2d4chan - User contributions [en]

Metal Gear

2021-10-25T22:50:52Z

2600:1700:91C1:A4E0:6DB2:7B8A:C0F0:C2AF: /* Metal Gear and /tg/ */

[[File: MSG Title.jpeg|thumb|right|Metal Gear Solid title]]{{Template:/vg/}}
{{Spoilers}}
{{topquote|Nanomachines, son!|Senator Armstrong, explaining how Metal Gear gets away with anything it can't explain with traditional technobabble. (replace with parasites for pre-nanomachine era).}}

If you're here on the Internet and have ''not'' heard of Metal Gear or Metal Gear Solid, you're obviously pretty new or [[Stupid|just straight up ignorant]]... But for the sake of [[/tg/]] and everyone, we'll help.

Metal Gear and the subsequent games coming after it are action-adventure stealth games starting in 1987. While Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2 on the <strike>EN EE ESS</strike> EM ES EX TWO were well-received and iconic, it was Metal Gear Solid in 1998 on the PEE ESS JUAN that changed not only the franchise but third-person shooters in general and practically being the herald of stealth games. Though each game has a different story, it typically follows the supersoldier agent Solid Snake or Big Boss during the 21st century and the Cold War as he infiltrates something, destroys whatever's inside, and is a badass while doing it. We would explain more of the story here, but honestly it gets stupidly complicated with government conspiracies, clones, ghosts, [[meme|sudden but inevitable betrayals]], and many more. While somewhat grounded in reality, it has a very obvious sci-fi feel to it, similar to [[BattleTech]], [[Shadowrun]], and in some ways [[Warhammer 40,000|Warhammer 40K]]. Besides its well-crafted game play and frequently uneven and twisty plot, Metal Gear is mainly known for its [[memes]].

==Metal Gear and /tg/==
Like much of the Internet and 4chan, /tg/ has a pretty distinct love for Metal Gear. We've had several quest threads following the Metal Gear universe, most notably [http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive.html?tags=Metal%20Gear:%20Rise%20from%20Ashes%20Quest| Rise from Ashes] and [http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive.html?tags=Revengeance%20Quest| Revengeance Quest]. While there's not a definitive homebrew for it, there's limitless potential and [http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/38662709/| that certainly hasn't stopped us from trying].

[[Metal Gear Vindicare]] is a pretty obvious /tg/-MSG relation, being inspired by the famous codec used by Solid Snake in the game. Centers around [[Love Can Bloom]] with <s>[[Doomrider]] as a special guest.</s> '''DO COCAAAAIIIINNE!'''

A lot of things about Metal Gear correlate with the interests of fa/tg/uys. Despite what most people think, /tg/ loves their [[tau|giant]] [[Adeptus Evangelion|robots]], which Metal Gear Solid has in spades. There's also a good enough amount of both [[grimdark]] and [[Orks|hilarious stupidity]] to keep a wide variety of neckbeards entertained.

There was a limited edition version of [[Risk]] with Metal Gear tappings. However it is out print and now costs more to buy than any of the games alone. Because Konami is even dumber than [[Games Workshop]].

==Characters==
===Solid Snake===
[[File: Solid Snake codec.png|thumb|left|I ''am'' happy]]
The protagonist for most of the games. He starts out his career in Metal Gear as a rookie FOXHOUND agent, uncovering the existence of the Metal Gear and the double-crossing of his superior, Big Boss. He later discovers that he's actually the clone-son of Big Boss, created for reasons that change from game to game. Snake spends the rest of the games fighting Big Bosses' other clones as well as uncovering the grand conspiracy his father had been retconned into fighting, while people talk about how hard the life that he chooses to live is even though it's his own fucking choice. He finally ends his career in Metal Gear Solid 4, his clone-genes rapidly degenerating and near the end of his life (by the time he's in his mid-thirties he's in his late sixties biologically, complete with heart problems and seizures). But he doesn't get to die before finally making amends with his father in a rather hilarious moment where Big Boss is convinced that unless he kills a really old man who was essentially a vegetable the whole series could happen again. In terms of personality there's not much to say, besides him wanting to lead huskies in the Iditarod if he were to ever retire.

