Note: As usual, Konrad should attempt to even the odds with Hit and Run, negating Preternatural Strategy while gaining the +1 attack for the charge (and sniping some wounds with his knives). Even with Guilliman using the Hand of Domination, there is a chance Curze doesn't suffer any damage from it (31% when Guilliman is WS7/8 and 20% when he is WS9) so he will actually negate Preternatural Strategy between 37% and 31% of the time, which is enough to give Rob a run for his money or even kill him if the Widowmakers score more than a single wound.

* Konrad Curze VS Leman Russ
**Russ hits 4 times, wounds 3 times, 1.5 time after saves, plus 0.583 wounds from Sever Life for a whole 2.083 wounds and IWND will take that down to 1.75 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Konrad Round 1: hits 2 times, wounds 1.5 times, 0.75 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.427.
**Konrad Round 2 and thereafter: hits 1 times, wounds 0.75 times, 0.375 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.042.
**Konrad gets wrecked.
**Note : Nothing will save Konrad from the Wolf King, but as always the Widowmakers can prove themselves a tricky surprise and Hit & Run mitigates the impact of the exothermic bullshit, making Curze one of the few primarchs who can die to Russ with a bit of dignity.

* Konrad Curze VS Jaghatai Khan
**Jaghatai hits 4 times, wounds 2 times, 1 wound after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.666
**Curze hits 4 times, wounds 2.222 times, 0.740 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.407 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Jaghatai wins, thanks to his high number of attacks. Curze could use Hit-and-Run to try to even the odds and give himself charge bonuses, but the Khan could do the same.

* TL;DR version: Even though he does a lot of damage, Konrad is not really suited for Primarch vs Primarch fights. Do not misunderstand: he is a real beast when he can make use of Hit & Run and the Widowmakers are extremely good, especially against Primarchs with strong invulnerable saves. Still, you have to consider that all of his special rules are primary designed to scare his opponents and make them flee, but since all Primarchs are Fearless he can't use them. Despite this, he can win some fights and, when he struggle, he can still significantly cripple even some of the strongest Primarchs, leaving them weak and vulnerable. But you are arguably best served to employ his mobility to evade them (instead of fighting) and charge something he could actually butcher in a single round, to make the most of his King of Terror special rule. Make their allies flee in panic and then destroy them when they are alone and surrounded...

</div></div>

==Gallery==
<gallery>
File:Night haunter by cabal art.png|Isn't he the cutest murderous psychopath vigilante ever?
File:Konrad.jpg
File:BigKurze.jpg|[[Emperor|Christ]] that looks epic. Even if it's on graph paper.
File:Konspire.png|Do not get on his bad side.
File:Spess Punisher.jpg|Two merry psycho vigilantes. Glorious coincidence or awesome tribute ?
File:KonradOnMacragge.jpg|Too bad he didn't get Matt Ward while hunting the Big Blue.
</gallery>

{{Primarchs}}

[[Category:Chaos]]

Konrad Curze

2019-09-24T17:20:54Z

2600:1006:B105:8611:58CC:338D:D9D2:B1D4: /* History */

{{awesome}}
{{heresy}}
[[File:Konrad Curze Mugshot.jpg|400px|thumb|right|"Yeah this guy seems nice." - Big E at some point.]]
{{Topquote|The horror, The horror...|[[Konrad Curze|Konrad]]'s real last words after probably describing to M'Shen [[40k|what he really saw in his visions]]}}
{{Topquote|He who fights with monsters should be careful lest he thereby become a monster. And if thou gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will also gaze into thee.|Friedrich Nietzsche}}
{{Topquote|There is no such thing as paranoia. Your worst fears can come true at any moment.|Hunter S. Thompson}}
{{Topquote|Know how I stayed alive this long? All these years? Fear. The spectacle of fearsome acts. Somebody steals from me: I cut off his hands. He offends me: I cut out his tongue. He rises against me: I cut off his head, stick it on a pike. Raise it high up so all in the streets can see. That's what preserves the order of things. Fear.|Bill the Butcher, Gangs of New York}}

'''Konrad Curze''' was the [[Primarch]] of the [[Night Lords]] Legion (his @ was '''Night Haunter'''). A [[Psyker]] (albeit a latent one), Curze is well-known for the fact that he was [[/b/|plagued from the moment of his awakening by visions of the most horrific future imaginable, terrifying waking dreams that would follow him from cradle to grave.]] Whilst [[/tg/]] has joked that he suffered the lamest death in history due to falling to a [[Callidus]] Assassin's blade (hence the ''"was"'' earlier), he remains a complete bad-ass compared to [[Roboute Guilliman|these]] [[Fulgrim|buffoons]].

Equal parts upstanding vigilante and psychosis-wracked terrorist, Curze's schtick was obedience through fear. To wit, if you're sat behind locked doors shitting yourself in terror for the majority of your existence, you're probably going to struggle to lead a life of crime. And if that logic doesn't make you reconsider your wayward ways, perhaps [[rip and tear|being skinned alive, then disembowelled and finally crucified]] will be the wake up call you need. Either way, Curze cut a somewhat tragic figure; he foresaw the events of the [[heresy]] only to be stitched up and censured by his [[Rogal Dorn|arsehole]] [[Fulgrim|brothers]], possibly due to [[rage|the fact he made for a nightmarish poker opponent]]. Of course, having a personality and approach that can be accurately summarized as "some unholy [[Batman]]-[[/co/|Punisher]]-[[Vampire|Vlad the Impaler]]-Predator-Santa hybrid" didn't win him many fans amongst his brothers, either.

His name is an oblique reference to ''Heart of Darkness''.

==History==
[[Image:Curzw-perturabo-Primarchs-.jpeg|thumb|400px|"Yeah he seems pretty balanced."]]
Curze wound up on the eternally-dark world of [[Nostramo]] after the Primarchs were scattered by [[Chaos]]. From the moment he landed Curze got fucked over as, unlike the usual stasis-pod-descending-from-a-beam-of-light type landing his brothers made, Konrad ''punched through the crust of the planet'' (the entire planet was made of adamantium, though...) and had to crawl his ass out from the core, all while being a TODDLER. Even after somehow surviving making an asteroid level impact, Curze's life somehow got worse as, again, unlike his brothers, he wound up with no one to take care of him. Konrad was forced to raise himself on this lawless hell-hole, where violence and cruelty was rampant (although there was no crime, of course, there not being any laws to break) and usually went unpunished, the rich openly exploited the poor, and depression and the inability to escape one's social standing were also rampant, leading to the population being largely kept down not through any fancy measures, but instead by suicide. As he grew older, Curze became more and more enraged by how this panned out, and eventually decided to take matters into his own hands.

Stalking the eternally-dark streets as a sort of [[Awesome|Space Marine Batman]], Curze began hunting down heretics and those who had been responsible for turning Nostramo into the cesspit it had become. Leaders of the corrupt administration disappeared, only to be found later hung from <s>Imperial</s> administration buildings and horribly mutilated, though their faces were often untouched so people would instantly recognize the victim. Notorious "criminals" (as defined by Konrad) were found out in the streets, eviscerated or impaled and left to die on the spires of manufactorum rooftops. The blood of those who had committed "crimes" flowed in the streets, with body parts stopping up storm drains.

But apparently Konrad still saw possible [[Noblebright]] futures of victims if he showed mercy. But he *knew* what his order demanded and killed them anyway. And apparently even saw suicide as a crime, and would show up to the person's apartment before hand. [[Grimdark|Not to talk them out of it. Just to make it painful and an example for others not to do it as well.]] What the fuck.

The really scary part? ''It worked''. Within a year, Curze had killed so fucking many dicks that the "crime" rate of Nostramo reached damned-near zero. Society went through a massive upheaval and curfews were imposed to minimize the casualties from [[Awesome|Space Marine Batman]]. Note that this was due to the fact that Nostramo was just that bad. Mothers began to threaten their kids that if they continued to misbehave, the Night Haunter would come for them - a story that came into common use on Nostramo, describing Curze, who stalked through the city, ready to disembowel any heretic or "criminal" foolish or bold enough to cross his path with anything on hand. His favored weapons, 'Lightning Claws', weren't used until he was found by the Emperor and united with his legion, which made armor and weapons available to him.

Curze became convinced of his choices being the right and just ones when he saw that the people of this world started to have hope again - he had become the only thing on the entire planet that people truly feared (and hated). Seizing the moment, Curze appeared before the few remaining nobles that had survived his vigilantist purges - the only ones who basically weren't complete assholes - and gave them a choice: Obey his rule, or die. One or two protested that he had imposed an order based on fear, but it made no difference. Curze, the Night Haunter, was made the ruler of Nostramo.

To the surprise of most, Curze proved to be a fairly capable ruler, surprisingly just and temperate. He made strong attempts to educate himself on absolutely everything he could learn, and was noted for his skills as an adjudicator, worthy of a [[Reasonable Marines|Reasonable Marine]]. This was, of course, until word of an injustice reached Curze's ears - at which point he would hunt down the transgressor himself, wearing them down, and killing them horribly. His unpredictable pattern of benevolence and wisdom contrasted by jaw-dropping levels of violence beyond that of an [[Eversor]] ushered in a new era of efficiency and honesty across Nostramo on a planetary scale, mainly as an act of capitulation in order to keep the Night Haunter from their doors. Needless to say, this peace did not come with a contentedness like some of his brothers achieved. Had he ever learned how to delegate to minions made up of the local populace, he might have been more effective, but alas. Or if he had followed the visions of noblebright if shown mercy he had of some of his victims.

===The Great Crusade===
[[Image:The viii primarch by saint max-d424fmh.jpg|right|thumb|350px|[[Castlevania|I was called here by ''huuuuuumans''. Who wish to pay meeeee ''tribute''.]]]]
Soon after Curze took over and began ruling the planet, the [[Emperor]]'s Great Crusade reached Nostramo; the coming of the Emperor of Man was an event long prophesied in Nostramo's history - an event which would eventually bring about the apocalypse. The Emperor and his delegation (which consisted of [[Rogal Dorn]], [[Ferrus Manus]], [[Lorgar|Lorgar Aurelian]], [[Fulgrim]], and their respective Legiones Astartes) proceeded to the Palace on foot, his radiance blinding the adapted-to-darkness onlookers and mesmerizing those who did not look directly at him.

At the end of the road leading to his Palace, Curze stood, waiting for the delegation, when he had one of his visions. He saw the fate of each of his brothers and his own death; he saw blood spurting from his own neck and no matter what he did he couldn't stop it. He would have succeeded in clawing his own eyes out if the Emperor hadn't stopped him. He and the Emperor then had this badass exchange:

''"Konrad Curze, be at peace, for I have arrived and intend to take you home."''<br>
''"That is not my name, Father. I am Night Haunter, and I know full well what you [[Just as planned|intend for me]]."''

Awesome. Curze began training under [[Fulgrim]], who taught him the Adeptus Astartes combat doctrines and began molding him to be a suitable leader for his role as the leader of the Eighth Space Marine Legion - the Night Lords. Later it was revealed that during his training under [[Fulgrim]], Curze had had one of his visions, this one about the Horus Heresy. While he told Fulgrim this in confidence, he would later learn that one flaw Fulgrim had (beside dressing like a peacock) was that Fulgrim didn't know the meaning of the word confidential or that the notion of what was told to him was done so in sacred trust between himself and his favored brother. Well, the joke seemed to be on Curze, as no sooner had he told Fulgrim about the vision than Fulgrim had run over to [[Rogal Dorn]] and told him everything. [[FAIL|Rogal Dorn comforted Curze and he got better.]]

Though Curze and his legion excelled in many different hot-zones throughout the Great Crusade, a disturbing tendency arose in short order; the Night Lords would never use anything other than total, decisive force to achieve their goals. Or maybe "force" is the wrong word; they didn't battle so much as terrify their enemies into submission. The Night Lords quickly adapted to Curze's combat and tactical ethos, becoming one of the most brutally effective, if not ruthless, legions in the Imperium. In one notorious example, one Night Lord recalls dealing with a non compliant planetary governor; Curze murdered the man and then broadcast the screams of the man’s daughter across an entire city for 3 HOURS to frighten the remaining remaining rebels into submission. The Night Lords decorated their armor with iconography designed to inspire terror in the enemy - a tactic that proved incredibly effective. Unsurprising, considering how terrifying Space Marines are without it. Where they struck, the Night Lords left examples - grim reminders of the price for disobeying the Imperium. In time, it became so that even the mere ''mention'' of the Night Lords' approach would cause a system to pay all outstanding tithes, cease all illegal activities, stop downloading torrents of ''Blossom'', and put to death any [[Furry|mutants or heretics]]. In hindsight, though, we here on /tg/ can't really be all that surprised by their brutality when we remember it was Fulgrim who tutored the VIII Legion's primarch. How else would the Night Haunter interpret the Phoenician's excessive battlefield perfectionism than a need for excessive violence?

Problems arose, however, as the Great Crusade dragged on - reinforcements to replace the Night Lords that fell in battle were, as was the case of the other Legions, selected from the population of Curze's homeworld, Nostramo. Unfortunately, in Curze's absence, the population collapsed into the same corruption, criminality, and despair that had ruled the roost before his arrival. Nostramo had no police force due to Curze insisting on being all of law enforcement by himself, which has all of the obvious problems. The most ruthless of the criminals were the only ones healthy and strong enough - and these were the most common replacement recruits for the Night Lords. Despite all the Space Marines indoctrination, ruthless psychopaths tend to make for poor soldiers. Insubordination to Curze's orders became more frequent and he began having to deal with his own measure of "fixing" things with the criminal scum that were inducted into his forces. Making matters worse, his visions continued to increase in both frequency and graphic severity.

Finally, it reached the point where Curze had no choice but to deal with the problem of his recruiting world turning into a [[Star Wars D20|wretched hive of scum and villainy]], but Fulgrim, the only Primarch Curze had any real connection with, was largely unavailable, and the other Primarchs, instead of listening to him and trying to help, bitched him out and said that it wasn't their problem.

The straw that would finally break the camel's back was during a joint operation between The Night Lords and the Imperial Fists.

[[Rogal Dorn]] had confronted Curze where he was overseeing the process of [[Grimdark|a long line of prisoners of war who were to be executed as a punitive action]], where Dorn had taken issue with Curze's way of doing things, saying that peace through fear was not what the Emperor of mankind had intended. Konrad Curze decided to prove his point to Dorn; that without the fear of consequences people wouldn't stay loyal. To illustrate this, Curze gave one of the prisoners a gun and then ordered his men not to kill him, no matter what might happen. Curze pointed the gun in the prisoner's hand right under his chin, saying [[Troll|"Go ahead, kill me."]] The prisoner refused, to which Curze stated his Astartes would not kill him. The prisoner, now confident that the Night Lords wouldn't shoot him and when Curze turned his back to him, immediately raised the gun, but Curze killed him before the prisoner could fire at him. Using intimidation and the predictable reaction to it, Curze "proved" his point: once the fear of consequence has been removed, people will feel no loyalty. Of course, he actually completely failed to do this, as he did not choose a loyal test subject to begin with, but Curze had never been one to understand the difference between a friend and an enemy.

Now, if [[Rogal Dorn]] had been better with people, he would just have left well enough alone, or perhaps sensibly told Curze that while fear was capable of enforcing obedience it could never create loyalty; and that his inability to differentiate the two was what was causing his problems. But as established before, the Emperor hadn't exactly designed the Primarchs with brains in mind. So in an effort to win the argument, Rogal revealed what Fulgrim had said to him about Curze's vision. (In all fairness, Dorn didn't know Fulgrim had broken his word by revealing him this. Still could have handled it better, though...) Angry at the betrayal of trust while in the grip of one of his visions, Curze attacked Dorn with his lightning claws, mauling him so badly that if he hadn't been a Primarch he would have died from his wounds.

As it was, Curze was just put on house arrest/grounded until the matter of an unsanctioned attack ''(read two missing primarchs)'' by one Primarch on another could be resolved. Curze, however, after reading a special batch of Nostraman tarot cards, said "Screw you guys, we're going home". After killing the Imperial Fists and Emperor's Children who were guarding him grimdark Batman-style, he and the Night Lords set course towards Nostramo. Curze tried to salvage things while on his homeworld, but the Emperor's arrival had removed the one last barrier the people of Nostramo had between themselves and utter despair: ignorance.

Of course, as the "Prince of Crows" heavily hints at, Curze didn't ''do'' anything other than horrifically kill people and incite fear by doing so. No improving the infrastructure, setting up a police force, or anything. And Curze refused to see this as a problem. This could only have lasted so long. In all actuality, the Emperor's arrival just sped things up. It wasn't the other Primarchs' problem, it was Konrad's mess and his one trick wasn't working anymore.

The knowledge of other worlds beyond Nostramo inflicted a hopelessness that guaranteed that nothing on Nostramo could ever change... which makes no sense given both the fact that many in the Imperium had massively improved their lives and that Nostramo had been trading its adamantium to several other human star systems long before the Imperium arrived (though "Prince of Crows" shows that this was because Curze made it so to ensure that there was nothing to do on Nostramo besides "behave and slowly die in an adamantium foundry" or "become a criminal and die either slowly or quickly (depending on Curze's mood)"), leaving the world to fester in corruption and depravity like a metastasized tumor. This was made worse by the Imperial governor appointed to rule Nostramo in Curze's absence, whose corruption-heavy regime more-or-less plunged the entire planet into the same shit that had given birth to the Night Haunter in the first place. Needless to say, Curze was absolutely pissed at his planet and his work going back to square one.

Imperial pursuit craft, determined to stop Curze for abandoning the Great Crusade and checking on his homeworld, arrived just in time to see the lance batteries of Curze's fleet put an end to the nightmare that the planet's inhabitants had found themselves in - the only way he knew how: remorseless mass murder. Curze destroyed the planet with sustained orbital fire to the fissures his own arrival created.