===Big Boss===
[[File:Big Boss Salute.jpeg|thumb|right|250px|Good night, sweet prince.]]
Basically [[General Sturnn]]. But with an eye-patch. [[Farsight]] seems to take a lot of inspiration from him too.
While initially portrayed as the villain due to how much he loved war so he could get child soldiers to train into regular soldiers, one could argue whether or not his actions were justified given the later retcon of the Patriots existence (and then they'd remember that whole child soldier bit - then again, who knows if that was actually Big Boss or Venom Snake). Big Boss stars as the protagonist of all the Metal Gear games before Solid begins his career, dating back to the 1960s when he was known as Naked Snake (get it?). Naked Snake discovers the progenitor of Metal Gear in Soviet Russia while also being "betrayed" by his former leader, The Boss. After an arms deal goes wrong, he chooses to kill her to cover up America's involvement, which leaves a lasting impact for the rest of his life and was betrayed by his love interest, EVA, because nobody on the team realized that the agent he was supposed to meet (a man) was actually replaced by EVA (a woman). He decides to abandon the United States (even though patriotism was the theme of the previous game) and create his own military group "Militaires Sans Frontieres," the very mercenary group to have ever existed in the MGS world, later called "Diamond Dogs," while fighting his own shadow war against former comrade Zero who turned evil offscreen and is the founder of the Patriots (also happens offscreen). After fighting a number of early Metal Gear models, Big Boss began building a few Metal Gears of his own to try and even the odds. During a battle against one of the Patriots' splinter groups, Cypher, Big Boss pussies out and decides "Fuck this war, somebody else can deal with this shit" and leaves a body double, Venom Snake, to become the public face of his PMC while he fucked off to who knows where. Originally Big Boss fought Solid Snake in MG1 and died, this was retconned in MG2 where they said he didn't die, just had lots of his body replaced with machinery, and retconned into Venom Snake died instead in MG1, while Big Boss entered into a coma after MG2 until he was revived just after the patriots were defeated (nobody bothered to check to make sure he was dead).
He can also bench press 200 simi odd ton tanks and recharge batteries by eating glowing mushrooms for [[Orks| some reason.]]
TL:DR, he's a ubersoldier. Also has done enough shit to make James Bond look like a pansy. Made a cool base.

===Gray Fox===
Initially just an NPC with some backstory as FOXHOUND's best soldier. In Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake ([[Fail|To differentiate it from the load of fail that was Metal Gear 2 on the NES]]) he's retconned as Solid Snake's best friend. Mid-way into the game he is revealed as the second in command of Zanzibar Land under Big Boss & the pilot of the first real Metal Gear. He is also the first of the melee only boss battles, with [[Mekboy | land mines surrounding the boss arena to spice things up]]. Because the AI was shit (and he isn't the player character) he loses to Snake. He also kills his girlfriend accidentally in one of the most heavily foreshadowed scenes of all time.
In Metal Gear Solid he comes back as the first [[Adeptus Mechanicus|Cyborg Ninja]] as a tutorial battle for the game's melee system. [[Railroading| In short telling the player how to beat him.]] His final act is damaging Metal Gear Rex with some kind of [[Skub|laser or plasma weapon]] that he didn't have in previous appearances before being squished by Metal Gear. His sacrifice allows Snake to finally defeat Rex with his Stinger Missiles. Also appears in a prequel game of [[C.S. Goto|questionable canon]].
Later on his backstory was expanded a little more, and it was revealed that he was a child soldier fighting in an area well known for their child soldiers, and he was able to amass a large kill-streak because none of his enemies thought that child soldiers existed, [[Fail|in an area full of them.]]
His ability to lower the intelligence of everyone he met impressed the CIA, who decided to make him into the perfect soldier, unfortunately this ability affected the CIA too and they assumed that wiping all of his memories, including the memory of any martial art he knew or fought against, would make him a better fighter.
He also later murdered the parents of Naomi, then chose to adopt her, because why not? Naomi is also the person who turns him into a cyborg and then lets him loose, knowing full well that he'll want another rematch against Snake, and knowing full well that if Snake failed to complete the mission a Nuke could be launched against the US. The "book" included with MGS2 "In the Darkness of Shadow Moses" says she was arrested, charged with treason and broken out by a mysterious savor, implied to be Solid Snake. However in an optional Codex Call(and another retcon due to Konami's downfall starting in 2006) Campbell suspects that it was Liquid Ocelot who broke her out and captured her to do experiments. So she gets away just fine.
One would think they could get Paul Eiding to make a ItDoSM audio book but since the company ran the franchise into the ground this won't happen until Konami goes under and is bought out by real game developers.

===Liquid Snake===
[[File:Brother Liquid.png|thumb|right|Liquid quite literally most of the time. This even extends to when Ocelot brainwashed himself to become Liquid.]]
The antagonist of Metal Gear Solid and Snake's clone brother. Liquid has a distinctly British accent and blond hair. According to the game's very loose grasp of genetics <s>(later ret-conned into Ocelot convincing Liquid this is how genetics work, which is even more dumb since this implies Liquid, an elite ex-British SAS member, could not pick up a goddamned high-school science textbook to do extra research),</s> He actually failed biology as a child which tells you quite a bit. Liquid tell snake inherited all the recessive genes of Big Boss, while Snake inherited all the dominant genes, and because of this he believed he was made from "inferior genes" and that's the reason he's evil. No seriously, the entire reason he's evil is because he doesn't like how he looks, and thus becomes Doctor Doom. Even as a child, he was a surprisingly competent soldier, giving Venom Snake (who he believed was his father Big Boss) a lot of headaches when he started acting out. He also murdered kids and stole the Metal Gear Venom Snake had before vanishing in a cliffhanger that never got resolved in the main series (you'll have to look to youtube to see what they wanted to do, and even then that still ends up on a cliff-hanger). It was later revealed though that it was actually him who had the dominant genes and Snake who had the recessive genes, even though he believed it to be the opposite.