According to Curze's recollection/opinion exterminating Nostramo was to test the Night Lords themselves. Had they stopped Curze it would have proven that at least some of them were worth something in Curze's goal: to use fear to create a true order. But even Sevatar (whom Curze favored) simply followed orders. Ironically Curze's other equerry (who Curze thought was an ass kiss,) begged Sevatar to talk Konrad out of it. There were some Night Lords who did refuse to aid in Nostramo's destruction, but they got put down pretty quickly.

Curze's actions caused him to be especially vulnerable to the whispers of Chaos. The campaigns of the Night Lords became harder and harder to justify - terror campaigns leaving a trail of devastated worlds across the breadth of the galaxy. Curze abandoned his devotion to the Emperor, instead fighting only to spread death and fear. Eventually, it got so bad that the Emperor recalled the Night Lords and prepared to call Curze to task for his actions and that of his legion.

This was 20 years before the Horus Heresy mind you, and it is very likely that the Imperium thought he had gone rogue at that point, or at the very least, completely unhinged for blowing up his homeworld, especially since they had been recalled to account for their terror campaigns and war crimes. So it's a bit bizarre that the loyalists thought it was a good thing that the Night Lords showed up to support them at Isstvan and ''didn't'' see a double-cross coming. Probably didn't mind because the Night Lords have [[lulz|A talent for Murder.]]

===Horus Heresy===
[[File:NocturnusObsessoris-Final.jpg|300px|thumb|left|Konrad overlooking the spires of Nostramo. and looking badass while doing it.]]
When Horus turned against the Emperor with Fulgrim, Curze was quick to throw in his lot behind the brothers he had actually been able to relate to as opposed to [[Roboute Guilliman|the fucking asshole]]. He even ended up saving Lorgar from [[Corvus Corax]] (although after seeing the Gal Vorbak, the very first squad of [[Possessed Marine]]s, he felt it was a mistake). Said intervention also shook Corax himself to his very soul, as he saw in Konrad the very thing he might have become, had he fallen to [[Chaos]] and possibly adopted a different view on [[RIP AND TEAR|disemboweling innocent civilians]].

The Night Lords remained impious, siding with none of the Chaos Gods and instead using them as mere tools in their terror campaigns. Almost entirely populated by criminals and murderers, the Night Lords led the [[Dark Angels]] and the Lion all over the Eastern Fringe. The insanity doesn't end there. In the middle of dicking with the Angels, he invited [[Lion El'Jonson]] to a dead planet (future place of his new palace and his own death...) to deliver a message from Horus, which actually predicted the Dark Angels' fate of everyone hating their guts for not being on Terra because Curze had lead them all over the Eastern Fringe (HAR HAR HAR).

The Lion, who has [[Serious Business|zero tolerance]] for insults, proceeded to attack Curze and got a fantastic one-shot off on him, though that was all he'd get and the two descended into a brawl which had to be ended with the brothers getting pulled off of each other and dragged back to their respective fleets.

The Dark Angels would eventually get the upper hand, presumably because Curze was partly pre-occupied by his "guest" (see below) and because the Lion would start using a [[Heresy|powerful and sentient warp engine]] that allowed him to out maneuver the Night Lords and capture Curze temporarily, essentially breaking the back of the Night Lords Legion. Strangely enough, the most (or second most) brilliant strategist of the entire universe couldnt crack a thing or two when dealing with this one-trick <s>pony</s> batman psychopath, but had to rely on plot-device to bend his brother over (although the Thramas campaign was going to obviously end one way or the other and with the shit the DA can pull, not to mention their numbers probably meant that Lion could've fucked Curze up the ass without the warp engine). Anyway, with Curze out of the picture [[Sevatar]] ''took over'' the Legion. Read that as murderfucked most of the leading captains and told the fleet to disperse and do [[Rip and Tear|whatever it was they wanted]].

====Vulkan====
[[Vulkan]] became Konrad's prisoner after Isstvan V. Unfortunately, Vulkan is [[Perpetual|immortal or some shit]], so he kept coming back from the dead. This pissed the shit out of Curze, who decided to torture him instead (well actually his failure to kill Vulkan for good increasingly "frustrated" him so he started to get "creative"). Vulkan had to do all kinds of shit, including being forced to kill his own [[Salamanders]], watch prisoners starve themselves, and fight [[Corax]] in a dream. In the end, though, Curze couldn't bring Vulkan down to his level, causing massive amounts of [[rage]].

{{spoilers}}

Vulkan ended up in a maze built by [[Perturabo]], with his hammer at the end of it. Vulkan had a teleporter in his hammer, which he figured Curze didn't know about, which made him hopeful. He couldn't navigate the maze worth shit though, and he was pretty much fucked, but after a couple of days, he pissed off Curze, who then led him to the center so they could fight. Curze was all "fuck you, teleporters don't work here", to which Vulkan replied, "[[Lulz|It's also a hammer]]". Vulkan then proceeded to beat the shit out of Curze, but didn't kill him (because that would be stooping to his level, apparently).

When he was done, Vulkan said (essentially) "Fuck you Curze, ''I'M'' VULKAN! So MY teleporters work here. I just wanted to beat the shit out of you." He then escaped, leaving Curze more emo, depressed, and filled with more [[RAGE]] than ever before. Not that this mattered because Curze subsequently went on to take out his considerable ire against the entire Dark Angels Legion, leading to an impressively murderous trip to Macragge where he role-played a combination of every slasher movie killer and went with whatever felt natural; his ire got worse, however, when he went after big Bobby G's mother. He tried his usual shtick of freaking her out with how much of a creepy bastard he was. It worked for five seconds before she told him to piss off and die. He would have killed the Lion AND Roboute with a powerful explosion (he had set the chapel of Hera to explode with them in it) if it hadn't been for the power of friendship. Seriously...[[My Little Pony|friendship truly is magi-]]{{BLAM}}.

After having a running battle with Vulkan through the streets of Macragge in which he ended up killing Vulkan several times, taking a morbid delight in seeing how long it would take for him to revive after every kill, he ended up being jumped by a bottled demon and briefly being dragged into the warp. Curze managed to kill (as in completely, not just banishing) the demon, and was dumped back onto Macragge. He had yet to reappear but had the entire planet on curfew while he was still (theoretically) around.

After spending some time terrifying the locals, he eventually snuck into Sanguinius’s throne room. After talking for a while about how “It’s all daddy’s fault”, Curze and Sanguinius ended up fighting each other. Despite Curze outmatching Sanguinius - as he was fully armed and armoured, and Sanguinius was not - he was also fully aware that he could not kill Sanguinius (even if he wanted to) due to the fact his destiny was to be eventually killed at Horus’s hands. Both Primarchs had visions of what could happen during the fight and were evenly matched due to their precognition. They eventually separated and Curze gave Sanguinius the chance to kill him, but Sanguinius stopped the blow in mid-air out of pity. Curze then proceeded to mutilate [[Sanguinary_Guard#Azkaellon|Azkaellon]] before blowing up a whole lot of Sanguinary Guard, threw what remained of Azkaellon off a cliff, and disappeared.

Despite having the resources of almost 3 full legions, the rulers of Imperium Secundus had great difficulty tracking Curze down. When it was revealed that Curze had never ever even left Macragge once in the years since his arrival, the Lion put the planet under almost total martial law and brought in his official Overkill brigade to deal with him. Curze had been fomenting rebellion amongst the Illyrians, a part of Macragge that had never really accepted the civilisation of Konor and Guilliman. After the Dark Angels massacred an entire nation in response, Curze laid his final endgame in a mountain fortress. The Lion, in response, broke his word to Guilliman, and contrived a devastating (and forbidden) orbital bombardment using droppods and assault rams converted into barrage bombs and torpedoes. When the smoke cleared, the Lion went solo hunting again, walking into the trap Curze had set for him. Unfortunately, for a precog, Curze hadn't anticipated that the Lion had already cleared all the traps set for him and he was captured after a duel (the Lion cheated by calling in Fire Raptors to prevent Curze from escaping). The Lion is considered to be the most brilliant tactician of the Primarchs for a reason.

Despite being finally caught, Curze had both the penultimate and last laugh. He managed to do what the Word Bearers, World Eaters, and Night Lords legion had not managed to do with soldiers and fleets, and broke the Imperium Secundus. His official court trial had barely started when he told Guilliman that that the Lion had broken his word by staging an ersatz orbital bombardment. Guilliman, having finally lost his patience with the Lion, snapped the Lion's sword in two and Sanguinius told him and his legion to GTFO of Imperium Secundus (because sending a legion into what he thinks is certain death by Warpstorm for the crime of shooting the bad guy and not even hurting anything but the damn fortress is a brilliant decision). However, just as the Lion was about to leave the system, he remembered Curze's words of prophecy, that his back, the Lion's sword, and word would be broken (as well as Curze's proclamation that he would be killed by an assassin sent by the Emperor). The Lion teleported back to Macragge, just as Curze was about to be executed and explained the situation. Guilliman had a mini breakdown over everything he had done on the premise the greater Imperium had fallen and Curze laughed himself into an aneurysm at the whole situation.

He would remain in custody throughout the journey back to Terra, initially kept under lock and key by the [[Dark Angels]], but was later "broken free" by Sanguinius, who dragged him down to '''Davin''' so that they could possibly change their destinies together. This frightened the absolute crap out of Curze, not least because of the potential fact that if Sanguinius could change his destiny to die by Horus' hands, then that would mean that Curze could avoid his own assassination later on, which in turn would make all of his life meaningless because he was such an evil bastard based on his absolute certainty of how events would unfold.

However, this would not be, as Sanguinius realised that to make the change in his fate, he would need to become something worse than even Horus, so he allowed fate to continue on course. What's worse is that although Sanguinius accepted his own fate, he threatened Curze with the possibility that the Emperor could even ''forgive'' him for all of his crimes, pushing Curze into silent horror at the thought that his universe was not what he thought it was. But in a cruel twist, Sanguinius decided to leave his brother to his destiny, while also pointing out that while he could pin down the actual time and location of his death to the bridge of the ''Vengeful Spirit'' at the [[Siege of Terra]]; Curze's assassination might not actually occur for millennia, and thus he promptly jettisoned his brother's stasis coffin into space.

These interactions firmly establish Sanguinius as a foil to ol' Konrad, in the sense that both were cursed from birth with precognitive abilities that would shape their personalities and ultimately their fates. Sanguinius believed it possible to avert and alter the path of his future, but accepted it instead upon realizing that doing so would entail becoming something even worse in the progress; Konrad actively rejected even the possibility of doing so, as he considered his fate to be set in stone, to the point he'd lived his whole life based on that notion. And as he had just discovered, Sanguinius was also a scary motherfucker in his own way.

===Death===
After being jettisoned into space, Curze's stasis coffin was picked up by a freighter. The future victims were eager to sell his coffin for a big payday instead of being smart and chucking it into a sun, so naturally Konrad escaped. When Curze got out Horus was long dead and took a moment to ask a crew member the date. [[Grimdark|Guess what Curze did to the crew.]] [[Rip and Tear|Please, fucking guess.]]

After the battle was lost, they fled back to Tsagualsa with what was left of the Legion. The Emperor, however, wishing to stop the Night Lords forevermore, dispatched an [[Officio Assassinorum]] operative from the [[Callidus|Callidus Temple]] to kill him.

Curze spent his last hours crafting a statue of Big E to whine about how daddy never loved him, and how his ways were necessary. [[Grimdark|By the way the statue was made of human flesh.]]

When his confession was done, he burned the corpse-statue of the Corpse-Emperor and walked in his corpse-fortress and put on his armor, told his Legion to fuck off his damn corpse-lawn, and sat down to wait for his corpse-mama to come.

Curze had foreseen everything, or had chosen a fate believing the future was set, just as Sanguinius had. With his final prediction coming true, Curze waited for his just punishment.

Confronted with the Callidus Assassin M'Shen, it is believed that Curze proceeded to make jokes about how she had [[Pretend|butt-sex]] with [[Macha]] before getting down to brass tacks and explaining why he'd allowed her in so easily:

<blockquote>''"Your presence does not surprise me, Assassin. I have known of you ever since your craft entered the Eastern Fringes. Why did I not have you killed? Because your mission and the act you are about to commit proves the truth of all I have ever said or done. I merely punished those who had wronged, just as your false Emperor now seeks to punish me. Death is nothing compared to vindication."''</blockquote>

Whilst it's never been confirmed who [[rape|came out on top]] (or whether or not the Callidus and he engaged in [[Heresy|hardcore ball-busting sex]]), it is believed by many that Curze allowed himself to be killed, having given explicit orders to the Night Lords to allow M'Shen to escape. Only one Night Lord, Apothecary Talos Valcoran of the 10th Company, pursued her out of vengeance (the Night Lords did eventually join in pursuit, but that was only after the senior Captains realized that M'Shen (no connection to Martin Sheen, none at all) had [[Ork|looted]] Curze of all his bling, which they wanted for themselves). It is believed that Curze had come to see himself as a murderous and corrupt villain - the very thing he had sought out to destroy (or perhaps he wished to prove that his decision to destroy Nostramo and join Horus was justified, as the Emperor had become one more tyrant who had to be slain). Maybe he was a heroic [[Awesome|Space Marine Batman]] who lived long enough to become the villain.

Even after Curze caused so much carnage, though, particularly to Ultramar and Macragge, it's interesting to note that Guilliman seems to still pity him. During the Plague Wars, Guilliman admits to an associate that, out of the whole fucked up Primarch family, only "poor Konrad" truly saw the Heresy coming, and that if he hadn't been insane, it all might've been avoided.

==Psychic Ability==
Although knowledge of his gifts apparently were not widespread amongst the ranks of his brother Primarchs, Curze was capable of mild feats of psychic display. This was first evidenced by what he would come to call his "affliction" or "curse". Namely, that Konrad was often wracked by horrible visions, likened to waking nightmares, of how people would die. He was no exception; as stated above, the Night Haunter had foreseen his own death from the moment he awoke on Nostramo. These visions also occasionally extended to those he would lay eyes upon. This included his brother Primarchs, and explained his fondness for [[Fulgrim]] - the one person who Konrad had not seen suffer a terrible death upon first meeting him. In fact, Konrad's vision after laying eyes on Fulgrim was often described as hazy or lacking in some quality. What was apparent was that Fulgrim somehow found a way to cheat death. It was when he laid eyes on [[Ferrus Manus]], immediately after, that he was shown Fulgrim would somehow be present at the site of Ferrus' demise. Despite this, he was the one primarch whom Konrad didn't foresee a [[Grimdark|misfortunate or ghastly future.]] It was this closeness that eventually led Konrad to confess to Fulgrim the nature of the visions he had received, as detailed in the popular duology of Black Library short stories ''The Dark King'' and ''The Lightning Tower''. Konrad claims to have seen a good and bad future at times, but always chose the [[grimdark]] future.

The Night Haunter also displayed a few other feats of psychic development, such as [[Psychic Disciplines|telekinetically]] destroying a series of lights to aid in his escape from a VII Legion detention chamber, and psychically conversing with Jago "Sevatar" Sevatarion. [[Sevatar]], a latent psyker, was exploring Konrad's psyche during the latter's unconsciousness resulting from wounds inflicted by the [[Lion El'Jonson]] during the [[Thramas Crusade]]. Apparently the Night Haunter had a role in helping to suppress Sevatar's psychic potential, as revealed in the conversation between them - and that, because Sevatar was not trained in their use, those psychic abilities would be increasingly [[Chaos|self-destructive.]] Why he simply did not start training him will probably forever remain a mystery. He must have been the legion's only psyker or there is no rationale explaining why Sevatar was not just passed over to the Night Lord's Librarius for training his abilities. (The ''Night Lords'' Trilogy explains this by an incompatibility between the gene-seed and the host, the visions being a 'side-effect' of that struggle as it grows worse over time.)

As the Primarch of the VIII Legion, Konrad had a servant throughout the Great Crusade named Ekra Trez (who bore the title of "Sin-Eater"). Trez was tasked with keeping a record of the Night Haunter's pre-cognitive visions in a massive tome, and would often make note of which ones had been proven correct or false. Trez was also more than aware of Sevatar's psychic ability, leaving some readers of the Black Library's Horus Heresy novels curious as to what role Trez may have played in the Primarch's psychic development - if any.

==Lasting Legacy==
The Night Haunter, in his death, may have continued to leave a lasting impression upon the Imperium as inspiration for one of it's many institutions. Although his legion continues to sow fear and discord amongst the stars, Konrad Curze's legacy of weaponized fear lives on within the Imperium through the Emperor's Holy Ordos of the [[Inquisition]]. Like the inquisitors of the 41st Millennium, Konrad brought loyal citizens into compliance through fear and threats of death/torture beyond imagining to those who weren't sure where their allegiances lay. Those who failed to comply were guaranteed either a swift death at the hands of his legion, or a slow death at the tender mercies of his legion's most depraved souls. Lastly, if those comparisons weren't enough, look at the fate of Nostramo - Konrad essentially carried out an act of Exterminatus. Just as Lorgar's teachings on the Emperor's divinity would later lay the foundation for the Imperial Creed of the [[Ecclesiarchy]], the Night Haunter could effectively be treated as the first author of the Inquisition's playbook. Not that they wouldn't BLAM you for heresy if you said that to their faces though.

Within the Night Lords, Curze and the Night Haunter each left their own legacy, which caused no small amount of schism. Officially, Curze appointed Zso Sahaal as his successor and Talonmaster, because Sahaal understood that a true warrior is more than just a murder machine. A true warrior has ''focus''. As you can probably predict, every other Night Lord captain decided that ''they'' were more deserving of being Curze's successor and tried to get Sahaal dethroned for being "weak" or whatever. Their logic was that Curze wasn't in charge, the Night Haunter was, and the Night Haunter was supposed to choose the ''true'' successor. After Sahaal became lost in the Warp, captain Krieg Acerbus "the Axemaster" slowly but surely took over huge swathes of the Night Lords and led them to become [[Chaos Undivided]] followers. Ironically, the Night Haunter had no intention of ever choosing a successor as he would have preferred that his legion die out completely for becoming everything he personally despised.

==Multiple Personality Disorder?==
Now, we all know the [[Black Library]] can range from the [[Dan Abnett|godly]] to the [[C.S.Goto|Goto]]. So this must be taken with a grain of salt. But ''Lord of the Night'' implies that Curze suffered from Dissociative Identity Disorder, such that he and the Night Haunter were two different people: Konrad, the just leader of men, and the Night Haunter, the murderous vigilante. ''Blood Reaver'' also implies it (a Night Lords sorcerer talking about how at one moment he was trying to teach his long-dead father some idealistic lesson, while at another he was only concerned about eating some slave's heart) and shows signs of other mental instability, such as when he has a bit of a manic episode and forgets that his First Captain died several years ago, indicating dementia or schizophrenia; ''Blood Reaver'' also suggests that the Emprah's DNA may not have entirely settled in Curze's body, explaining why he was so batshit crazy by the time of his death, not to mention the corpse-like appearance he was sporting near the end. The upshot of this is that ''only the Night Haunter'' fell to Chaos, while Curze remained clean. Which one got the other killed is unknown. Other books have inverted the relationship, suggesting that the Night Haunter was the "honest" monster that was needed to do the terrible things required, whilst Curze was the fallible human who fell to his own weaknesses.

Another thing perhaps tied with his Multiple Personality Disorder is that Konrad Curze towards the end had ended up hating his own legion. In a conversation with First Captain Sevatar, Konrad mentioned that he had spoken with Angron and Lorgar following the Istvaan III purge. Cleansing the untrustworthy elements of the World Eaters and the Word Bearers. The sheer absurdity of the idea was laughable to the Night Haunter, for his brothers knew exactly when to stop the killing of the weak, the treacherous and the corrupt within their bloodlines. He had no idea where to begin culling the Night Lords' ranks. His sons were no longer cast in his image. Less than a decade after he had departed Nostramo that world had sent him nothing but filth to integrate into the VIII Legion as Neophytes; the disgusting dregs of humanity his own Apothecaries had infused with his genetic material and reforged into transhumans. The VIII Legion had become poisoned by their presence. The VIII Legion was now composed of warriors who were murderers in the Primarch's own image, yet devoid of his conviction (which does not make any sense at all because, see above: <s>Every Space Marine is massively brain-washed during their ascension, and in the 41st millenium chapters even preferentially recruit from either backwater worlds - where killing someone because he has more shiny bling than you is still acceptable - or hive gangers over aristocrats on more developed worlds, simply because they are more likely to survive the transformation process.. Just think of the "blood games" many chapters perform to determine the most fitting candidates "hey, lets see who can work together and kill as many of the other aspirants as possible"</s> Extensive hypno-indoctrination only really became a thing AFTER the Heresy, specifically as a reaction to it to help ensure the loyalty of future marines. How much good it's done is debatable. During the Great Crusade and Heresy, they were churning out marines at a breakneck pace to keep up all those fuckhueg legion numbers, so a marine's personality remained much intact.). The Night Lords had become nothing more than killers and abusers, bleeding the weak for their own amusements because they enjoyed it as good sport. Fear became an end unto itself, and its propagation was all the Night Lords desired as they fed upon it.

This was made even more clear by what Curze told Talos before he and the Assassin gotten it on:<br>
''"Many will claim to lead our Legion in the years after I am gone. Many will claim that they - and they alone - are my appointed successor. I hate this Legion, Talos. I destroyed its world to stem the flow of poison. I will be vindicated soon, and the truest lesson of the Night Lords will be taught. Do you truly believe I care what happens to any of you after my death?"''

Now some might say he was overreacting a bit, but still, given how the criminal overlords he had spent most of his life on Nostramo eradicating, took over again as soon as he had left the planet and started sending their henchmen to be turned into Space Marines, it might be understandable. It was not for nothing that Horus had cause to [[Perturabo|muse that]] [[Angron|his generals]] [[Fulgrim|were psychopaths]] while the Emperor's were noble, statuesque leaders of men.

According to his novel Curze was tremendously crazy by the time of his death. He crafted a flesh golem of the Emperor to state his case to it. Soon after Curze heard a voice in his head that Curze might have thought was his statue.

He also thought Sevatar was still alive at the time, though Sevatar's death hasn't been confirmed yet.

==Tabletop==
[[Image:Konrad-Curze-1.jpg|thumb|right|Wristblades? Check. Stealth capabilities? Check. Skinning prey and taking trophies? Check. Now he just needs a shoulder mounted plasma gun and a muscle-bound Austrian and he'll be able to pass himself off as the Predator.]]

{| class=wikitable
! || WS || BS || S || T || W || I || A || Ld || Sv
|-
| '''Konrad Curze:''' || 8 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 7 || 5+1 || 10 || 2+/4++
|}

On the tabletop, Curze has the basic Primarch statline plus Shrouded and Stealth. He has several fear based abilities, such as granting fear to all Night Lords (those who already have Fear impose a -1 on the leadership test), fear tests when in combat with him are taken at -3LD, and if he kills a unit in close combat any unit subject to fear within 12' and line of sight must take a leadership test or fall back. Sire of the Night Lords also grants him the Acute Senses and Night Vision USR, and he may elect to have the first turn of any game have the Night Fighting rule, giving his sons 4+ cover in the open. His weapons are 2 Lightning Claws called Mercy and Forgiveness which have AP 2, the Murderous Strike rule and grants +1 attack (Paired) and his armour, the Nightmare Mantle, provides 2+ armour save and 4+ invulnerable save (like most Primarch Armour), plus when he charges, it grants him hit and run and Hammer of Wrath special rules (inflicting d3 HoW hits instead of the usual one).

Due to the combination of being Jump Infantry and his variety of Fear-based shenanigans, Curze is one of the easier Primarchs to use. The ability to ensure Night Fighting helps your force close to melee where it belongs, and Fear makes it more effective once you get there. He can Hit and Run, butchering high-value targets and [[Awesome|making enemies who see piss themselves in terror and flee.]] The real genius of his rules is that, like Mortarion, he's primed to annihilate a certain kind of unit and has the mobility to chase it down, while also making your legion better at what it already does well. That said, he doesn't provide any sort of morale bonus to the Night Lords, who desperately need one, and it's fucking embarassing that he can't even hurt AV13.

Best of all, his ranged weapon proves definitely that Konrad Curze is Batman. He figuratively uses Batarangs during the shooting phase. His ranged attack is called a "Widowmaker Volley", which is essentially 3 bolt pistol shots with a special rules that makes 4+ to hit precision shots: 6s to wound ignore both armor AND invulnerable saves. You can't save against the God-Damned Bat Man. The best part is the actual description of the weapons in the Horus Heresy rulebook: "The Widowmakers: Based on the micro-serrated throwing knives utilized for signature-kills by Nostraman assassin-cults, Curze favored the use of these vicious, yet highly precise weapons over more conventional firearms in battle, using them to disable and maim as he wished."

===Konrad Curze VS other Primarchs:===
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%">
Primarch fighting, while fun to see, isn't a very competitive thing to do as it'll usually tie up both Primarchs for the entire game without either of them dying. With that in mind this section is about how Konrad Curze fares against other Primarchs Mathhammer wise. Please note that all the various abilities are taken into accounts when possible and the match-ups assume the Primarchs are the only ones involved in the fighting, so various abilities like Angron's "The Butcher's Nails" and Rampage do not provide any bonuses. In essence, the fights are supposed to happen in a "Vacuum" for simplicity, but notes are added to make things clearer in particular instances. Also all of the Primarch use their most powerful weapons (because why have a contest if you don't do your best?).
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">

* Konrad Curze VS Horus
**Horus hits 3 times (Talon), wounds 2.667 times, 1.333 after saves and IWND will take that down to 1 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Konrad hits 3 times, wounds 2.25 times, 0.75 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.417.
**Konrad lose (not a big surprise) and as always Horus use his Talon 'cause, even though he would do more damage with Worldbreaker, the Talon allows him to make his opponent basically harmless after a couple of wounds.

* Konrad Curze VS Angron
**Angron Round 1: hits 5.333 times, wounds 4.444 times, 2.222 after saves, and IWND take it down to 1.889.
**Angron Round 2 and thereafter: hits 4 times, wounds 3.333 times, 1.667 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 1.333 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Curze hits 3 times, wounds 2.25 times (0.75 of which causes ID), 1 wounds after saves and FNP and IWND will take that down to 0.667 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Angron easily wins, doing a lot more damage and receiving less in turn.
**Note: Curze can Hit & Run, but by doing so he would only gain one more attack, while allowing Angron to reset his Hatred, thus actually making himself dies even faster. However he would be a much better fight: Konrad on the Charge would do 2.625 wounds (0.875 with ID) which become 1.168, plus 0.1389 for HoW and 0,359 for the Widowmakers, for a total of 1,666 wounds, or 1.333 after IWND. This, thanks to the -1 wound of Angron, actually means that they would kill each other on the fifth assault, at the same initiative step. Provided that Konrad always succeed in his escape, that is.

* Konrad Curze vs Mortarion
**Mortarion hits 2.5 times, wounds 1.667 times, 0.833 wounds after saves and 0.5 wounds after IWND.
**Curze hits 4 times, wounds 2.222 times, 1.11 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.555 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Curze lose as even though he does more damage, Mortarion has 1 more wound that will make him outlast the Night Haunter.
**Note: with the Hit & Run tactics Konrad would actually win, thanks to the +1 attack on the charge, HoW and the knives, butchering Mortarion in 9 rounds while Mortarion would need 11 (counting overwatch).

* Konrad Curze vs Fulgrim
**Fulgrim hits 3.5 times, wounds 2.333 times, 1.167 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.833 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Curze hits 3 times, wounds 2.25 times, 0.75 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.417 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Easy win for Fulgrim. Even with Hit & Run, Konrad would not win this fight. Still, he would outdamage Fulgrim on the charge (1.472 wounds after all saves, 1.139 after IWND) and he would lose only thanks to the superior initiative of the Phoenician, coming extremely close to claiming a surprising draw.

* Konrad Curze vs Ferrus Manus
**Ferrus hits 2.5 times, wounds 2.083 times, 1.042 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.709 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Curze hits 4 times, wounds 2.222 times, 0.741 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.407 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Ferrus win.
**Note: Even though with Hit & Run Konrad could close the gap and do almost the same exact damage as Ferrus over the course of the fight, mathematically winning thanks to his superior initiative, this tactics is not reliable against the Gorgon thanks to the Concussive & Strikedown of Forgebreaker.

* Konrad Curze VS Vulkan
**Vulkan hits 2 times, wounds 1.666 times, 0.833 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.5 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Curze hits 4 times, wounds 2.222 times, 0.741 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.185 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Vulkan is just too tanky for Konrad.
**Note: with the usual tactic of Hit & Run Curze would outdamage Vulkan, but this is hindered by the fact that Dawnbringer has Concussive, making it difficult to foresee: it could go either way. (Because it's also a Hammer.)

* Konrad Curze VS Lorgar
**Lorgar hits 2.5 times, wounds 2.0833 times,1.042 after saves and IWND will take that to 0.708 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Curze Round 1: hits 3.555 times, wounds 2.369 times, 1.184 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.851 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Curze Round 2: hits 4 times, wounds 3 times, 1.5 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 1.167 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Konrad wins.
**Note: as always, psychic powers not included. You know how it would end anyway...

*Konrad Curze VS Perturabo
**Perturabo hits 2 times, wounds 1.667, 0.833 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.5 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Curze hits 3 times, wounds 2.25 times, 0.75 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.417 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Konrad loses as Perturabo does marginally more damage.
**Note: With Hit & Run Konrad would win, but the chance he is not concussed in the round he wants to escape are pretty slim, meaning that Perturabo has still the edge in this fight.

* Konrad Curze VS Alpharius
**Alpharius hits 2.92 times and wounds 1.701 times, 0.851 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.517 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Curze hits 4 times, wounds 3 times, 1.5 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 1.167 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Konrad wins.

* Konrad Curze VS Rogal Dorn
**Dorn hits 2 times, wounds 1.5 times, 0.75 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.417 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Curze hits 3 times, wounds 2.25 times, 1.125 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.792 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Konrad wins thanks to his superior number of attacks.

* Konrad Curze VS Corvus Corax
**Corvus hits 4 times (Scourge)/3 times (Shadow-walk), wounds 3 times (Scourge)/2.25 times (Shadow-walk), 1.5 wounds (Scourge)/1.125 wounds (Shadow-walk) after saves and IWND will take that down to 1.167/0.792 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Curze hits 4 times/3 times, wounds 3 times/2.25 times, 2 wounds/1.5 after saves and IWND will take that down to 1.667/1.167 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Konrad wins.
**Note: even though they both got Hit & Run, Konrad doesn't get +1 attack to charge Corax, 'cause he has Shroud Bombs, and also doesn't get +1 S ans I, making Corax considerably stronger when he charge all things considered. All in all, a pretty balanced fight, even if the stats don't say so. Corax doesn't have Widowmakers, though...

* Roboute Guilliman (with the Hand of Domination) VS Konrad Curze
**Curze Round 1: hits 4 times, wounds 3 times, 1.5 times after the Invuln, 1.286 times after the re-roll and IWND will take that down to 0.953 at the start of the next turn.
**Curze Round 2 and thereafter: hits 3 times, wounds 2.25 times, 1.125 times after the Invuln, 0.911 times after the re-roll and IWND will take that down to 0.578 at the start of the next turn
**Guilliman Round 1/2: hits 2.5 times, wounds 2.083 times, 1.0416 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.7083 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Guilliman Round 3 and thereafter: hits 3.333 times, wounds 2.778 times, 1.339 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 1.055 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Guilliman easily wins this fight... theoritically
**Note: As usual, Konrad should attempt to even the odds with Hit and Run, negating Preternatural Strategy while gaining the +1 attack for the charge (and sniping some wounds with his knives). Even with Guilliman using the Hand of Domination, there is a chance Curze doesn't suffer any damage from it (31% when Guilliman is WS7/8 and 20% when he is WS9) so he will actually negate Preternatural Strategy between 37% and 31% of the time, which is enough to give Rob a run for his money or even kill him if the Widowmakers score more than a single wound.

* Konrad Curze VS Leman Russ
**Russ hits 4 times, wounds 3 times, 1.5 time after saves, plus 0.583 wounds from Sever Life for a whole 2.083 wounds and IWND will take that down to 1.75 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Konrad Round 1: hits 2 times, wounds 1.5 times, 0.75 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.427.
**Konrad Round 2 and thereafter: hits 1 times, wounds 0.75 times, 0.375 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.042.
**Konrad gets wrecked.
**Note : Nothing will save Konrad from the Wolf King, but as always the Widowmakers can prove themselves a tricky surprise and Hit & Run mitigates the impact of the exothermic bullshit, making Curze one of the few primarchs who can die to Russ with a bit of dignity.

* Konrad Curze VS Jaghatai Khan
**Jaghatai hits 4 times, wounds 2 times, 1 wound after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.666
**Curze hits 4 times, wounds 2.222 times, 0.740 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.407 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Jaghatai wins, thanks to his high number of attacks. Curze could use Hit-and-Run to try to even the odds and give himself charge bonuses, but the Khan could do the same.

* TL;DR version: Even though he does a lot of damage, Konrad is not really suited for Primarch vs Primarch fights. Do not misunderstand: he is a real beast when he can make use of Hit & Run and the Widowmakers are extremely good, especially against Primarchs with strong invulnerable saves. Still, you have to consider that all of his special rules are primary designed to scare his opponents and make them flee, but since all Primarchs are Fearless he can't use them. Despite this, he can win some fights and, when he struggle, he can still significantly cripple even some of the strongest Primarchs, leaving them weak and vulnerable. But you are arguably best served to employ his mobility to evade them (instead of fighting) and charge something he could actually butcher in a single round, to make the most of his King of Terror special rule. Make their allies flee in panic and then destroy them when they are alone and surrounded...

</div></div>

==Gallery==
<gallery>
File:Night haunter by cabal art.png|Isn't he the cutest murderous psychopath vigilante ever?
File:Konrad.jpg
File:BigKurze.jpg|[[Emperor|Christ]] that looks epic. Even if it's on graph paper.
File:Konspire.png|Do not get on his bad side.
File:Spess Punisher.jpg|Two merry psycho vigilantes. Glorious coincidence or awesome tribute ?
File:KonradOnMacragge.jpg|Too bad he didn't get Matt Ward while hunting the Big Blue.
</gallery>

{{Primarchs}}

[[Category:Chaos]]

Konrad Curze

2019-09-24T17:04:26Z

2600:1006:B105:8611:58CC:338D:D9D2:B1D4: /* History */

{{awesome}}
{{heresy}}
[[File:Konrad Curze Mugshot.jpg|400px|thumb|right|"Yeah this guy seems nice." - Big E at some point.]]
{{Topquote|The horror, The horror...|[[Konrad Curze|Konrad]]'s real last words after probably describing to M'Shen [[40k|what he really saw in his visions]]}}
{{Topquote|He who fights with monsters should be careful lest he thereby become a monster. And if thou gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will also gaze into thee.|Friedrich Nietzsche}}
{{Topquote|There is no such thing as paranoia. Your worst fears can come true at any moment.|Hunter S. Thompson}}
{{Topquote|Know how I stayed alive this long? All these years? Fear. The spectacle of fearsome acts. Somebody steals from me: I cut off his hands. He offends me: I cut out his tongue. He rises against me: I cut off his head, stick it on a pike. Raise it high up so all in the streets can see. That's what preserves the order of things. Fear.|Bill the Butcher, Gangs of New York}}

'''Konrad Curze''' was the [[Primarch]] of the [[Night Lords]] Legion (his @ was '''Night Haunter'''). A [[Psyker]] (albeit a latent one), Curze is well-known for the fact that he was [[/b/|plagued from the moment of his awakening by visions of the most horrific future imaginable, terrifying waking dreams that would follow him from cradle to grave.]] Whilst [[/tg/]] has joked that he suffered the lamest death in history due to falling to a [[Callidus]] Assassin's blade (hence the ''"was"'' earlier), he remains a complete bad-ass compared to [[Roboute Guilliman|these]] [[Fulgrim|buffoons]].