Liquid would have died from Skull Face's parasite had he not become BFFs with his future comrade, Psycho Mantis who had the ability to do pretty much everything, and was retconned into being possessed by Liquid since Psycho Mantis now gets possessed by non-Psychic people, even though he's wearing his mask which was designed to stop peoples thoughts from entering his head. Liquid has massive Daddy issues (the aforementioned genes) and is incredibly stupid, which lead him to rebel against the US government and seize Metal Gear REX for himself. He also really hates Snake for the same aforementioned gene issue, possessing a really intense inferiority complex and needing to constantly prove himself. Also turned Gray Fox into a blood puddle, because can't aim a [[fail|laser for crap]]. Snake fights him several times, including shooting down his helicopter and Metal Gear Rex, but the bastard JUST. WON'T. DIE. Of course he finally does die from an engineered virus... sort of. "Liquid" takes possession of Ocelot but this was retconned out later so it doesn't matter.

===Ocelot===
A Russian gunslinger and a guy with a LOT of mixed loyalties that make no sense when you think about it. Formerly a member of GRU (the Soviet Military's version of the civilian KGB) and a secret agent for the USA, Ocelot joined with Big Boss (due to a combination of charisma and because Ocelot has a major crush on Big Boss, bordering on actual romance.), helping him in secret despite nominally being a member of the Patriots (and later deciding to destroy them, for Big Boss' sake). Ocelot joined Liquid's rebellion, but only to act as the Patriot's inside man and steal the plans for Metal Gear REX, even though as the governing intelligence they would already have had them. He also manages to steal Metal Gear RAY, but at this point he starts acting out his secret plan to destroy the Patriots from within. How does he do this? Well....

# [[What|Pretend to be possessed by the ghost of Liquid]] and steal Metal Gear RAY which was later retconned into him using hypnosis to make himself think he's Liquid, which gives him all of Liquid's personalities and skills, because that's what happens in this universe (it's how Big Boss made his body double too).
# Use one of the Patriots' AI to infiltrate their system and take effective control over their military assets, because AI who know that the new AI will be under Liquid's control will just hand it to him and wait to die.
# When the patriots send Snake after him, put up a convincing show of resistance by attempting to kill him multiple times.
# Steal the railgun off of Metal Gear REX and aim it at the Patriots' main satellite, which is still armed with a live nuke because nobody in the government told their successors about the nuke, because written logs don't exist in this world, everything is passed down through word of mouth, and the patriots forgot that the nuke was there too. If it makes you feel any better, the US government also forgot they have a fully-armed (we're not even kidding, come MGS4, and the thing's weapon systems are fully armed and operational) 15-ft bi-pedal mech, fully equipped with classified next-generation technology, sitting in an abandoned nuclear storage facility.
# Hope that Snake is still alive at this point and that he's developed the worm necessary to kill the Patriots AI, which Liquid could have done at any time so he wouldn't have had to worry about all the earlier bullshit.
# Fistfight him bare-chested until you die of exhaustion.
# Realize how hilariously dumb Kojima's story-telling ability is, after reading everything in this section
# ???
# Profit!
Yeah... when we talk about how convoluted the story is, it's usually Ocelot's fault. Still, for an elderly old bastard, he's pretty damn badass. Dude can also pull off some [[/co/|Taskmaster]] level shit and bite CQC moves from his opponents. He's also the third canon cyborg via replacing Liquid's Arm with a prosthetic and [[What|dented his own ship with it (but somehow, couldn't break Solid Snake's face during their fist-fight).]]

Also, he has a [[Slaanesh| torture fetish]] and is a [[Furry|furry old fuck, the "Ocelot" code-name was before Fox Hound decided to go full-furry with operative code-names.]]. TLDR, he is [[Wat]] incarnate.

===Otacon===
The [[weeaboo]] of the series. We're not exaggerating, by the way. He wanted to work on Metal Gear REX specifically because he's obsessed with [[anime]]. Otacon is your typical nerdy support character, giving Snake technical assistance in his fight against the Metal Gears and is the only reason REX was able to be defeated because he intentionally developed it with an exploitable weak spot that would have made it a hindrance against on the battlefield. This carries over to the next several games where he'll design something far inferior to what already existed, only to let you use that better thing later on anyway. He's also a quite literally hopeless romantic, as his two romantic interests ended up dying. Though to be honest, the first was a terrorist who showed no real interest in him, and the second was Naomi, who upon realizing she had cancer that wasn't doing a fucking thing because she stopped it with nanomachines, decided to commit suicide. Also we learn that his dad committed suicide because he had sex with his stepmom. Yeah.