Equal parts upstanding vigilante and psychosis-wracked terrorist, Curze's schtick was obedience through fear. To wit, if you're sat behind locked doors shitting yourself in terror for the majority of your existence, you're probably going to struggle to lead a life of crime. And if that logic doesn't make you reconsider your wayward ways, perhaps [[rip and tear|being skinned alive, then disembowelled and finally crucified]] will be the wake up call you need. Either way, Curze cut a somewhat tragic figure; he foresaw the events of the [[heresy]] only to be stitched up and censured by his [[Rogal Dorn|arsehole]] [[Fulgrim|brothers]], possibly due to [[rage|the fact he made for a nightmarish poker opponent]]. Of course, having a personality and approach that can be accurately summarized as "some unholy [[Batman]]-[[/co/|Punisher]]-[[Vampire|Vlad the Impaler]]-Predator-Santa hybrid" didn't win him many fans amongst his brothers, either.

His name is an oblique reference to ''Heart of Darkness''.

==History==
[[Image:Curzw-perturabo-Primarchs-.jpeg|thumb|400px|"Yeah he seems pretty balanced."]]
Curze wound up on the eternally-dark world of [[Nostramo]] after the Primarchs were scattered by [[Chaos]]. From the moment he landed Curze got fucked over as, unlike the usual stasis-pod-descending-from-a-beam-of-light type landing his brothers made, Konrad ''punched through the crust of the planet'' (the entire planet was made of adamantium, though...) and had to crawl his ass out from the core, all while being a TODDLER. Even after somehow surviving making an asteroid level impact, Curze's life somehow got worse as, again, unlike his brothers, he wound up with no one to take care of him. Konrad was forced to raise himself on this lawless hell-hole, where violence and cruelty was rampant (although there was no crime, of course, there not being any laws to break) and usually went unpunished, the rich openly exploited the poor, and depression and the inability to escape one's social standing were also rampant, leading to the population being largely kept down not through any fancy measures, but instead by suicide. As he grew older, Curze became more and more enraged by how this panned out, and eventually decided to take matters into his own hands.

Stalking the eternally-dark streets as a sort of [[Awesome|Space Marine Batman]], Curze began hunting down heretics and those who had been responsible for turning Nostramo into the cesspit it had become. Leaders of the corrupt administration disappeared, only to be found later hung from <s>Imperial</s> administration buildings and horribly mutilated, though their faces were often untouched so people would instantly recognize the victim. Notorious "criminals" (as defined by Konrad) were found out in the streets, eviscerated or impaled and left to die on the spires of manufactorum rooftops. The blood of those who had committed "crimes" flowed in the streets, with body parts stopping up storm drains.

But apparently Konrad still saw possible [[Noblebright]] futures of victims if he showed mercy. But he *knew* what his order demanded and killed them anyway. And apparently even saw suicide as a crime, and would show up to the person's apartment before hand. [[Grimdark|Not to talk them out of it. Just to make it painful and an example for others not to do it as well.]] What the fuck.

The really scary part? ''It worked''. Within a year, Curze had killed so fucking many dicks that the "crime" rate of Nostramo reached damned-near zero. Society went through a massive upheaval and curfews were imposed to minimize the casualties from [[Awesome|Space Marine Batman]]. Note that this was due to the fact that Nostramo was just that bad. Mothers began to threaten their kids that if they continued to misbehave, the Night Haunter would come for them - a story that came into common use on Nostramo, describing Curze, who stalked through the city, ready to disembowel any heretic or "criminal" foolish or bold enough to cross his path with anything on hand. His favored weapons, 'Lightning Claws', weren't used until he was found by the Emperor and united with his legion, which made armor and weapons available to him.

Curze became convinced of his choices being the right and just ones when he saw that the people of this world started to have hope again - he had become the only thing on the entire planet that people truly feared (and hated). Seizing the moment, Curze appeared before the few remaining nobles that had survived his vigilantist purges - the only ones who basically weren't complete assholes - and gave them a choice: Obey his rule, or die. One or two protested that he had imposed an order based on fear, but it made no difference. Curze, the Night Haunter, was made the ruler of Nostramo.

To the surprise of most, Curze proved to be a fairly capable ruler, surprisingly just and temperate. He made strong attempts to educate himself on absolutely everything he could learn, and was noted for his skills as an adjudicator, worthy of a [[Reasonable Marines|Reasonable Marine]]. This was, of course, until word of an injustice reached Curze's ears - at which point he would hunt down the transgressor himself, wearing them down, and killing them horribly. His unpredictable pattern of benevolence and wisdom contrasted by jaw-dropping levels of violence beyond that of an [[Eversor]] ushered in a new era of efficiency and honesty across Nostramo on a planetary scale, mainly as an act of capitulation in order to keep the Night Haunter from their doors. Needless to say, this peace did not come with a contentedness like some of his brothers achieved. Had he ever learned how to delegate to minions made up of the local populace, he might have been more effective, but alas.

===The Great Crusade===
[[Image:The viii primarch by saint max-d424fmh.jpg|right|thumb|350px|[[Castlevania|I was called here by ''huuuuuumans''. Who wish to pay meeeee ''tribute''.]]]]
Soon after Curze took over and began ruling the planet, the [[Emperor]]'s Great Crusade reached Nostramo; the coming of the Emperor of Man was an event long prophesied in Nostramo's history - an event which would eventually bring about the apocalypse. The Emperor and his delegation (which consisted of [[Rogal Dorn]], [[Ferrus Manus]], [[Lorgar|Lorgar Aurelian]], [[Fulgrim]], and their respective Legiones Astartes) proceeded to the Palace on foot, his radiance blinding the adapted-to-darkness onlookers and mesmerizing those who did not look directly at him.

At the end of the road leading to his Palace, Curze stood, waiting for the delegation, when he had one of his visions. He saw the fate of each of his brothers and his own death; he saw blood spurting from his own neck and no matter what he did he couldn't stop it. He would have succeeded in clawing his own eyes out if the Emperor hadn't stopped him. He and the Emperor then had this badass exchange:

''"Konrad Curze, be at peace, for I have arrived and intend to take you home."''<br>
''"That is not my name, Father. I am Night Haunter, and I know full well what you [[Just as planned|intend for me]]."''

Awesome. Curze began training under [[Fulgrim]], who taught him the Adeptus Astartes combat doctrines and began molding him to be a suitable leader for his role as the leader of the Eighth Space Marine Legion - the Night Lords. Later it was revealed that during his training under [[Fulgrim]], Curze had had one of his visions, this one about the Horus Heresy. While he told Fulgrim this in confidence, he would later learn that one flaw Fulgrim had (beside dressing like a peacock) was that Fulgrim didn't know the meaning of the word confidential or that the notion of what was told to him was done so in sacred trust between himself and his favored brother. Well, the joke seemed to be on Curze, as no sooner had he told Fulgrim about the vision than Fulgrim had run over to [[Rogal Dorn]] and told him everything. [[FAIL|Rogal Dorn comforted Curze and he got better.]]

Though Curze and his legion excelled in many different hot-zones throughout the Great Crusade, a disturbing tendency arose in short order; the Night Lords would never use anything other than total, decisive force to achieve their goals. Or maybe "force" is the wrong word; they didn't battle so much as terrify their enemies into submission. The Night Lords quickly adapted to Curze's combat and tactical ethos, becoming one of the most brutally effective, if not ruthless, legions in the Imperium. In one notorious example, one Night Lord recalls dealing with a non compliant planetary governor; Curze murdered the man and then broadcast the screams of the man’s daughter across an entire city for 3 HOURS to frighten the remaining remaining rebels into submission. The Night Lords decorated their armor with iconography designed to inspire terror in the enemy - a tactic that proved incredibly effective. Unsurprising, considering how terrifying Space Marines are without it. Where they struck, the Night Lords left examples - grim reminders of the price for disobeying the Imperium. In time, it became so that even the mere ''mention'' of the Night Lords' approach would cause a system to pay all outstanding tithes, cease all illegal activities, stop downloading torrents of ''Blossom'', and put to death any [[Furry|mutants or heretics]]. In hindsight, though, we here on /tg/ can't really be all that surprised by their brutality when we remember it was Fulgrim who tutored the VIII Legion's primarch. How else would the Night Haunter interpret the Phoenician's excessive battlefield perfectionism than a need for excessive violence?

Problems arose, however, as the Great Crusade dragged on - reinforcements to replace the Night Lords that fell in battle were, as was the case of the other Legions, selected from the population of Curze's homeworld, Nostramo. Unfortunately, in Curze's absence, the population collapsed into the same corruption, criminality, and despair that had ruled the roost before his arrival. Nostramo had no police force due to Curze insisting on being all of law enforcement by himself, which has all of the obvious problems. The most ruthless of the criminals were the only ones healthy and strong enough - and these were the most common replacement recruits for the Night Lords. Despite all the Space Marines indoctrination, ruthless psychopaths tend to make for poor soldiers. Insubordination to Curze's orders became more frequent and he began having to deal with his own measure of "fixing" things with the criminal scum that were inducted into his forces. Making matters worse, his visions continued to increase in both frequency and graphic severity.

Finally, it reached the point where Curze had no choice but to deal with the problem of his recruiting world turning into a [[Star Wars D20|wretched hive of scum and villainy]], but Fulgrim, the only Primarch Curze had any real connection with, was largely unavailable, and the other Primarchs, instead of listening to him and trying to help, bitched him out and said that it wasn't their problem.

The straw that would finally break the camel's back was during a joint operation between The Night Lords and the Imperial Fists.

[[Rogal Dorn]] had confronted Curze where he was overseeing the process of [[Grimdark|a long line of prisoners of war who were to be executed as a punitive action]], where Dorn had taken issue with Curze's way of doing things, saying that peace through fear was not what the Emperor of mankind had intended. Konrad Curze decided to prove his point to Dorn; that without the fear of consequences people wouldn't stay loyal. To illustrate this, Curze gave one of the prisoners a gun and then ordered his men not to kill him, no matter what might happen. Curze pointed the gun in the prisoner's hand right under his chin, saying [[Troll|"Go ahead, kill me."]] The prisoner refused, to which Curze stated his Astartes would not kill him. The prisoner, now confident that the Night Lords wouldn't shoot him and when Curze turned his back to him, immediately raised the gun, but Curze killed him before the prisoner could fire at him. Using intimidation and the predictable reaction to it, Curze "proved" his point: once the fear of consequence has been removed, people will feel no loyalty. Of course, he actually completely failed to do this, as he did not choose a loyal test subject to begin with, but Curze had never been one to understand the difference between a friend and an enemy.

Now, if [[Rogal Dorn]] had been better with people, he would just have left well enough alone, or perhaps sensibly told Curze that while fear was capable of enforcing obedience it could never create loyalty; and that his inability to differentiate the two was what was causing his problems. But as established before, the Emperor hadn't exactly designed the Primarchs with brains in mind. So in an effort to win the argument, Rogal revealed what Fulgrim had said to him about Curze's vision. (In all fairness, Dorn didn't know Fulgrim had broken his word by revealing him this. Still could have handled it better, though...) Angry at the betrayal of trust while in the grip of one of his visions, Curze attacked Dorn with his lightning claws, mauling him so badly that if he hadn't been a Primarch he would have died from his wounds.

As it was, Curze was just put on house arrest/grounded until the matter of an unsanctioned attack ''(read two missing primarchs)'' by one Primarch on another could be resolved. Curze, however, after reading a special batch of Nostraman tarot cards, said "Screw you guys, we're going home". After killing the Imperial Fists and Emperor's Children who were guarding him grimdark Batman-style, he and the Night Lords set course towards Nostramo. Curze tried to salvage things while on his homeworld, but the Emperor's arrival had removed the one last barrier the people of Nostramo had between themselves and utter despair: ignorance.

Of course, as the "Prince of Crows" heavily hints at, Curze didn't ''do'' anything other than horrifically kill people and incite fear by doing so. No improving the infrastructure, setting up a police force, or anything. And Curze refused to see this as a problem. This could only have lasted so long. In all actuality, the Emperor's arrival just sped things up. It wasn't the other Primarchs' problem, it was Konrad's mess and his one trick wasn't working anymore.

The knowledge of other worlds beyond Nostramo inflicted a hopelessness that guaranteed that nothing on Nostramo could ever change... which makes no sense given both the fact that many in the Imperium had massively improved their lives and that Nostramo had been trading its adamantium to several other human star systems long before the Imperium arrived (though "Prince of Crows" shows that this was because Curze made it so to ensure that there was nothing to do on Nostramo besides "behave and slowly die in an adamantium foundry" or "become a criminal and die either slowly or quickly (depending on Curze's mood)"), leaving the world to fester in corruption and depravity like a metastasized tumor. This was made worse by the Imperial governor appointed to rule Nostramo in Curze's absence, whose corruption-heavy regime more-or-less plunged the entire planet into the same shit that had given birth to the Night Haunter in the first place. Needless to say, Curze was absolutely pissed at his planet and his work going back to square one.

Imperial pursuit craft, determined to stop Curze for abandoning the Great Crusade and checking on his homeworld, arrived just in time to see the lance batteries of Curze's fleet put an end to the nightmare that the planet's inhabitants had found themselves in - the only way he knew how: remorseless mass murder. Curze destroyed the planet with sustained orbital fire to the fissures his own arrival created.

According to Curze's recollection/opinion exterminating Nostramo was to test the Night Lords themselves. Had they stopped Curze it would have proven that at least some of them were worth something in Curze's goal: to use fear to create a true order. But even Sevatar (whom Curze favored) simply followed orders. Ironically Curze's other equerry (who Curze thought was an ass kiss,) begged Sevatar to talk Konrad out of it. There were some Night Lords who did refuse to aid in Nostramo's destruction, but they got put down pretty quickly.

Curze's actions caused him to be especially vulnerable to the whispers of Chaos. The campaigns of the Night Lords became harder and harder to justify - terror campaigns leaving a trail of devastated worlds across the breadth of the galaxy. Curze abandoned his devotion to the Emperor, instead fighting only to spread death and fear. Eventually, it got so bad that the Emperor recalled the Night Lords and prepared to call Curze to task for his actions and that of his legion.

This was 20 years before the Horus Heresy mind you, and it is very likely that the Imperium thought he had gone rogue at that point, or at the very least, completely unhinged for blowing up his homeworld, especially since they had been recalled to account for their terror campaigns and war crimes. So it's a bit bizarre that the loyalists thought it was a good thing that the Night Lords showed up to support them at Isstvan and ''didn't'' see a double-cross coming. Probably didn't mind because the Night Lords have [[lulz|A talent for Murder.]]

===Horus Heresy===
[[File:NocturnusObsessoris-Final.jpg|300px|thumb|left|Konrad overlooking the spires of Nostramo. and looking badass while doing it.]]
When Horus turned against the Emperor with Fulgrim, Curze was quick to throw in his lot behind the brothers he had actually been able to relate to as opposed to [[Roboute Guilliman|the fucking asshole]]. He even ended up saving Lorgar from [[Corvus Corax]] (although after seeing the Gal Vorbak, the very first squad of [[Possessed Marine]]s, he felt it was a mistake). Said intervention also shook Corax himself to his very soul, as he saw in Konrad the very thing he might have become, had he fallen to [[Chaos]] and possibly adopted a different view on [[RIP AND TEAR|disemboweling innocent civilians]].

The Night Lords remained impious, siding with none of the Chaos Gods and instead using them as mere tools in their terror campaigns. Almost entirely populated by criminals and murderers, the Night Lords led the [[Dark Angels]] and the Lion all over the Eastern Fringe. The insanity doesn't end there. In the middle of dicking with the Angels, he invited [[Lion El'Jonson]] to a dead planet (future place of his new palace and his own death...) to deliver a message from Horus, which actually predicted the Dark Angels' fate of everyone hating their guts for not being on Terra because Curze had lead them all over the Eastern Fringe (HAR HAR HAR).

The Lion, who has [[Serious Business|zero tolerance]] for insults, proceeded to attack Curze and got a fantastic one-shot off on him, though that was all he'd get and the two descended into a brawl which had to be ended with the brothers getting pulled off of each other and dragged back to their respective fleets.

The Dark Angels would eventually get the upper hand, presumably because Curze was partly pre-occupied by his "guest" (see below) and because the Lion would start using a [[Heresy|powerful and sentient warp engine]] that allowed him to out maneuver the Night Lords and capture Curze temporarily, essentially breaking the back of the Night Lords Legion. Strangely enough, the most (or second most) brilliant strategist of the entire universe couldnt crack a thing or two when dealing with this one-trick <s>pony</s> batman psychopath, but had to rely on plot-device to bend his brother over (although the Thramas campaign was going to obviously end one way or the other and with the shit the DA can pull, not to mention their numbers probably meant that Lion could've fucked Curze up the ass without the warp engine). Anyway, with Curze out of the picture [[Sevatar]] ''took over'' the Legion. Read that as murderfucked most of the leading captains and told the fleet to disperse and do [[Rip and Tear|whatever it was they wanted]].

====Vulkan====
[[Vulkan]] became Konrad's prisoner after Isstvan V. Unfortunately, Vulkan is [[Perpetual|immortal or some shit]], so he kept coming back from the dead. This pissed the shit out of Curze, who decided to torture him instead (well actually his failure to kill Vulkan for good increasingly "frustrated" him so he started to get "creative"). Vulkan had to do all kinds of shit, including being forced to kill his own [[Salamanders]], watch prisoners starve themselves, and fight [[Corax]] in a dream. In the end, though, Curze couldn't bring Vulkan down to his level, causing massive amounts of [[rage]].

{{spoilers}}

Vulkan ended up in a maze built by [[Perturabo]], with his hammer at the end of it. Vulkan had a teleporter in his hammer, which he figured Curze didn't know about, which made him hopeful. He couldn't navigate the maze worth shit though, and he was pretty much fucked, but after a couple of days, he pissed off Curze, who then led him to the center so they could fight. Curze was all "fuck you, teleporters don't work here", to which Vulkan replied, "[[Lulz|It's also a hammer]]". Vulkan then proceeded to beat the shit out of Curze, but didn't kill him (because that would be stooping to his level, apparently).

When he was done, Vulkan said (essentially) "Fuck you Curze, ''I'M'' VULKAN! So MY teleporters work here. I just wanted to beat the shit out of you." He then escaped, leaving Curze more emo, depressed, and filled with more [[RAGE]] than ever before. Not that this mattered because Curze subsequently went on to take out his considerable ire against the entire Dark Angels Legion, leading to an impressively murderous trip to Macragge where he role-played a combination of every slasher movie killer and went with whatever felt natural; his ire got worse, however, when he went after big Bobby G's mother. He tried his usual shtick of freaking her out with how much of a creepy bastard he was. It worked for five seconds before she told him to piss off and die. He would have killed the Lion AND Roboute with a powerful explosion (he had set the chapel of Hera to explode with them in it) if it hadn't been for the power of friendship. Seriously...[[My Little Pony|friendship truly is magi-]]{{BLAM}}.

After having a running battle with Vulkan through the streets of Macragge in which he ended up killing Vulkan several times, taking a morbid delight in seeing how long it would take for him to revive after every kill, he ended up being jumped by a bottled demon and briefly being dragged into the warp. Curze managed to kill (as in completely, not just banishing) the demon, and was dumped back onto Macragge. He had yet to reappear but had the entire planet on curfew while he was still (theoretically) around.

After spending some time terrifying the locals, he eventually snuck into Sanguinius’s throne room. After talking for a while about how “It’s all daddy’s fault”, Curze and Sanguinius ended up fighting each other. Despite Curze outmatching Sanguinius - as he was fully armed and armoured, and Sanguinius was not - he was also fully aware that he could not kill Sanguinius (even if he wanted to) due to the fact his destiny was to be eventually killed at Horus’s hands. Both Primarchs had visions of what could happen during the fight and were evenly matched due to their precognition. They eventually separated and Curze gave Sanguinius the chance to kill him, but Sanguinius stopped the blow in mid-air out of pity. Curze then proceeded to mutilate [[Sanguinary_Guard#Azkaellon|Azkaellon]] before blowing up a whole lot of Sanguinary Guard, threw what remained of Azkaellon off a cliff, and disappeared.

Despite having the resources of almost 3 full legions, the rulers of Imperium Secundus had great difficulty tracking Curze down. When it was revealed that Curze had never ever even left Macragge once in the years since his arrival, the Lion put the planet under almost total martial law and brought in his official Overkill brigade to deal with him. Curze had been fomenting rebellion amongst the Illyrians, a part of Macragge that had never really accepted the civilisation of Konor and Guilliman. After the Dark Angels massacred an entire nation in response, Curze laid his final endgame in a mountain fortress. The Lion, in response, broke his word to Guilliman, and contrived a devastating (and forbidden) orbital bombardment using droppods and assault rams converted into barrage bombs and torpedoes. When the smoke cleared, the Lion went solo hunting again, walking into the trap Curze had set for him. Unfortunately, for a precog, Curze hadn't anticipated that the Lion had already cleared all the traps set for him and he was captured after a duel (the Lion cheated by calling in Fire Raptors to prevent Curze from escaping). The Lion is considered to be the most brilliant tactician of the Primarchs for a reason.

Despite being finally caught, Curze had both the penultimate and last laugh. He managed to do what the Word Bearers, World Eaters, and Night Lords legion had not managed to do with soldiers and fleets, and broke the Imperium Secundus. His official court trial had barely started when he told Guilliman that that the Lion had broken his word by staging an ersatz orbital bombardment. Guilliman, having finally lost his patience with the Lion, snapped the Lion's sword in two and Sanguinius told him and his legion to GTFO of Imperium Secundus (because sending a legion into what he thinks is certain death by Warpstorm for the crime of shooting the bad guy and not even hurting anything but the damn fortress is a brilliant decision). However, just as the Lion was about to leave the system, he remembered Curze's words of prophecy, that his back, the Lion's sword, and word would be broken (as well as Curze's proclamation that he would be killed by an assassin sent by the Emperor). The Lion teleported back to Macragge, just as Curze was about to be executed and explained the situation. Guilliman had a mini breakdown over everything he had done on the premise the greater Imperium had fallen and Curze laughed himself into an aneurysm at the whole situation.

He would remain in custody throughout the journey back to Terra, initially kept under lock and key by the [[Dark Angels]], but was later "broken free" by Sanguinius, who dragged him down to '''Davin''' so that they could possibly change their destinies together. This frightened the absolute crap out of Curze, not least because of the potential fact that if Sanguinius could change his destiny to die by Horus' hands, then that would mean that Curze could avoid his own assassination later on, which in turn would make all of his life meaningless because he was such an evil bastard based on his absolute certainty of how events would unfold.

However, this would not be, as Sanguinius realised that to make the change in his fate, he would need to become something worse than even Horus, so he allowed fate to continue on course. What's worse is that although Sanguinius accepted his own fate, he threatened Curze with the possibility that the Emperor could even ''forgive'' him for all of his crimes, pushing Curze into silent horror at the thought that his universe was not what he thought it was. But in a cruel twist, Sanguinius decided to leave his brother to his destiny, while also pointing out that while he could pin down the actual time and location of his death to the bridge of the ''Vengeful Spirit'' at the [[Siege of Terra]]; Curze's assassination might not actually occur for millennia, and thus he promptly jettisoned his brother's stasis coffin into space.

These interactions firmly establish Sanguinius as a foil to ol' Konrad, in the sense that both were cursed from birth with precognitive abilities that would shape their personalities and ultimately their fates. Sanguinius believed it possible to avert and alter the path of his future, but accepted it instead upon realizing that doing so would entail becoming something even worse in the progress; Konrad actively rejected even the possibility of doing so, as he considered his fate to be set in stone, to the point he'd lived his whole life based on that notion. And as he had just discovered, Sanguinius was also a scary motherfucker in his own way.

===Death===
After being jettisoned into space, Curze's stasis coffin was picked up by a freighter. The future victims were eager to sell his coffin for a big payday instead of being smart and chucking it into a sun, so naturally Konrad escaped. When Curze got out Horus was long dead and took a moment to ask a crew member the date. [[Grimdark|Guess what Curze did to the crew.]] [[Rip and Tear|Please, fucking guess.]]

After the battle was lost, they fled back to Tsagualsa with what was left of the Legion. The Emperor, however, wishing to stop the Night Lords forevermore, dispatched an [[Officio Assassinorum]] operative from the [[Callidus|Callidus Temple]] to kill him.

Curze spent his last hours crafting a statue of Big E to whine about how daddy never loved him, and how his ways were necessary. [[Grimdark|By the way the statue was made of human flesh.]]

When his confession was done, he burned the corpse-statue of the Corpse-Emperor and walked in his corpse-fortress and put on his armor, told his Legion to fuck off his damn corpse-lawn, and sat down to wait for his corpse-mama to come.

Curze had foreseen everything, or had chosen a fate believing the future was set, just as Sanguinius had. With his final prediction coming true, Curze waited for his just punishment.

Confronted with the Callidus Assassin M'Shen, it is believed that Curze proceeded to make jokes about how she had [[Pretend|butt-sex]] with [[Macha]] before getting down to brass tacks and explaining why he'd allowed her in so easily:

<blockquote>''"Your presence does not surprise me, Assassin. I have known of you ever since your craft entered the Eastern Fringes. Why did I not have you killed? Because your mission and the act you are about to commit proves the truth of all I have ever said or done. I merely punished those who had wronged, just as your false Emperor now seeks to punish me. Death is nothing compared to vindication."''</blockquote>

Whilst it's never been confirmed who [[rape|came out on top]] (or whether or not the Callidus and he engaged in [[Heresy|hardcore ball-busting sex]]), it is believed by many that Curze allowed himself to be killed, having given explicit orders to the Night Lords to allow M'Shen to escape. Only one Night Lord, Apothecary Talos Valcoran of the 10th Company, pursued her out of vengeance (the Night Lords did eventually join in pursuit, but that was only after the senior Captains realized that M'Shen (no connection to Martin Sheen, none at all) had [[Ork|looted]] Curze of all his bling, which they wanted for themselves). It is believed that Curze had come to see himself as a murderous and corrupt villain - the very thing he had sought out to destroy (or perhaps he wished to prove that his decision to destroy Nostramo and join Horus was justified, as the Emperor had become one more tyrant who had to be slain). Maybe he was a heroic [[Awesome|Space Marine Batman]] who lived long enough to become the villain.

Even after Curze caused so much carnage, though, particularly to Ultramar and Macragge, it's interesting to note that Guilliman seems to still pity him. During the Plague Wars, Guilliman admits to an associate that, out of the whole fucked up Primarch family, only "poor Konrad" truly saw the Heresy coming, and that if he hadn't been insane, it all might've been avoided.

==Psychic Ability==
Although knowledge of his gifts apparently were not widespread amongst the ranks of his brother Primarchs, Curze was capable of mild feats of psychic display. This was first evidenced by what he would come to call his "affliction" or "curse". Namely, that Konrad was often wracked by horrible visions, likened to waking nightmares, of how people would die. He was no exception; as stated above, the Night Haunter had foreseen his own death from the moment he awoke on Nostramo. These visions also occasionally extended to those he would lay eyes upon. This included his brother Primarchs, and explained his fondness for [[Fulgrim]] - the one person who Konrad had not seen suffer a terrible death upon first meeting him. In fact, Konrad's vision after laying eyes on Fulgrim was often described as hazy or lacking in some quality. What was apparent was that Fulgrim somehow found a way to cheat death. It was when he laid eyes on [[Ferrus Manus]], immediately after, that he was shown Fulgrim would somehow be present at the site of Ferrus' demise. Despite this, he was the one primarch whom Konrad didn't foresee a [[Grimdark|misfortunate or ghastly future.]] It was this closeness that eventually led Konrad to confess to Fulgrim the nature of the visions he had received, as detailed in the popular duology of Black Library short stories ''The Dark King'' and ''The Lightning Tower''. Konrad claims to have seen a good and bad future at times, but always chose the [[grimdark]] future.

The Night Haunter also displayed a few other feats of psychic development, such as [[Psychic Disciplines|telekinetically]] destroying a series of lights to aid in his escape from a VII Legion detention chamber, and psychically conversing with Jago "Sevatar" Sevatarion. [[Sevatar]], a latent psyker, was exploring Konrad's psyche during the latter's unconsciousness resulting from wounds inflicted by the [[Lion El'Jonson]] during the [[Thramas Crusade]]. Apparently the Night Haunter had a role in helping to suppress Sevatar's psychic potential, as revealed in the conversation between them - and that, because Sevatar was not trained in their use, those psychic abilities would be increasingly [[Chaos|self-destructive.]] Why he simply did not start training him will probably forever remain a mystery. He must have been the legion's only psyker or there is no rationale explaining why Sevatar was not just passed over to the Night Lord's Librarius for training his abilities. (The ''Night Lords'' Trilogy explains this by an incompatibility between the gene-seed and the host, the visions being a 'side-effect' of that struggle as it grows worse over time.)

As the Primarch of the VIII Legion, Konrad had a servant throughout the Great Crusade named Ekra Trez (who bore the title of "Sin-Eater"). Trez was tasked with keeping a record of the Night Haunter's pre-cognitive visions in a massive tome, and would often make note of which ones had been proven correct or false. Trez was also more than aware of Sevatar's psychic ability, leaving some readers of the Black Library's Horus Heresy novels curious as to what role Trez may have played in the Primarch's psychic development - if any.

==Lasting Legacy==
The Night Haunter, in his death, may have continued to leave a lasting impression upon the Imperium as inspiration for one of it's many institutions. Although his legion continues to sow fear and discord amongst the stars, Konrad Curze's legacy of weaponized fear lives on within the Imperium through the Emperor's Holy Ordos of the [[Inquisition]]. Like the inquisitors of the 41st Millennium, Konrad brought loyal citizens into compliance through fear and threats of death/torture beyond imagining to those who weren't sure where their allegiances lay. Those who failed to comply were guaranteed either a swift death at the hands of his legion, or a slow death at the tender mercies of his legion's most depraved souls. Lastly, if those comparisons weren't enough, look at the fate of Nostramo - Konrad essentially carried out an act of Exterminatus. Just as Lorgar's teachings on the Emperor's divinity would later lay the foundation for the Imperial Creed of the [[Ecclesiarchy]], the Night Haunter could effectively be treated as the first author of the Inquisition's playbook. Not that they wouldn't BLAM you for heresy if you said that to their faces though.

Within the Night Lords, Curze and the Night Haunter each left their own legacy, which caused no small amount of schism. Officially, Curze appointed Zso Sahaal as his successor and Talonmaster, because Sahaal understood that a true warrior is more than just a murder machine. A true warrior has ''focus''. As you can probably predict, every other Night Lord captain decided that ''they'' were more deserving of being Curze's successor and tried to get Sahaal dethroned for being "weak" or whatever. Their logic was that Curze wasn't in charge, the Night Haunter was, and the Night Haunter was supposed to choose the ''true'' successor. After Sahaal became lost in the Warp, captain Krieg Acerbus "the Axemaster" slowly but surely took over huge swathes of the Night Lords and led them to become [[Chaos Undivided]] followers. Ironically, the Night Haunter had no intention of ever choosing a successor as he would have preferred that his legion die out completely for becoming everything he personally despised.

==Multiple Personality Disorder?==
Now, we all know the [[Black Library]] can range from the [[Dan Abnett|godly]] to the [[C.S.Goto|Goto]]. So this must be taken with a grain of salt. But ''Lord of the Night'' implies that Curze suffered from Dissociative Identity Disorder, such that he and the Night Haunter were two different people: Konrad, the just leader of men, and the Night Haunter, the murderous vigilante. ''Blood Reaver'' also implies it (a Night Lords sorcerer talking about how at one moment he was trying to teach his long-dead father some idealistic lesson, while at another he was only concerned about eating some slave's heart) and shows signs of other mental instability, such as when he has a bit of a manic episode and forgets that his First Captain died several years ago, indicating dementia or schizophrenia; ''Blood Reaver'' also suggests that the Emprah's DNA may not have entirely settled in Curze's body, explaining why he was so batshit crazy by the time of his death, not to mention the corpse-like appearance he was sporting near the end. The upshot of this is that ''only the Night Haunter'' fell to Chaos, while Curze remained clean. Which one got the other killed is unknown. Other books have inverted the relationship, suggesting that the Night Haunter was the "honest" monster that was needed to do the terrible things required, whilst Curze was the fallible human who fell to his own weaknesses.

Another thing perhaps tied with his Multiple Personality Disorder is that Konrad Curze towards the end had ended up hating his own legion. In a conversation with First Captain Sevatar, Konrad mentioned that he had spoken with Angron and Lorgar following the Istvaan III purge. Cleansing the untrustworthy elements of the World Eaters and the Word Bearers. The sheer absurdity of the idea was laughable to the Night Haunter, for his brothers knew exactly when to stop the killing of the weak, the treacherous and the corrupt within their bloodlines. He had no idea where to begin culling the Night Lords' ranks. His sons were no longer cast in his image. Less than a decade after he had departed Nostramo that world had sent him nothing but filth to integrate into the VIII Legion as Neophytes; the disgusting dregs of humanity his own Apothecaries had infused with his genetic material and reforged into transhumans. The VIII Legion had become poisoned by their presence. The VIII Legion was now composed of warriors who were murderers in the Primarch's own image, yet devoid of his conviction (which does not make any sense at all because, see above: <s>Every Space Marine is massively brain-washed during their ascension, and in the 41st millenium chapters even preferentially recruit from either backwater worlds - where killing someone because he has more shiny bling than you is still acceptable - or hive gangers over aristocrats on more developed worlds, simply because they are more likely to survive the transformation process.. Just think of the "blood games" many chapters perform to determine the most fitting candidates "hey, lets see who can work together and kill as many of the other aspirants as possible"</s> Extensive hypno-indoctrination only really became a thing AFTER the Heresy, specifically as a reaction to it to help ensure the loyalty of future marines. How much good it's done is debatable. During the Great Crusade and Heresy, they were churning out marines at a breakneck pace to keep up all those fuckhueg legion numbers, so a marine's personality remained much intact.). The Night Lords had become nothing more than killers and abusers, bleeding the weak for their own amusements because they enjoyed it as good sport. Fear became an end unto itself, and its propagation was all the Night Lords desired as they fed upon it.

This was made even more clear by what Curze told Talos before he and the Assassin gotten it on:<br>
''"Many will claim to lead our Legion in the years after I am gone. Many will claim that they - and they alone - are my appointed successor. I hate this Legion, Talos. I destroyed its world to stem the flow of poison. I will be vindicated soon, and the truest lesson of the Night Lords will be taught. Do you truly believe I care what happens to any of you after my death?"''

Now some might say he was overreacting a bit, but still, given how the criminal overlords he had spent most of his life on Nostramo eradicating, took over again as soon as he had left the planet and started sending their henchmen to be turned into Space Marines, it might be understandable. It was not for nothing that Horus had cause to [[Perturabo|muse that]] [[Angron|his generals]] [[Fulgrim|were psychopaths]] while the Emperor's were noble, statuesque leaders of men.

According to his novel Curze was tremendously crazy by the time of his death. He crafted a flesh golem of the Emperor to state his case to it. Soon after Curze heard a voice in his head that Curze might have thought was his statue.