===Huey===
Otacon's dad. Despite having the same general appearance, voice actor, and role as Otacon, Huey deserves special mention for how much of a [[that guy|cock]] he is and how despite all his faults, Otacon is infinitely more tolerable. So, he's a paraplegic engineer who got drafted by the CIA into helping to build Peace Walker, not realizing how insane the project really is (this is a persistent theme for him). After being rescued by Big Boss, Huey works for him and develops Metal Gear ZEKE as a counter to the various AI weapons the CIA had built. He also ended up marrying his design partner, the heavily-implied-to-have-had-a-lesbian-crush-on-The-Boss Dr. Strangelove, with whom they had a son named Hal (aka Otacon). Now, here's where the dark shit settles in: <s> after getting tricked by Cipher into letting them onto Mother Base to destroy it </s> after selling out Big Boss and MSF to Cipher, Huey gets abducted and is forced to work on a new Metal Gear, Sahelanthropus. Because the cockpit can't fit a full-sized human, he tries to get his son Hal to pilot it. Strangelove vehemently opposes this, so he ends up stuffing her inside an AI pod to suffocate. After getting recaptured by Big Boss, he insists that he never betrayed him and that he wasn't willingly working for Cipher. But after Big Boss succeeds in defeating Skull Face, Huey steals the vocal chord parasite and makes it more deadly by making it immune to its original antidote in an attempt to sell it to Cipher for protection, even having the gall to call Big Boss a murderer for mercy-killing the men Huey infected. Naturally, this pisses off Big Boss, so he sends him adrift on a tiny life raft. Huey lives out the rest of his days being a bad parent, eventually drowning himself (and nearly drowning his stepdaughter) when he found out Hal had sex with his new wife. After learning all that, one can only imagine how badly Hal was treated and feel some genuine pity for him.

===Meryl===
Colonel Roy Campbell's daughter (he told everyone she was his niece because he didn't want them to know her mother had an affair with him) and the only FOXHOUND agent to not join Liquid's rebellion. She starts out as a rookie way in over her head, but she helps out Snake by providing him with useful information. Snake also starts to develop a romantic interest in her after all the shit they go through, and then dumps her to go hunt Metal Gears because Snake decided that Metal Gears shouldn't exist, a plan which was doomed to failure since their design was on the internet and literally everyone could download it. In Metal Gear Solid, depending on whether Snake submits to Ocelot's torture, Meryl lives or dies at the end of the game. This is later retconned in Metal Gear Solid 4, where she lives but also learns the truth that she's Roy's daughter, not his niece, which pisses her off. Meryl becomes the commander of her own unit which she names after the group who tried to kill her, and decides that because at this point Snake's turned into a crusty old fart, she's going to marry her perpetually incontinent subordinate stalker (he saw her once and was then pining for her years after the fact), who's also a weeaboo.

===Raiden===
He's introduced as the "true" protagonist of Metal Gear Solid 2, but his original appearance is nowhere near as badass as Snake. He's a [[Fulgrim|white-haired effeminate Bishie]] that tends to rile up most people who loathe anime stereotypes. Raiden starts out as a Child Soldier in Africa (despite being whiter than white-out) before being taken in by the Patriots as their successor to Solid Snake. He's lived nearly his entire life in simulations and being fucked over by AIs. Once he's actually let out into the real world to stop Solidus and his terror cell, he meets Snake, and together they discover the existence of the Patriots.

Raiden gets a significant upgrade after MGS2, where he gets kidnapped by the Patriots and has his entire body below his upper jaw cut off and replaced by a cyborg ninja body (akin to a reverse [[Ferrus Manus]]). Everyone agrees that his version of Raiden is much better, and he ends up starring in the spin-off game Metal Gear Rising, where he uses his sword and ninja athleticism to fight other cyborgs and a regular human who was stronger than him due to having [[Flash Gitz| a better weapon, Power Armor]] and skills. In the Metal Gear verse your top of the line upgrades are [[Games Workshop|barely useful in less than four years]].

===Solidus===
The last of Big Bosses' clones, Solidus was much more under the control of the Patriots, sometimes. He spent some time fighting in Africa, where he picked up an orphaned Raiden and turned him into a pawn of the Patriots. While he was eventually made President, this really didn't count for much as the Patriots still made all the decisions and he was basically a puppet. Solidus decides that he's had enough of this shit and steals the Patriots' new warship, Arsenal Gear, and decides to take the fight directly to them. Of course, this didn't end well for him when Snake and Raiden interfere and the ship crashes into Manhattan. He gets killed by Raiden, sort of-not really as nobody bothered to check the body (falling into a coma instead of dying), but his body ends up being a macguffin because his DNA is an exact match to Big Boss, allowing Ocelot to hack into the Patriots network, because even though the Patriots know what's happening and could stop it they let it happen anyway.

===The Patriots===
Also known as "Cipher", or "La-Li-Lu-Le-Lo" if you're under their direct control since they decided the best way to hide their name is telling everyone that they can't say their name. Financed by the inheritance of the 20th Century's wealthiest men, the Patriots control literally everything. Originally this was a group formed by Big Boss, Zero, Sigint, Para-Medic, Ocelot, and Eva in order to fulfill The Boss' wishes of creating a world without borders and ending the Cold War since the entire series is based around people wanting to do what The Boss wanted to do, despite most of them having minimal attachment to the boss at best. However, this group split in half over differences on how to fulfill this vision. Zero wanted to control the entire world and all facets of human life through all-knowing AIs, while Big Boss wanted to create "Outer Heaven," a place where soldiers would always belong and not be the puppets of governments (because having people always ready to fight would obviously mean everyone becomes peaceful and happy). When Zero went comatose, the group was taken over for a short time by Skull Face, the guy responsible for cleaning up the mess in MGS3 even though there wasn't anyone like that originally (retcon) and the location should have made it impossible. He wanted to fulfill the Boss' vision by eliminating language itself using a language-based parasite because he believed that a persons personality and way of thinking had everything to do with the language they spoke (he was also retarded). Eventually the Patriots was controlled by Five AIs: JD, GW, TJ, AL, & TR (John Doe, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt respectively) who had no self preservation whatsoever. These AIs decided that the best thing to unite the world was to plunge it into perpetual conflict and proxy wars, bringing together the worst of Zero's and Big Boss' visions and directly working against everything the series said they were working towards. The Patriots AI were killed off when Snake unwittingly uploaded a worm that killed all of them, finally freeing the world from their influence.

==Types of Metal Gears==
If the title of the game didn't hint at it enough, a prominent part of the game(s) are these giant mechs called (you guessed it) Metal Gears. In the beginning they're simply mobile platforms to launch nuclear weapons, but they evolve to fulfill many other roles and become far more dangerous in general.

'''Shagohod''': Technically not a Metal Gear, but created the precedent for mobile nuclear platforms. This crazy contraption was basically a giant armored hovercraft that could use rocket-boosters to give its nuclear payload an extra kick of speed, designed to launch nukes from any surface and give the Soviet Union the edge in the Cold War. Of course the whole point of the Cold War was that both sides were fucked if ANY nukes were launched, so it became pointless before it was built. It also had point-defenses up the wazoo.

'''Metal Gear RAXA''': The first proper Metal Gear ever built. A four-legged Metal Gear that could be launched from a ICBM. If you're asking why in the fuck they have to use a Metal Gear as a middleman nuclear platform when they're already launching it from an ICBM, supposedly it's because the missiles are harder to intercept on the Metal Gear than on the ICBM... but who's to say they can't intercept the ICBM carrying the Metal Gear?

'''Peace Walker''': A four-legged walker that was fully AI controlled. It's described as having a stealth frame, but it wouldn't exactly be hard to spot considering the size of the thing. It could only fire nukes defensively, but could be tricked into launching a premature attack through a faked nuclear launch signal sent through the hacked NORAD system. Was intended to be the ultimate assurace of Mutually Assured Destruction by being an mobile, autonomous, and intelligent AI system that would guarantee a retaliatory strike upon whoever fired their nukes first. Originally created because a branch of the government didn't believe people would be able to launch nukes and kill millions of innocent people (which he'd prove by launching a nuke himself). Turns out it wasn't needed at all because the final act (and anyone with common sense) proved him completely wrong.

'''Metal Gear ZEKE''': Big Boss' first attempt at a Metal Gear, this one was fully bipedal. Originally it was AI controlled too, but was modified to use a human pilot when Cypher attempted to steal it, the modifications being completed in days or minutes depending on when you last checked it, and nobody guarding it thought that it was a good idea to stop the modifications that weren't supposed to happen, and the two people doing them would never have been able to make them in the first place. This metal gear was also customizable and could be sent out on combat missions alongside MSF soldiers.

'''Sahelanthropus''': This one was designed by Otacon's Dad, Huey. While technically more advanced than Metal Gear REX in that it could walk upright, one flaw was that the cockpit was too small for a full-sized human. Cypher got around this by using Pyscho Mantis to control it psychically, because in Phantom Pain Psycho Mantis could do whatever he wanted, which makes you question why they need robots when they already have control over a superhuman. Sahelanthropus is also the absolute proof of why Metal Gears are useless (as if Metal Gear: Rising didn't already do that), despite costing millions to make and countless resources, it's easily defeated by a man on a man-sized robot that would have cost a fraction of the resources to develop, and if it didn't have the ability to create clouds that destroyed metal, it could have been easily defeated by one tank.

'''TX-55''': The Metal Gear that appears in the first game (which is now chronologically not the first one). This model didn't have that many frills, though it could fire two nukes despite being relatively tiny. It does nothing while Snake just uses C4 to blow it up and dodges the [[Rage|annoying laser cameras]]. Presumably it's the most durable one because the only way to hurt it is to use a shitload of C4 on its legs in a certain order, because [[Rage|armor paneling redundancies]].

'''Metal Gear D''': The first real Metal Gear the player ever fights in the release order. An upgraded version of TX-55. It only had a machine guns and missiles during it's boss battle, but apparently it could also fire [[Anal_circumference|six nukes one after another]].

'''Metal Gear REX''': This dinosaur-looking motherfucker takes the original Metal Gear concept one step further by firing nukes from a [[Tau|railgun]] instead of a ballistic missile, making nukes nearly impossible to track (though it was never designed to do so, and the waste heat it would generate makes that highly implausible, it just happened to work out that way). It also had a badass assortment of weaponry, from Gatling Guns to crotch lasers and a crap-ton of missiles. Even after Snake battled it in MGS1, it was still tough enough to take on RAY in MGS4. After MGS1, hundreds of REX knockoffs started spreading throughout the world thanks to Ocelot's douchebaggery.

'''Metal Gear RAY''': Designed to be the ultimate anti-Metal Gear weapon, RAY failed fucking hard in that regard. It's amphibious by design, and instead of carrying nukes, its weapons include a powerful water cannon that can cut metal. Despite being built specifically to fight Metal Gears, it still loses in a fight against an already damaged Metal Gear REX. For some reason Ocelot never uses the missile spam attack seen in Metal Gear Solid 2 when he pilots the manned version in MGS4. Still not a cake walk though since you need too spam the fire button instead of holding it down to make this fight easier. Since Metal Gear battles that are not the first boss hardly ever are.
The others seen in MGS2 and Rising are smaller unmanned knockoffs.