He also thought Sevatar was still alive at the time, though Sevatar's death hasn't been confirmed yet.

==Tabletop==
[[Image:Konrad-Curze-1.jpg|thumb|right|Wristblades? Check. Stealth capabilities? Check. Skinning prey and taking trophies? Check. Now he just needs a shoulder mounted plasma gun and a muscle-bound Austrian and he'll be able to pass himself off as the Predator.]]

{| class=wikitable
! || WS || BS || S || T || W || I || A || Ld || Sv
|-
| '''Konrad Curze:''' || 8 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 7 || 5+1 || 10 || 2+/4++
|}

On the tabletop, Curze has the basic Primarch statline plus Shrouded and Stealth. He has several fear based abilities, such as granting fear to all Night Lords (those who already have Fear impose a -1 on the leadership test), fear tests when in combat with him are taken at -3LD, and if he kills a unit in close combat any unit subject to fear within 12' and line of sight must take a leadership test or fall back. Sire of the Night Lords also grants him the Acute Senses and Night Vision USR, and he may elect to have the first turn of any game have the Night Fighting rule, giving his sons 4+ cover in the open. His weapons are 2 Lightning Claws called Mercy and Forgiveness which have AP 2, the Murderous Strike rule and grants +1 attack (Paired) and his armour, the Nightmare Mantle, provides 2+ armour save and 4+ invulnerable save (like most Primarch Armour), plus when he charges, it grants him hit and run and Hammer of Wrath special rules (inflicting d3 HoW hits instead of the usual one).

Due to the combination of being Jump Infantry and his variety of Fear-based shenanigans, Curze is one of the easier Primarchs to use. The ability to ensure Night Fighting helps your force close to melee where it belongs, and Fear makes it more effective once you get there. He can Hit and Run, butchering high-value targets and [[Awesome|making enemies who see piss themselves in terror and flee.]] The real genius of his rules is that, like Mortarion, he's primed to annihilate a certain kind of unit and has the mobility to chase it down, while also making your legion better at what it already does well. That said, he doesn't provide any sort of morale bonus to the Night Lords, who desperately need one, and it's fucking embarassing that he can't even hurt AV13.

Best of all, his ranged weapon proves definitely that Konrad Curze is Batman. He figuratively uses Batarangs during the shooting phase. His ranged attack is called a "Widowmaker Volley", which is essentially 3 bolt pistol shots with a special rules that makes 4+ to hit precision shots: 6s to wound ignore both armor AND invulnerable saves. You can't save against the God-Damned Bat Man. The best part is the actual description of the weapons in the Horus Heresy rulebook: "The Widowmakers: Based on the micro-serrated throwing knives utilized for signature-kills by Nostraman assassin-cults, Curze favored the use of these vicious, yet highly precise weapons over more conventional firearms in battle, using them to disable and maim as he wished."

===Konrad Curze VS other Primarchs:===
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%">
Primarch fighting, while fun to see, isn't a very competitive thing to do as it'll usually tie up both Primarchs for the entire game without either of them dying. With that in mind this section is about how Konrad Curze fares against other Primarchs Mathhammer wise. Please note that all the various abilities are taken into accounts when possible and the match-ups assume the Primarchs are the only ones involved in the fighting, so various abilities like Angron's "The Butcher's Nails" and Rampage do not provide any bonuses. In essence, the fights are supposed to happen in a "Vacuum" for simplicity, but notes are added to make things clearer in particular instances. Also all of the Primarch use their most powerful weapons (because why have a contest if you don't do your best?).
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">

* Konrad Curze VS Horus
**Horus hits 3 times (Talon), wounds 2.667 times, 1.333 after saves and IWND will take that down to 1 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Konrad hits 3 times, wounds 2.25 times, 0.75 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.417.
**Konrad lose (not a big surprise) and as always Horus use his Talon 'cause, even though he would do more damage with Worldbreaker, the Talon allows him to make his opponent basically harmless after a couple of wounds.

* Konrad Curze VS Angron
**Angron Round 1: hits 5.333 times, wounds 4.444 times, 2.222 after saves, and IWND take it down to 1.889.
**Angron Round 2 and thereafter: hits 4 times, wounds 3.333 times, 1.667 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 1.333 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Curze hits 3 times, wounds 2.25 times (0.75 of which causes ID), 1 wounds after saves and FNP and IWND will take that down to 0.667 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Angron easily wins, doing a lot more damage and receiving less in turn.
**Note: Curze can Hit & Run, but by doing so he would only gain one more attack, while allowing Angron to reset his Hatred, thus actually making himself dies even faster. However he would be a much better fight: Konrad on the Charge would do 2.625 wounds (0.875 with ID) which become 1.168, plus 0.1389 for HoW and 0,359 for the Widowmakers, for a total of 1,666 wounds, or 1.333 after IWND. This, thanks to the -1 wound of Angron, actually means that they would kill each other on the fifth assault, at the same initiative step. Provided that Konrad always succeed in his escape, that is.

* Konrad Curze vs Mortarion
**Mortarion hits 2.5 times, wounds 1.667 times, 0.833 wounds after saves and 0.5 wounds after IWND.
**Curze hits 4 times, wounds 2.222 times, 1.11 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.555 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Curze lose as even though he does more damage, Mortarion has 1 more wound that will make him outlast the Night Haunter.
**Note: with the Hit & Run tactics Konrad would actually win, thanks to the +1 attack on the charge, HoW and the knives, butchering Mortarion in 9 rounds while Mortarion would need 11 (counting overwatch).

* Konrad Curze vs Fulgrim
**Fulgrim hits 3.5 times, wounds 2.333 times, 1.167 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.833 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Curze hits 3 times, wounds 2.25 times, 0.75 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.417 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Easy win for Fulgrim. Even with Hit & Run, Konrad would not win this fight. Still, he would outdamage Fulgrim on the charge (1.472 wounds after all saves, 1.139 after IWND) and he would lose only thanks to the superior initiative of the Phoenician, coming extremely close to claiming a surprising draw.

* Konrad Curze vs Ferrus Manus
**Ferrus hits 2.5 times, wounds 2.083 times, 1.042 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.709 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Curze hits 4 times, wounds 2.222 times, 0.741 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.407 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Ferrus win.
**Note: Even though with Hit & Run Konrad could close the gap and do almost the same exact damage as Ferrus over the course of the fight, mathematically winning thanks to his superior initiative, this tactics is not reliable against the Gorgon thanks to the Concussive & Strikedown of Forgebreaker.

* Konrad Curze VS Vulkan
**Vulkan hits 2 times, wounds 1.666 times, 0.833 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.5 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Curze hits 4 times, wounds 2.222 times, 0.741 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.185 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Vulkan is just too tanky for Konrad.
**Note: with the usual tactic of Hit & Run Curze would outdamage Vulkan, but this is hindered by the fact that Dawnbringer has Concussive, making it difficult to foresee: it could go either way. (Because it's also a Hammer.)

* Konrad Curze VS Lorgar
**Lorgar hits 2.5 times, wounds 2.0833 times,1.042 after saves and IWND will take that to 0.708 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Curze Round 1: hits 3.555 times, wounds 2.369 times, 1.184 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.851 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Curze Round 2: hits 4 times, wounds 3 times, 1.5 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 1.167 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Konrad wins.
**Note: as always, psychic powers not included. You know how it would end anyway...

*Konrad Curze VS Perturabo
**Perturabo hits 2 times, wounds 1.667, 0.833 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.5 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Curze hits 3 times, wounds 2.25 times, 0.75 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.417 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Konrad loses as Perturabo does marginally more damage.
**Note: With Hit & Run Konrad would win, but the chance he is not concussed in the round he wants to escape are pretty slim, meaning that Perturabo has still the edge in this fight.

* Konrad Curze VS Alpharius
**Alpharius hits 2.92 times and wounds 1.701 times, 0.851 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.517 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Curze hits 4 times, wounds 3 times, 1.5 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 1.167 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Konrad wins.

* Konrad Curze VS Rogal Dorn
**Dorn hits 2 times, wounds 1.5 times, 0.75 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.417 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Curze hits 3 times, wounds 2.25 times, 1.125 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.792 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Konrad wins thanks to his superior number of attacks.

* Konrad Curze VS Corvus Corax
**Corvus hits 4 times (Scourge)/3 times (Shadow-walk), wounds 3 times (Scourge)/2.25 times (Shadow-walk), 1.5 wounds (Scourge)/1.125 wounds (Shadow-walk) after saves and IWND will take that down to 1.167/0.792 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Curze hits 4 times/3 times, wounds 3 times/2.25 times, 2 wounds/1.5 after saves and IWND will take that down to 1.667/1.167 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Konrad wins.
**Note: even though they both got Hit & Run, Konrad doesn't get +1 attack to charge Corax, 'cause he has Shroud Bombs, and also doesn't get +1 S ans I, making Corax considerably stronger when he charge all things considered. All in all, a pretty balanced fight, even if the stats don't say so. Corax doesn't have Widowmakers, though...

* Roboute Guilliman (with the Hand of Domination) VS Konrad Curze
**Curze Round 1: hits 4 times, wounds 3 times, 1.5 times after the Invuln, 1.286 times after the re-roll and IWND will take that down to 0.953 at the start of the next turn.
**Curze Round 2 and thereafter: hits 3 times, wounds 2.25 times, 1.125 times after the Invuln, 0.911 times after the re-roll and IWND will take that down to 0.578 at the start of the next turn
**Guilliman Round 1/2: hits 2.5 times, wounds 2.083 times, 1.0416 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.7083 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Guilliman Round 3 and thereafter: hits 3.333 times, wounds 2.778 times, 1.339 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 1.055 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Guilliman easily wins this fight... theoritically
**Note: As usual, Konrad should attempt to even the odds with Hit and Run, negating Preternatural Strategy while gaining the +1 attack for the charge (and sniping some wounds with his knives). Even with Guilliman using the Hand of Domination, there is a chance Curze doesn't suffer any damage from it (31% when Guilliman is WS7/8 and 20% when he is WS9) so he will actually negate Preternatural Strategy between 37% and 31% of the time, which is enough to give Rob a run for his money or even kill him if the Widowmakers score more than a single wound.

* Konrad Curze VS Leman Russ
**Russ hits 4 times, wounds 3 times, 1.5 time after saves, plus 0.583 wounds from Sever Life for a whole 2.083 wounds and IWND will take that down to 1.75 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Konrad Round 1: hits 2 times, wounds 1.5 times, 0.75 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.427.
**Konrad Round 2 and thereafter: hits 1 times, wounds 0.75 times, 0.375 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.042.
**Konrad gets wrecked.
**Note : Nothing will save Konrad from the Wolf King, but as always the Widowmakers can prove themselves a tricky surprise and Hit & Run mitigates the impact of the exothermic bullshit, making Curze one of the few primarchs who can die to Russ with a bit of dignity.

* Konrad Curze VS Jaghatai Khan
**Jaghatai hits 4 times, wounds 2 times, 1 wound after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.666
**Curze hits 4 times, wounds 2.222 times, 0.740 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.407 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Jaghatai wins, thanks to his high number of attacks. Curze could use Hit-and-Run to try to even the odds and give himself charge bonuses, but the Khan could do the same.

* TL;DR version: Even though he does a lot of damage, Konrad is not really suited for Primarch vs Primarch fights. Do not misunderstand: he is a real beast when he can make use of Hit & Run and the Widowmakers are extremely good, especially against Primarchs with strong invulnerable saves. Still, you have to consider that all of his special rules are primary designed to scare his opponents and make them flee, but since all Primarchs are Fearless he can't use them. Despite this, he can win some fights and, when he struggle, he can still significantly cripple even some of the strongest Primarchs, leaving them weak and vulnerable. But you are arguably best served to employ his mobility to evade them (instead of fighting) and charge something he could actually butcher in a single round, to make the most of his King of Terror special rule. Make their allies flee in panic and then destroy them when they are alone and surrounded...

</div></div>

==Gallery==
<gallery>
File:Night haunter by cabal art.png|Isn't he the cutest murderous psychopath vigilante ever?
File:Konrad.jpg
File:BigKurze.jpg|[[Emperor|Christ]] that looks epic. Even if it's on graph paper.
File:Konspire.png|Do not get on his bad side.
File:Spess Punisher.jpg|Two merry psycho vigilantes. Glorious coincidence or awesome tribute ?
File:KonradOnMacragge.jpg|Too bad he didn't get Matt Ward while hunting the Big Blue.
</gallery>

{{Primarchs}}

[[Category:Chaos]]

Space Sharks

2019-09-24T16:50:31Z

2600:1006:B105:8611:58CC:338D:D9D2:B1D4: /* Organization and History */

{{Infobox Spess Mahreen Chapter
|Name = Space Sharks/Carcharodon Astra
|Heraldry = [[Image:Carcharodons Livery.jpg|center|140px]]
|Number =
|Battle Cry = "From the void we come - darkness there, and nothing more" Alternatively: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrB2_zqJQJU]
|Founding = Either 2nd (according to a GW article) or 23rd (according to FFG) Basically '''Unknown'''
|Successors of = Chimeric, combination of [[Raven Guard]], [[Night Lords]] and [[ World Eaters]]
|Successor Chapters = None (thankfully)
|Chapter Master = [[Tyberos the Red Wake]]
|Primarch = Their Geneseed is chimeric, so fuck knows. [[Corax]], [[Konrad Curze|Curze]], [[Angron]], all of them...
|Homeworld = Fleet Based
|Specialty = Think of the [[Night Lords]] and [[Raven Guard]] doctrine, but added with planetery and Chain Axe rape.
|Strength = 1000 (ish)
|Allegiance = [[Imperium]]
|Colours = Grey, with black pauldrons and white helmet faces (and the occasional blood splatter)
}}
[[File:B5oUxpr.jpg|200px|thumb|left|This is what [[furry|some]] believe the Space Sharks look like.]]
[[File:Sharks Bitch!.jpg|200px|thumb|left|This is what they [[Awesome|really look like]]. Yes, we assure you that they are good guys. Maybe.]]

{{topquote|He could sense the Company Master's fury, the rage he was battling to keep in check. The Blindness was beckoning to him, that precipice poised above a black sea of hatred and needless slaughter-sacrifice.|Chief Librarian Te Kahurangi's assessment of 3rd Captain Akia}}

The Carcharodons (High Gothic ''Carcharodon Astra'', low Gothic ''Space Sharks'') are a Loyalist [[Space Marine]] Chapter of unknown heritage. Little is known about them, aside from the fact that they usually appear amidst campaigns quietly and unannounced, and respond to threats with surprising ruthlessness and brutality. They are noted to use much older (and very patched-up) Heresy-era armor and weaponry (in ''Red Tithe'' a squad carries around a volkite caliver, an ''extremely'' rare piece of tech in the 41st millennium, and their 3rd Company captain wears a suit of Mark III armour that bears an insignia indicating participation in the Terran Pacification War, their "first battle honour"), and in battle seem to be utterly silent, even when visiting bloody murder on their foes.

Very old records say they were sent out on a crusade outside the borders of Imperium-controlled space to, for all intents and purposes, preemptively kill anything that may or may not be a future threat to the Imperium of Man. And to our best knowledge, they were promptly forgotten about, because when they showed up again, no one knew who the hell they were or what side they were on.

The Carcharodons "officially" return to the Imperial consciousness during the [[Badab War]], where it's kinda hinted that they're Raven Guard mutants or descended from those other deranged genocidal space marines - the Night Lords. Siding with the Loyalists in the conflict, the Chapter descended in strength upon the worlds of the [[Mantis Warriors]], and it is in this phase of the campaign that the Chapter's reputation for bloody violence was made known. With the Mantis Warriors forced to surrender, the Chapter was then set upon Badab itself. There they helped conclusively secure victory for the Imperials -- by detonating the reactors of the primary hives on the planet. The resultant tectonic upheavals eventually destroyed Badab, and to this day the [[Star Phantoms]] pin the blame on the Sharks for the losses they experienced in the hurried evacuation that followed, but the war was officially won.

For its troubles, the Chapter returned to the Endymion Cluster one last time, ransacked the fortresses of the Mantis Warriors for materiel and their worlds for recruits, and quietly returned to the darkness of the galactic plane where it originally came from.

Their leader is [[Tyberos the Red Wake]], a badass motherfucker who couldn't decide if he liked lightning claws or chainfists better, so he made (or took from the Ashen Claws, as Outer Dark hints) ''Hunger'' and ''Slake'', a pair of Lightning Chainclaws... the ugly offspring of the two weapons after a couple glasses of Black Label and a night of extremely violent and questionable life choices, that allow him to one shot (swipe? stab?) Tyranid Carnifexes and Space Marine Dreadnoughts. This would usually make [[Marneus Calgar|anyone else]] a [[Mary Sue]], but this guy is so badass (and has the most [[awesome]] weapons in the setting), that he has earned immunity (so long as he doesn’t [[Roboute Guilliman|punch guys in space without wearing a helmet]]). Though very quiet in the way of formal encounters, Tyberos, when war ensues, becomes something that nightmares piss themselves to think about. During the Badab War, Tyberos wrote a name for himself and his chapter across the surface of the planet in the blood of the Mantis Warriors. Clad in a set of ancient [[Terminator]] Armour, Tyberos was always on the front lines, and ensured that the traitors paid for all the trouble they caused in blood and resources, going about this task in the grimly silent fashion known to be common to the Carcharodons.

==Organization and History==
[[File:Space Shark Mk5.jpeg|thumb|right|250px|Space Shark in Mark 5 "Heresy" armour.]]
The Sharks are a fleet-based chapter. At some point in their history, Rangu (their word for the Emperor) or the Forgotten One (either the Primarch of the origin legion or the Founding Chapter Master) banished/self-exiled them from their home world and set them to hunt amongst the stars and slaughter the enemies of the Imperium with no quarter. To this day, no one knows why they were banished. To this end, they were granted the rite of Tithe; the Grey, all the physical material they needed for their duty, and the Red, a claim to prisoners, rebels, rejects, and other detritus for ship crew and potential recruits. They are explicitly forbidden from taking serving members of the Adeptus Terra (read - anyone from any other branch of the Imperium) in their tithing. The Grey Tithe is usually a semi-regular swap meet with allied members of the Mechanicum, bartering a few pieces of archeotech for freshly made materiel.