'''Metal Gear RAY MOD0''': An upgrade over RAY seen in Metal Gear Rising. With the rise of carbon nano-tube tech; the armor was made lighter and stronger, allowing it to carry more weapons. Upgrades include: 4 limb-mounted twin-linked gatling guns, micro and macro missile launchers, an HF arm blade roughly the size of a small building, and a mouth-mounted plasma cannon. Despite all this, every last one of these guys encountered were destroyed by some Rhodesian weeaboo ninja with a sharp stick and a smart-talking Brazilian samurai with an incomprehensibly powerful sword and fighting technique.

'''Metal Gear EXCELSUS''': Not really a Metal Gear, it was only named so for marketing reasons, but still impractically awesome either way. Seen only in Metal Gear Rising; EXCELSUS was meant as an anti-cyborg gear, because cyborgs were becoming too powerful for conventional warfare. Due to this, people thought the only counter to this was to go back to making giant mechs with impractically large and powerful weapons (under the logic that if you can't outmanuver them; outgun them). EXCELSUS is basically a scorpion-shaped mech roughly as tall and wide a sports stadium and armed with two giant HF blades and twin plasma cannons. Its destroyed by Raiden in the most hilariously over-the-top way possible; he SUPLEXES THE DAMN THING, rips one of it's arm blades off, and engages it in an arm-wrestling match with one of it's severed arms. Reminder, this was designed to kill cyborgs.

'''Gekko''': Small Metal Gears made up of a combination of synthetic organic muscle and mechanical technology. They have the head/upper body of a REX, but they have a pair of lizard legs to walk around on. You'd think that those legs would be easy pickings for bullets, but actually they won't buckle for anything less than explosives. They also allow the GEKKO to jump really high, climb on walls, and sweep kick you, so good luck running away from them. They also moo like cows and take shits. Seriously. We're not fucking joking.

==Plot==
===Metal Gear ===
The original story on the NES. While the future 3D games are the stuff of legends, the old ones didn't get better with age (they're good for nostalgia, but gameplay as expected during the pioneer age of vidya gaems, is unpolished at best).

It has rookie FOXHOUND operative Solid Snake infiltrating Outer Haven, a mercenary empire led by a mysterious legendary mercenary. Big Boss, leader of FOXHOUND, originally sent one of their best operatives named "Grey Fox" to infiltrate the area, but was captured, leaving only the message "Metal Gear" before disappearing. BB then only sends Snake to investigate, in an operation dubbed "Operation Intrude N312".

So to make a long-story less long and all the obligatory plot twists: Big Boss is actually the leader of Outer Haven (this was later ret-conned to being Big Boss' body double: Venom Snake) and the real Big Boss (we think) only sent in Snake thinking that he would be killed as he didn't have the experience to go up against hardened war veterans (all those guys you fultoned in MGS5? They're these guys). Metal Gear is actually a bi-pedal tank capable of launching nuclear weapons from anywhere. Also Grey Fox is alive, and wants to kill you after being convinced by Big Boss to turn on the US government.

===Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake===
Sequel to the first game. The game now features the fictional nation of Zanzibar, another mercenary empire led by another "legendary mercenary". Zanzibar kidnapped Dr. Kio Marv, a scientist who created a compound named "OLIX" which could create an oil-substitute compound at little cost. Due to diminishing oil supplies, Zanzibar plans to hold the world hostage by controlling the only new reliable source of oil. They plan to enforce their position using OLIX and of course, a nuclear-equipped walking battle tank. Snake retired after the events of the first game, but was pressed by Campbell into service, due to this new crisis. Now, Snake must rescue Dr. Marv and bring an end to Zanzibar.

Surprisingly, this mission also goes well for Snake, managing to save Dr. Magnar and destroy Zanzibar's Metal Gear. But you guessed it, plot twists: Grey Fox is still alive, and this would be his final days as he dies after fighting Snake (but is forcibly brought back from the grave by the Patriots later), and Big Boss is actually still alive (although technically he was always alive, you just killed his body-double at first, with recent retcons considered), but Snake puts him down, once and for all (And this is the actual Big Boss now, but he didn't actually die, rather he was saved by the Patriots after the battle, but was in a coma. This plot point gets wrapped up in MGS4.).

===Metal Gear Solid===
Metal Gear Solid is a bit of a "reboot" of the franchise, where most of future games will follow this style of gameplay (or improve upon it).

The story involves Solid Snake being forced back into service after Liquid Snake, his brother, stages a coup with the Next-Generation Special Forces, and Fox Hound, taking Metal Gear REX and several personalities hostage. Their demands are money and for the US government to surrender the remains of Big Boss, as they require his DNA to fix their genetic flaws. Failure to do so, will cause the terrorists to launch a nuclear weapon from REX.

As a solo infiltrator Snake must defeat the members of the NGSF and Fox Hound, save the DARPA chief and president of the ArmsTech corporation, and retrieve Metal Gear REX. But as much as it was intended; he wasn't alone. He's assisted by an operations team that he contacts via codec that's currently operating from a submarine, an NGSF defector named Meryl, and REX's designer; Otacon. Also a mysterious cyborg ninja who is there to both assist and kill you, specifically in a first-fight.

But, plot twist, the ninja was Grey Fox all along and only got you here as a duel to the death with you was his final wish, you were just there to be a carrier of the FOXDIE virus, to ensure the members of Fox Hound are killed either way, then allow the US government to retrieve REX undamaged. Snake sort of "succeeds" in his mission (Revolver Ocelot is still alive, two of the hostages are dead, and REX is "kind of" destroyed.), failing most of his objectives, but managing to prevent nuclear holocaust from occurring.

As an additional Plot Twist: Revolver Ocelot planned everything with then-president George Sears (AKA: Solidus Snake), and everything went [[Just as Planned|all according to plan]] from his stand-point (Whether him losing his gun hand is part of it or not, is up to debate).

===Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty===
Known mostly as where the story of the Patriots and information control started.

After MGS1, Ocelot leaks plans of REX to the world, causing numerous countries to start making their own home-grown nuclear weapons programs through this data. Due to this, the US Marines are commissioned Metal Gear RAY, a not-metal gear that's designed to take on other giant robots, rather than launch nukes. [[Rage|Why they needed their own is only explained in optional dialogue that you have to go out of your way to find]]. As conventional weaponry (anti air and anti tank mostly or just a crap ton of explosives) can easily defeat Metal Gears. In short the USMC want to stick it to the Navy who have their own Metal Gear project.

This is caught by Snake's and Otacon's attention, who infiltrate the tanker transporting RAY to get photo evidence of the US government building another Metal Gear (never actually considering that in the age of Photoshop, the USG can easily deny these claims). Things go not as planned after Ocelot and a bunch of Russian mercenaries take over the tanker. Things are even more complicated after Ocelot betrays the mercenaries, then takes RAY for himself, sinking the oil tanker, and pinning the entire incident on Snake. Snake is assumed to have died during the tanker incident. Also Snake meets Olga Gurlukovich, daughter of the mercenary commander's daughter, for....reasons.

Fast forward a few years, and a facility called "Big Shell" is built on-top of the oil spill, to facilitate clean-up of the patch of water. Said facility is then taken over by the "Sons of Liberty" a disenfranchised US Special Forces group, led by former president George Sears, who intends to rid the world of the Patriots' influence, supported by a group of Russian mercenaries. He plans to do this by gaining access to nuclear weapons and requires the President's authorization to allow him to use it. During this time, they take the US president, and his cabinet hostage during a routine visit from them.

Along with a SEAL team, the US government sends "Raiden" a bishie "rookie" of Fox Hound.(he's trained with VR, but has no field experience to speak of. If you discount his stint as a child soldier. [[Twilight|Who was designed to appeal to teenage girls. A demographic known for its awful taste.]]) Also there's this SEAL named Iroquis Pliskin who sounds, looks, and acts a lot like Solid Snake, but it can't be him because he's dead. Plus there's also this female cyborg ninja with a thick Russian accent, who's....just there, I guess.

His objectives were to rescue the president, prevent the terrorists from blowing-up Big Shell (as the chemicals used for de-contaminating the oil would poison the area around Manhattan), and neutralize the Sons of Liberty....atleast that was the plan. As with the first game; Raiden fails his original mission as the Big Shell is eventually destroyed, the US President is dead, and Solidus gains access to another superweapon that he was able to use. But he was able to prevent Armageddon by stopping Solidus by having a sword-duel to the death. Anyways:

PLOT TWEEST: Pliskin is actually Solid Snake (whether this can still be considered a twist is debatable, but meh), the Ninja with the feminine Russian accent was Olga all along, Big Shell was just a cover for the Patriots attempting to build another Metal Gear called "Arsenal Gear", the oil spill was [[Just as Planned]] to allow it's construction and the Big Shell was never doing any clean-up work at all, and this entire flubdubbery was actually an exercise to allow the Patriots to gather data on the SSS program or "Solid Snake Simulator", a program that would allow them to train a soldier at-par with Solid Snake with Raiden's experiences, using Ocelot as an observer. Ocelot was actually working with the Patriots, if that was ever a surprise. Also the Colonel Campbell and Rosemary advising you were actually the Patriot AIs, bringing into question whether everything Raiden has been told by the two is real or not. Snake also comes off looking like an asshole in this game as he does things such as using Raiden as bait for Solidus and withholds information. Which is kind of the point. As being a super spy for twenty years some odd years would make just about anyone else into a jerkass. He also knew that the Patriots were monitoring Raiden. A proper reason for keeping somebody you don't trust in the dark about your plans.

A TWIST TO THE PLOT TWIST: Ocelot was just a pawn (or so the Patriots think), SSS was actually for "Selection for Societal Sanity", a program enacted by the Patriots to gather data on how they can filter and censor information, to ensure the world only listens to the Patriot's point of view, as they deem that humans are incapable of forming context for information, resulting in dozens, to hundreds of opinions and interpretations, that inevitably cause either a stagnation of progress and conflict. By creating a context for everyone to adhere to, it is that much easier to influence the masses on how to think.