Another chapter wide trait is an intentional lack of ego and individuality. Every new Carcharodon recruit is stripped of their original name and given a new one derived from the chapter's history, along with a numerical designation. Each battle brother is only a part of the utility of the whole, leading Carcharodon command to eschew concepts like honour and pride-driven vengeance that drive other chapters to action. Only by following their ancient mandate of exile can they be worthy. They hope their actions (or more likely their descendants' actions) will redeem them for their crimes and allow them to return home, wherever that might originally be. Most chapter veterans don't believe this and channel their shame and remorse into meticulously violent murder. This also ties into their nomadic nature, as they can't risk wasting time and resources on badly thought out plans.

The Carcharodons follow the battle half of the Codex Astartes, but ignore everything else about force organisation. Cruising around in the void beyond the galaxy's edge can be nasty business, and years without resupply or any kind of logistical support means they must be both flexible and resourceful. Each company practices high self-reliance - salvaging, repairing and re-purposing stuff to make sure it lasts as long as possible. This is why they sport so much working Heresy-era gear and why stuff like vehicles and Terminator armour are often kept together using a variety of patterns and models. Because of this, Techmarines are seldom seen on the battlefield. They also don't use reserve companies (realising that having 100 of the finest warriors sitting around doing nothing is fucking stupid). Each company is thought to be a self-contained force, with their own scouts and veterans, ensuring they've got guys for every situation on hand. This has drawbacks of course, as they can't simply ask for reinforcements from a reserve company and must make do; for this reason Apothecaries are prized and kept off the front lines since every Marine makes a difference. At the same time it means that they've got all their companies actively doing stuff.

It seems likely that their scorched earth campaign during the Badab War was in fact more of a violent [[Looted|looting]] spree, restocking the Carcharodons' inventory after having spent so long outside known space. Filling up on ammo, weapons, armor, supplies, and [[Blood_Ravens|grabbing everything that wasn't nailed down, followed by the nails, and then everything that used to be nailed down]], before destroying anything else the enemy could possibly have had a use for. We do know that they claimed a bunch of recruits post-Badab, and they probably do this after all their big campaigns (maybe every time they come back into contact with the Imperium). The ''Red Tithe'' novel appears to confirm this theory; the Carcharodons' 3rd Company, having just come off a nasty brawl with some [[Tyranids]], rocked up to a remote Imperial prison planet with the intent of claiming all of its inmates as either serfs or potential recruits. A [[Night Lords]] warband had the same idea and arrived just before they did; the two groups proceeded to have a slight disagreement about who was going to empty out this wretched hive of scum and villainy. After several rounds of murder tag (and several thousand casualties later), the Carcharodons were victorious. They scooped up all the prisoners, stripped the place bare, and took off before Imperial reinforcements could arrive.

The Imperium at large is mostly unaware of their existence, and even the Inquisition seems to have only limited information about them. The Sharks' complete lack of glory-seeking behavior doesn't help with this; for example, a badly depleted company of Blood Angels were relieved by a Carcharodons attack force during the Seventh Black Crusade, during which Sharks managed to impress/concern Papa Sang's sons by being even more batshit-crazy murderous in assault than the Angels were. When the dust settled, the Blood Angels were given a fancy memorial (and got a whole spaceport named after them) but the Space Sharks went unremembered, save for a few crumbling statues in a forgotten corner with blank obsidian disks for faces. Isolated parts of the Mechanicus are aware of them, partly because of the Grey Tithe, but this is implied to be because they are hoarding the relics the Carcharodons retrieve for themselves, rather than returning them to the Mechanicum proper. Which is what the Mechanicus brass (pun!) would have done anyway so whatever

A few members of the Inquisition have naturally raised concerns about this apparently undocumented force of Astartes just wandering around the galaxy with a predilection for wholesale slaughter and leaving very few survivors on either side when they're done. As an example from ''Carcharodons: Outer Dark'', in order to force a Genestealer cult out into the open on a Shrine World, the Carcharodons gave the order to shut down every temple and pilgrimage site on the planet, knowing that this would cause mass civil unrest and thus force the cult to move ahead with their plans prematurely. It ended up totally working and disrupting the imminent Tyranid invasion, but it also turned out that there were so many cultists on the planet that the Carcharodons decided "fuck it, the Emperor can sort them out" and promptly started just killing everyone at hand with the help of some Renegade Marines they'd invited along for the ride. There was only one survivor left from the ensuing chaos afterwards: an inquisitorial aide who had also been the sole survivor of the events of ''Red Tithe'' and had now witnessed a) a Space Marine force of questionable loyalty slaughtering a planet's population wholesale, b) while being allied with genuinely renegade space marines, and c) had also seen a Carcharodons Librarian apparently being partly bonded to a daemon that had been haunting her too. Loyalist chapters have been exterminated for far less. Well, not really. The slaughter was justified and usually the Imperium would have used Exterminatus in that situation instead of killing everyone conventionally.

==Gene-Seed Speculation==
[[File:Space Shark Tau.jpeg|right|thumb|''FFFFFUCKING WEEB!'']]
Initially, many fa/tg/uys speculated that the Carcharodons were of Raven Guard or Night Lord descent, or possibly a loyalist remnant. A minority also speculated that they might be World Eater remnants, though since that seems to be the old [[Minotaurs]]' schtick it's probably not true. Moreover, given that they are believed to have been founded by M32 and most of their wargear appears to be Heresy-era, they are most likely of the Second Founding or a product of the Heresy.

Most of the evidence for these theories is based on their military tactics and the few descriptions we had of marines outside of their armour. Socially, a lot of their imagery, language, and chapter culture has Polynesian influences, which don't map onto any existing legion's background and, owing to their recruiting practices, are not tied to a known world.

Their favoured tactics, relying heavily on stealth and surprise, would seem to fall in line with the Raven Guard's combat doctrines, at least on a strategic level, where they appear suddenly into whatever battlezone they are targeting without warning. However on a tactical level, they are comparatively unsubtle ; their preference for close-combat, total slaughter, and the strategic use of terror put them at odds with the "tacticool operator" style of the modern Raven Guard. Their method of war is closer to the pre-Heresy Night Lords, if substantially higher in body count, or the World Eaters, if they were a little more subtle. To give an example, they appeared above a shrine world and immediately took command despite the mass unrest such an action caused. They then forcibly shut down the shrines the world was famous for, thus provoking a miniature rebellion and coaxing the genestealer cult out of hiding. So whilst they have subtle overarching goals, they are merciless in their methods.

Physically, the Carcharodons displayed pale white skin and black eyes with black sclera. These were common traits of people living upon Lycaeus and Nostramo, the homeworlds of Corvus Corax and Konrad Curze, respectively. While the modern Raven Guard exhibit these traits as a result of mutations within their gene-seed, ''[[Imperial Armour#Volume Ten - The Badab War - Part Two|Imperial Armour]]'' states that the Space Shark's gene-seed is unusually pure, i.e. stable, and that these traits are unlikely to be the result of mutation. However, their Chief Librarian has toothy denticle growths on his elbows and around his neck which comes from a "degraded genetic inheritance" which essentially gives him sharkskin. This condition affects the entire chapter, but is much more common on older Carcharodons. They also suffer from something they call the "the Blindness", a condition that can make them lose all control during combat to the extent they may even attack their own.

This makes their appearance all the more unusual, as the Carcharodons are known to take recruits from the worlds they conquer, meaning there is no common genetic source that could explain their development other than through their gene-seed. Interestingly, the Chief Librarian also seems to make a note of the 3rd Captain's particular genetic heritage, as if it were somehow significant. It may very well be that the Carcharodons have more than one gene-seed source; Corvus Corax was noted for his snow-white skin, and Konrad Curze for his black eyes.

The Short Version: Official fluff presents their origins as being ambiguous, even to the point of mutual contradiction within the same story. Both Raven Guard-offshoots and Night Lords believe they are related, whilst they retain a lot of World Eater style equipment and tactics. Said Raven Guard offshoots even suggested that they could also be related to the World Eaters, although this might have been figurative. As with a lot of GW fluff, it's unlikely to get explained.

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===TL;DR===
'''The first mention of the Carcharodons says that their gene-seed might be Raven Guard''', but doesn't expand on that. Given that this was during the time that the [[Blood Ravens]] were really in the popular vogue, the idea that the Carcharodons are secretly Loyalist Traitors was pretty popular because their tactics are more like the Night Lords than anyone else's. GW has tried to walk it back a bit by saying the Raven Guard were basically the Night Lords only with Corax instead of Curze since then, but the debate still rages on because most of the documents supporting the Raven Guard hypothesis are speculative in-universe, and the Imperium would probably cover up a loyal Chapter being descended from Traitors if the Blood Ravens are anything to go by.

Horus Heresy III: Extermination suggests they're the descendants of Terran-born Raven Guard exiles led by Shade Lord Arkhas Fal, the grey armoured and white-faced pre-Corax XIXth Legion who had a reputation for going from stillness to extreme brutality and were basically taken under Horus Lupercal's wing in the centuries before their own Primarch was discovered. The exiles are referred to as a "nomad predation fleet" the same as the Carcharodons in the Badab War books and their cognomen during the early Great Crusade era was "Pale Nomads", a title given to them by the Luna Wolves and also the title of Te Kahurangi, the Chapter's current chief librarian, rumoured to be only three generations removed from the original exiles. The Reaper Prime (Captain) of the Third Battle Company wears armour bearing the skull and lightning bolts of the Terran Pacification War further highlighting the Chapter's links to the pre-Crusade Legions, and Tyberos' distinctive shark-like helmet is also featured in the book. In Horus Heresy 6 however they raid the Night Lords for supplies, which includes gene-seed (which would make them chimeric if they tried to use it) and in Robbie MacNiven's Black Library novels ''Red Tithe'' and ''Outer Dark'' (the only books we have dedicated to our jawesome friends) it outright states that the Space Sharks are a chimeric combination of Raven Guard and Night Lord gene-seed, so the debate rages on.
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===Raven Guard===
Following the publication of ''Imperial Armour 10'', new evidence was published to support the Raven Guard theory by Games Workshop's licensors. Presumably the idea that every Traitor Legion has a secret Loyalist Successor was too much for them.

[[Fantasy Flight Games]]' ''[[Deathwatch]] RPG'' included rules for playing the Carcharodons ('''Honour the Chapter'''). Among the fluff, it is stated that Deathwatch Apothecaries have occasionally had the chance to analyze the gene-seed of Carcharodons slain in the service of the Deathwatch, and that they bear certain genetic markers unique to the Raven Guard. Of course, this being the Imperium of Man, you can never be certain what they're actually finding or if the records are accurate.

Forgeworld's ''[[Horus Heresy]] Book 3'' included a bunch of new information on the Raven Guard, and their predecessor [[First Founding|Legion]], the '''Pale Nomads'''. The Pale Nomads were noted for being the Emperor's preferred operators, often stealthing their way into enemy fortresses and armies to slay their leaders should they refuse surrender, and adopting multi-angle strike-and-fade tactics if the enemy continued to fight on. The latter is a favored tactic of the Carcharodons on the battlefield. The Pale Nomads were known for crushing any hint of resistance, which some have equated to the Space Sharks decimating entire star systems in order to sow terror. Their tactics evidenced a disdain for humans that the Raven Lord couldn't stomach, which is similar to the attitude adopted by the Space Sharks during the Badab War when they Exterminatus'd Badab and hundreds of Loyalist Space Marines along with it. The Pale Nomads were also slavers who would take children from defeated worlds to raise as Legionnaires, a practice that the Space Sharks have adopted. The Xeric tribesmen from which the Pale Nomads recruited also had a tradition of tattooing their bodies and painting their armor with tribal markings.

This could possibly explain why the Space Sharks have an abundance of [[Beakie|MkVI armor]] alongside their other Heresy-era tech, since the Raven Guard were the first to get their hands on them when they entered production during the Horus Heresy and that they're unusually stealthy with a variety of sensory systems to assist them in the void of space. Additionally, the Raven Guard were revealed to suffer from a gene-seed defect known as the ''Ash Blind'' or ''Sable Brand''. Similar to the ''Black Rage'', this defect caused otherwise normal Space Marines to charge into battle seeking only to destroy all trace of their foes, whether they lived or died. Those afflicted would develop eyes of solid black, and would neither speak nor reason until the condition passed. This sounds pretty similar to the Blindness that afflicts the Carcharodons.

Finally, it is stated that Corax would divest the Raven Guard of the surviving Terran-born Pale Nomads, whom he found too similar to the cruel lords he overthrew on [[Deliverance]]. One of the many branches of Raven Guard he sent off on isolated, never-ending crusades contained the [[Battle Barge]] '''Nicor''', (an old English word for a water sprite or monster) later to be found in the fleet of Space Sharks who ended the Badab War.

Tellingly, in '''Horus Heresy book 3''', Corax had no idea what happened to the fleet of Terran Exiles or to its master Arkhas Fal and made no effort to contact them in the build-up prior to the [[Drop Site Massacre]]. There is no evidence that these exiles were recalled after the massacre either, despite the 4000 men "officially" counting towards about half of the size of the remaining Legion, so they were considered an entirely separate force. They could simply have been designated a new Chapter following the end of the civil war.

According to the ''Carcharodons: Outer Dark'' novel, the descendant Marines of the exiles, still calling themselves the Ashen Claws, have settled on the planet Atargatis Prime, beyond the Ghoul Stars region. Only a few people, including the Space Sharks, know of their existence. When times are desperate, the Space Sharks will trade war machines and gene-seed for the Ashen Claws' aspirants and neophytes. It also turns out that Tyberos's kickass lightning-claw-chainfists once belonged to the Ashen Claws, but the Carcharodons apparently [[Blood Ravens|acquired them in an underhanded fashion]], and the Claws are still pretty butthurt about it.

===Loyalist Traitors===
[[File:Space Shark Chainaxe.jpeg|left|thumb|250px|[[Rip and Tear]] at its finest.]]

Contradicting the Raven Guard theory are some logical inconsistencies, the issue of their battle tactics, and recently published material from '''Horus Heresy Book 6''' where it is revealed that the above-mentioned 4000 Terrans exiled by Corvax from the Raven Guard turned full renegade, calling themselves the '''Ashen Claws''' and abandoning the Imperium to build their own domain in the Segmentum Tempestus. With no contact from the Imperium, no support from the Emperor, and no reward for their loyalty, it seems likely that other Raven Guard exiles could have turned. Interestingly, this band of exiles raided the fortress worlds of the Night Lords for supplies before returning to the darkness beyond the Imperium.

The fact that the Carcharodons adhere to a known pattern of crusading behavior, the "Nomad-Predation Pattern," would seem to indicate that their "recruiting" practices aren't unique to any Legion or Chapter, but an established Space Marine tactic for dealing with long crusades beyond the supply lines of the Imperium. Rather than being a relic of Xeric nomads recruited by the Emperor, it seems likely that the Space Sharks are only unique in that they utilize this pattern exclusively, obeying the order to "ravage the foes of Mankind" in the darkness beyond the galactic plane. It also points to them either being formed prior to the implementation of the [[Codex Astartes]] or an utter disregard for it.

If the Space Sharks were founded during the Second Founding, you'd expect them to have roughly equal portions of their gear granted to them from their original Legion, and thus have higher proportions of more "modern" gear such as mark VI ''(Corvus)'' & VII ''(Aquila)'' plate, yet it is older mark V ''(Heresy)'' plate alongside Phobos pattern boltguns which predominantly fill the ranks. This points to the Space Sharks resupplying during the throes of the Heresy and their access to more recent patterns of wargear have come from salvaged or reclaimed equipment gathered over the years. Even their revered Terminator suits seem to be modified in unorthodox ways just to keep them operational. If they descend from any other Primarch, especially considering their tactics and manner of deployment, it's possible that they simply salvaged ''Nicor'' and other wargear from some distant and bloody battlefield.

The Space Sharks' preferred tactics are bloody and brutal, far more so than expected from any pre-Heresy Space Marine Legion besides the Night Lords and the World Eaters, although the information about the Raven Guard pre-Corax does resolve this inconsistency to an extent. During the Badab War they had no qualms about using the extermination of worlds and entire systems loyal to the [[Mantis Warriors]] to draw them into battle by the scale of their horror, and they would use the shattered survivors of their bloody attacks to demoralize and weaken rebel forces.

The history, as known, of the Space Sharks points to their being present during the Second Founding. Whether the Raven Guard exiles were recalled or returned on their own, or if they were a Loyalist remnant of the Night Lords, or more unlikely the World Eaters, and were given the chance to forge a new life and history, it seems odd that they would've been dispatched to such distant battlefields if they weren't regarded with mistrust by the High Lords of Terra. And assuming they possessed a reputation for such brutality that "ravage" is a more appropriate word for their orders than "harry" or "destroy," they should be descended from a Legion or portion of a Legion with a particularly bloody reputation.

Amusingly, the same ''Honour The Chapter'' splatbook that posits that the Carcharodons are descended from the Raven Guard also says they are of the 23rd Founding, descended from the Eagle Warriors. And the Chapter immediately preceding them in the splatbook, the [[Raptors|Reasonable Marines]], are definitively stated to be a Second Founding descendant of the Raven Guard. While the Raptors skin grows translucent and their hair grows darker as they age, the Space Sharks gain gray, shark-like skin and their hair turns whiter as they age. In addition, the Carcharodons by implication have a fully-functioning set of gene-seed organs, unlike the Raven Guard and Raptors who lack functioning Mucranoid and/or Betcher's Glands, as do other Raven Guard Successors.

====Night Lords====
The Carcharodons' deliverance of bloody and total judgement upon the followers of the rebellious Badab Chapters is in line with the [[Night Lords]]' pre-Curze and pre-Heresy role and attitudes towards those who failed the Emperor in loyalty or deed. Brutal purges of the disloyal would build into a reputation that became one of terror and bloody death under Konrad Curze, and his use of fear and fluid, almost wild maneuvers in battle are seen by some in the descriptions of the Space Shark's battles.

The Space Sharks' apparently fractious nature and their manner of giving personal titles of distinction and honor could be echoes of the Night Lords' practices as well. Many commanders and captains would have personal honorifics, like Zso Sahaal, would either earn idiosyncratic titles or have lurid and unique ranks within the Legion's organizational structure. Likewise, ''The Red Wake'' could be an honorific specific to the Chapter Master, or a personal one. As the Night Lords were grouped into semi-independent Companies with individual names, traditions, and markings, it's possible the Carcharodons could be one such Company that rejected the Heresy or returned to the Emperor's light. It would also explain why their forces never seem to gather in full Chapter strength; having passed down this tradition of building brotherhood solely within small, tribal bands like the gangs of Nostramo and fighting in semi-independent units as preferred by the Night Haunter, they would see little reason to fight together while other conflicts and enemies require their notice.

The Chapter's preference for close-combat is in stark contrast to the Raven Guard's preference for long-ranged and quick-moving strikes, especially as they prefer stealth and speed to the roar of assault jetpacks and jetbikes. However, these tactics were favored by the Night Lords and their Terror Squads. Indeed, the enforced silence and refusal to coordinate with Imperial forces of the Space Sharks is similar to the silence that Terror Squads would work with during the latter years of the Great Crusade. Rather than being a gene-seed curse, as with the Raven Guard, the Carcharodons simply isolate their vox nets and refuse to speak to anyone unless it is truly urgent and necessary.

As with the Space Sharks, the Night Lords were infamous for stealing the youth of conquered worlds for rapid implantation and hypno-indoctrination. While the former could also be a hallmark of the Nomad-Predation deployment pattern, the latter is a practice that seems to have been preferred by the Night Lords since it was the fastest and quickest way to make a new, battle-ready Space Marine in spite of the risks of instability and insanity it engendered.

Sharks are also ghostly, nocturnal predators, [[Konrad Curze|night haunters]] if you will, so there's that.

====World Eaters====
Yet another possibility may be [[World Eaters]], since Space Sharks are silent and brooding outside of battle but go absolutely batshit crazy when ''in'' battle, no questions asked, and they seem to have a preference for chain-axes, which is somewhat unusual among Loyalist Space Marines. The love of chain weapons is carried over in a few other ways ; one marine has what can only be described as a chain-club / staff - with an enormous flat chain blade running up one edge and handles on the opposite side at either end (potentially doubling as a very heavy duty eviscerator). Their predilection for close-combat and bloody melee, to an even greater degree than the Space Wolves, would be in keeping with the attitudes of the World Eaters and the War Hounds. Like the World Eaters, the Space Sharks have a preference for Drop Pod assaults, fast vehicles like Land Speeders, and Assault Terminators, and it can be argued that Tyberos's Terminator bodyguards, the ''Red Brethren'', are reminiscent of Angron's own Terminator posse, the ''Devourers''. Some of their ships also possess Ursus Claws, which only World Eaters used (but then again, it could just be a salvaged ship).

The main problem with this theory is the Butcher's Nails. We can assume one of two things when it comes to the Nails:
#The Space Sharks learned to control their urges outside of battle, lest they snap and massacre each other, since they're out in the void of space for long periods of time doing nothing.
#Or they could have simply phased them out of their recruitment process after the Horus Heresy, seeing as it drove the other World Eaters fucking bonkers and was detrimental in the long run.

And whilst there were very few loyalist Night Lords (only two examples in the canon thus far), there are canonically loyalist World Eaters, both at Istvaan III and scattered around the Imperium during the Heresy.

====Chimeric Geneseed====
As another wrench thrown in, in Robbie MacNiven's Black Library novel ''Red Tithe'', it is heavily hinted that there are, in fact, ''multiple'' geneseeds utilized by the Space Sharks, primarily Raven Guard, Night Lords, and World Eaters. Given the typical canon conflicts that the Black Library in known for, this should be looked at with skepticism at least and as a half-assed excuse to explain why they have traits of all three Legions at best. Hopefully this will be elaborated on in the future but for now we can only theorize what this entails.

It is possible that the Carcharodons once consisted of Blackshields of Raven Guard and both loyalist Night Lords and World Eaters during the Horus Heresy, and after a time they were reformed into their own chapter and the traitor aspects of their origins were buried away. This ''could'' explain why their combat doctrine is an odd hybrid of their three supposed predecessors, any mutations they have are hard to connect to any one Legion, why their equipment is so old and haphazard, and why they were sent out in the void of space due to their origins. Until we have hard evidence from Forge World itself on any such Blackshields, however, this is up in the air.

Another, simpler explanation is that, given the nature of the Space Sharks to scavenge whatever they find, it's possible that they harvested the geneseed of the fallen marines they have killed. It's never explicitly said that their geneseed is comprised of ''only'' the three suspected Legions; rather, it just happened to just be mostly the aforementioned three. For all we know they could trace back to every Legion through a small percentage of their geneseed. Though admittedly, this train of thought makes their origin even harder to pinpoint as we don't have a clear-cut predecessor.

And it should be kept in mind that a good chunk of this information in the novel was divulged to one of the Space Sharks by a daemon. ''A daemon,'' for shit's sake. As we've seen with [[Magnus]], Chaos usually doesn't give accurate information.

This said, this is practically confirmed in HH6, where the Ashen Claws (Raven Guard) raid the Nostromo Sector to take their gear and geneseed. So if the Carcharodons are the Ashen Claws or a related group/successor, then they're Raven Guard and Night Lords. As of the novel ''Outer Dark,'' sequel to ''Red Tithe,'' it has been confirmed that the Carcharodons are related to the Ashen Claws and have a shaky pact with them. When the Carcharodons' Red Tithes can't refill their ranks fast enough, they are permitted to conscript young boys for augmentation from the fragmented domains that the Ashen Claws hid in beyond the Imperium's borders in exchange for war material and fresh Corax-derived gene-seed. It also seems their relationship is a shaky one prone to conflict. This suggests that the Carcharodons origins may lie with the Raven Guard exiles but the two groups split over whether to remain loyal to the Emperor or not. Regardless, both are willing to secretly come together against threats from beyond such as the [[Tyranids]]. When exchanging gene-seed and wargear for aspirants and fleet support, however, the Ashen Claws make a point of confirming whether the gene-seed being offered had been "contaminated with their disgusting breed", implying either widespread degeneration and mutation, or chimeric gene-seed among the Carcharodons.
Given how things were during the heresy, it's perfectly reasonable that there's some World Eater geneseed in there, as well as some "loyalists" who joined up as Blackshields, seeing as they spent the Heresy as an independent force at the edges of the Imperium.
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==Daily Rituals==
04:00 Wake Up - The Space Sharks emerge from their tanks. Before leaving, they make sure to feed their pet sharks.

05:00 Morning Prayer - The Space Sharks pra(e)y that the Emperor give them plenty of enemies to kill. The Chaplains do not speak during the service, merely gesture angrily. Any Marine who prays to be turned into a shark is forced to fight a real shark while bound.

06:00 Morning Firing Rites - The Space Sharks engage in ranged combat. The bolters are discarded within five minutes and the sharks charge into melee. Chapter serfs who often come to clean up afterwards are shocked to see chainswords, powerswords, knives, hammers, axes, and the occasional bite mark in the target dummies. Most of the dummies appear to be fish shaped.

08:00 Morning Battle Practice - The Space Sharks practice combat maneuvers. Most training focuses on underwater combat. Eating the enemy is a heavily encouraged tactic.

10:00 Morning Meal - The Space Sharks consume a light meal consisting of a barrel of live fish. The marine who eats the fastest gets to hold the chapter relic: a shark tooth.

11:00 Tactical Indoctrination - The Space Sharks learn what is friend and what is food. They must constantly be told that [[Ultramarines|bluberries]] are not food, but friends. They also learn to brutally eviscerate tanks and other armored structures. The viewing of Jaws is sometimes allowed for educational purposes.

13:00 Afternoon Meal - The Space Sharks collectively attack a Catachan Devil. The use of ranged weapons is forbidden, and the battle brother who rips the tail off gets to eat the first bite. Generally, it will be eaten shortly after death.

15:00 Afternoon Battle Practice - The Space Sharks practice fighting against land enemies. Pulverizing [[Dark Eldar]] and [[Necrons]] with Power Fists and Hammers is heavily encouraged. Battle Brothers who get bored may target [[Orks|Orkz]] and Cultists.

16:00 Afternoon Firing Rites - The Space Sharks fire upon cut outs of Shark Hunters and surfers. This time, the Chapter Serfs find few bolter casings and instead find bite marks.

17:00 Evening Meal - The Space Sharks consume a live Squiggoth. As per tradition, only the use of Rusty kitchen utensils, glass, rocks, and hammers is permitted. Stabbing at the eye is heavily encouraged.

19:00 Evening Preyer - The Space Sharks gather to worship and give thanks to the Void Father. Once a month, the Space Sharks celebrate communion by drinking fish oil and eating surfboards.

20:00 Free Time - The Space Sharks are permitted to engage in recreational activities. Playing with and feeding pet sharks in encouraged, whilst watching "Sharknado" and other comedies is another popular activity. If they've been especially good, marines may be allowed the privelge of feeding the megalodon that lives in the aquarium behind the Nicor's bridge.

23:00 Sleep Time - The Space Sharks are sent back to their tanks for rest.

==On the Tabletop==
===7th Edition===
Carcharodons Chapter tactics gives all Space Marines models Fear, and allows Tactical marines to replace their bolters with a chainsword or keep it and buy an additional close combat weapon for 1pt each. In addition they gain Rage after destroying or forcing an infantry unit to fallback in close combat, however they must consolidate towards the nearest unit they can hurt (after all, [[Khorne|the rape train]] [[Meme|has no brakes!]]). This can make stuff like Vanguard Veterans, Assault Marines, or even bikes surprisingly dangerous. Even a full batch of 10 footslogging Tacticals with extra CC weapons can be a pretty scary thing to face up against. Also, Dreadnoughts with Fear and Rage? Yes please.

Tyberos, their beloved Chapter Master, is quite the beast. He can destroy just about anything in the game in close combat. His Scent of Blood rule makes him and and any Carcharodon unit subject to Rage +1 strength for the rest of the game. He is [[Reasonable Marines|reasonable]] enough to wear a helmet and does not carry a banner and a shitton of flashy trinkets on his armour, unlike most other chapter masters, whose wargear just screams "Shoot me down, sniper!" Also, allows you to take a unit of lightning claw equipped assault terminators as troops; and he and any unit he joins have preferred enemy (infantry).

You can only ally with Imperial Forces and all of those are bumped down to Desperate Allies. All this means that, with them, you play Horus Heresy World Eaters with Fear and all the shiny new toys of the 40k arsenal of Space Marines.

They also have a couple of unique psyker powers:
:"From The Depths": The librarian casting this causes his targets to become intensely frightened, hallucinating about being in the deep dark depths of the ocean, immobilizing their opponent so that the Carcharodons can finish the target without a fight.
:"Rending Maw": The librarian summons a giant spirit shark that comes up out of the ground and bites the shit out of anyone unlucky enough to be there at the time.

===8th Edition===
[[File:Tyberos Red Wake Joseph Geddings.png|thumb|left|250px|"''There is no safety word.''" - Tyberos, the 'Red Wake']]
Currently, the only Carcharodons-specific thing in the game is Tyberos, in the Forge World Imperial Armour book. This go around he's got a standard Terminator {{W40kKeyword|CHAPTER MASTER}} profile (which means he's been upgraded to the same 4++ the others have) with an extra Attack and one less Ballistic Skill (which doesn't matter as he has no guns). Wargear-wise, ''Hunger'' and ''Slake'' are now unique weapons - a chainfist and lightning claw equivalent respectively, except ''Hunger'' has +1 Damage and ''Slake'' has +1 Damage and -1AP. In special rules terms he's got the standard Terminator {{W40kKeyword|CHAPTER MASTER}} ATSKNF, teleport deep strike and hit rerolls for {{W40kKeyword|CARCHARODONS}} within 6" (renamed '''Lord Reaper of the Void'''), but he also gives them +1 Strength thanks to his unique ability '''Savagery Beyond Reason''' (doesn't need activating any more, but it's now only a 6" bubble instead of the whole table). He's a great choice to lead a Deep Striking Assault Terminator squad, but at a little over 200 points you'll need to place him where he can do maximum damage to earn back that cost.

Codex Space Marines didn't bring any special joy for the Carcharodons. The White Scars Chapter Tactic is the GW-recommended "appropriate" one for them, even though they're (probably) Raven Guard successors (mostly because the Raven Guard tactic involves being sneaky rather than murdering the bloody fuck out of everything in melee). This gives them 2" of extra movement whenever they Advance, and allows them to charge the same turn they Fall Back. If you do choose to go with the Raven Guard one, enemies that are more than 12" away get -1 to hit you. Seeing as you'll probably be aiming to get right in their faces and stab them, this is probably a poor choice. Alternatively, The Imperium's Sword from the generic list is pretty good for a stabby warlord.

The Black Templars are your best bet if you want to maximize your melee potential. Rerolling charges is simple, but ''very'' effective, especially for Tyberos and his terminator posse when they warp in 9" from an enemy unit. Access to Crusader Squads is also nifty, especially if you want to emulate their previous rules of Tacticals having an extra CC weapon.

Here is an approximation of what 6th/7th edition rules would look like if they were updated to 8th, for the Carcharodons.
'''Warlord Trait: ''Carcharodons''. ''Reavers of the Outer Darkness'':''' Friendly CARCHARODON units within 6" gain: In the FIGHT phase, if this unit is fighting a unit that has lost any models, that unit being attacked reduces their Toughness by 1 for the remainder of the phase.

'''Carcharodon Ability: ''Blood Hunger'':''' CARCHARODONS models gain +1A in a turn that the charged.

'''OR'''

An alternative Chapter Tactic for the Carcharodons is this...

'''Carcharodon Ability: ''Terror from the Void'':''' Models in enemy units must subtract 1 from their Leadership characteristic for each unit with this trait that is within 6" of theirs (to a maximum of -3)

'''OR!''' '''OR!'''

'''With the release of the revised space marine codex, successor tactics let you pick 2 of 18 tactics to represent them on the table top.
Some of the most fluff related ones are

Fearsome Aspect: -1 Leadership to enemy units while they're within 3" of any of your units

Hungry for Battle: +1" to the advance or charge roll.

Tactical Withdrawal: Units with this tactic can charge after falling back.

Whirlwind of Rage: When making melee attacks for a unit that charged, was charged or made a Heroic Intervention,unmodified hit rolls of 6 score an additional hit.

{{Template:Marines-Official}}
[[Category:Warhammer 40,000]][[Category:Imperial]][[Category:Space Marines]]

Death Eagles

2019-09-24T16:29:55Z

2600:1006:B105:8611:58CC:338D:D9D2:B1D4:

{{Infobox Spess Mahreen Chapter
|Name = Death Eagles
|Heraldry = [[File:DeathEagleLogo.jpg|center|140px]]
|Battle Cry = Unknown
|Successors of = [[Emperor's Children]]
|Founding = Unknown
|Successor Chapters = Unknown
|Chapter Master = Unknown
|Primarch = [[Fulgrim]]
|Homeworld = Unknown
|Specialty = Unknown
|Strength = Unknown
|Allegiance = [[Imperium]]
|Colours = Black with white [[helmet]] and [[pauldrons]]
}}
Another Chapter that has been left in the dust. [[Forge World|Or so we thought]], more on that later. These guys were supposedly a [[Raven Guard]] Successor. That has yet to actually help give us any idea of what they really do, until the fourth [[Horus Heresy]] Black Book came out. In said book, the 34th Millennial of the [[Emperor's Children]] sided with the [[Imperium]] and bore their colors with pride and fought against the traitors. What was the name of that Millennial? The ''Death Eagles''. Their fate is considered "unknown" but we know that's just [[Your Dudes|a front]]. How they survived the Scouring or anything afterwards is left up to [[Skub|interpretation]]. Probably because loyalists of traitor legions became Blackshields or whatever and eventually reconstituted as Chapters. Originally they just ''looked'' like Pre-Heresy Emperor's Children. But after a few editions, they were brought back as a Raven Guard successor. Bet [[Games Workshop|GW]] [[Derp|had come up with the name only to have their fans point out they already exist]]. [[Forge World]], who take GW's usual fuck-ups and make them into something useful, decided that the Death Eagles were actually a loyalist branch of the Emperors Children. Thus making their old paint job make sense along with their new paint job.

==Campaigns==
*'''Vengeance from the Void''' - [[Night Lords]], [[Iron Warriors]], [[World Eaters]] Vs [[Death Eagles]], [[Space Sharks]], [[Minotaurs]] and the [[Angels of Absolution]].
*'''War of the False Primarch''' - Joined the [[Flesh Eaters]], [[Red Talons]], [[Space Sharks]] and the [[Charnel Guard]] in purging eleven other chapters.
*'''Reconquest of the Forsarr Sector''' - Helping out the [[Aurora Chapter]], [[Revilers]] and plenty of Guardsmen to fend off a [[WAAAGH]].

==Gallery==
<gallery>
File:DeathEagleMarine.jpg|I hope who they fight can't distinguish between light and dark colors.
File:YeOldeDeathEagle.jpg|Their original look before [[Grimdark]] began.
</gallery>

{{Template:Marines-Official}}
[[Category:Warhammer 40,000]][[Category:Imperial]][[Category:Space Marines]]