Another twist: Everything Raiden knows may or may not be a lie, but the validity of it is left ambiguous to allow the player to decide whether its truth or a lie.

Retrospective:
As many sources attest to. MGS2 was supposed to the magnum opus for Kojima and wanted to leave the series in the hands of younger developers. There are a few problems with this. Sons of Liberty would be the second game for most players. As the eight bit games were never released internationally until 2005.(other than a shitty port of MG1 and a really bad third person shooter on the NES) Making the game's twists feel forced and unearned. Another problem is that players got vastly different dubs. Not just language but Solidus and Olga have the same voice actors as Snake and Meryl. Talking no differently from their roles in MGS1. The devs also despised the changes that improved English dub of the game and refused to let it happen again. Disrespecting their larger audience who can't even play the Japanese version of MGS2.

So again, despite being a fanboy of America. It's Kojima fault for not realizing that [[derp|Japan has different values]] from the rest of the world. He and his staff didn't understand how western culture views things. As Raiden comes off as a poor man's Shinji Ikari for most of the game. [[fail|Another large problem is that one of the translators is a racist Karen who now whines about the MeToo movement.]]

Another issue is that America wasn't bad off and didn't have the shitty economy Japan had in 2001 until 2007. Nor did big social media websites exist at the time to unwittingly assist in spreading conspiracy theories and accelerate the decline even further. [[Neckbeards|Geekdom]] also didn't accept anime otaku culture as they do now. It also blames no in particular for these problems. As Japanese culture has the rather dumb ass view of not shitting on the flaws of your enemy. [[Star Trek| Thus falling on its face compared to more successful franchises.]]

The largest flaw is that the game's story is based around Richard Dawken's The Selfish Gene. A book at the time of development was over twenty years out of date. Which is a long time when it comes to science and long enough for most of its theories to be discredited.
Worse for the devs and writers as a whole. Is that the Bioshock games, Specs Ops The Line(both subversive video games that did what MGS2 did but better) and anime such as Mobile Suit Gundam (shitting on those who glorify WW2 Japan) or Ghost in the Shell (itself based on Blade Runner) have the same messages but aren't as nice about it. MGS2 would most likely had been better received if it was meaner and actually went out of its way to criticize those whom it was railing against.
Of course most people in their twenties, even fresh military recruits, are not obviously going to be anything like Solid Snake. But it seems that Kojima and Fukushima don't realize or have forgotten [[Isekai| how shitty the tastes of most teenagers and twenty year olds actually are.]]

Also most people in the west unlike those in Asia. Think leaving plot threads open for an announced sequel as a sign of laziness, opposite of a large franchise such as the [[Marvel_Comics#Marvel_Cinematic_Universe|Marvel Cinematic Universe]]. Whose writers and producers actually planned ahead, even in the case of their most famous director leaving for his own projects.

===Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater===
Chronologically the first game in the series, MGS3 is pretty much a Fix Fic for the [[C.S. Goto|half assed story of MGS2]]. The game is still plays out like the old games, but as most of the activity is now in outdoor environments, additional features are added like the need to hunt and eat food for stamina, and the wound system that would cripple the player in certain areas due to injury (which was later pulled out of later games, because its just kinda dumb and needlessly slows the action down). MGS3 was initially made without Kojima's input but it was so bad that Konami had no choice but to ask him to come back. [[derp| Japanese culture being what it is]] means he couldn't refuse.

MGS3 follows the adventures of "Jack", code-named "Naked Snake" (named so because he has little gear during missions, hence "naked"). He was selected to be the pioneer of the FOX group, a military initiative aimed at training elite operatives for deep-infiltration missions, which is overseen by an ex-SAS operative known only as Major Zero (why the blue blazes the American government would enlist a British national as the leader one of their black ops groups is only something Kojima could explain) and also by The Boss, Jack's mentor and the greatest soldier America has ever known.

Their original mission that acts as a trial for FOX is to help scientist Nikolai Stepanovich Sokolov defect to the West, growing tired of his creations becoming weapons of war (not really realizing the West will pretty much press him for the same ends), by rescuing him from a stronghold deep in Russian territory. Said weapon is a giant tank, capable of launching nuclear missiles without the use of a silo, named "Shagohod" (Walker, even though it's screw-propelled). Things originally went well, up until the ambush led by GRU Major Ocelot (who appears to have mellowed with age, as he's an insufferable fanboy during his youth), which Snake manages to overcome, thanks to Ocelot's cockiness. But things went [[Not as Planned]] when he realized his mentor, The Boss, defected to a Soviet separatist faction led by Colonel Volgin. This led to Sokolov being kidnapped again, the Shagohod being stolen, and Snake being left almost for dead after a hilariously one-sided fight with The Boss. Things went even more not as planned after Volgin uses the Davy Crockett nuclear weapon that The Boss gave him to destroy Shagohod's design facility, blowing any chance of the US keeping this operation a secret completely out of the water.

To head off the prospect of open warfare between the US and USSR, the CIA sends Naked Snake back into the field a week later to kill The Boss, under the official story that she had gone rogue and the destruction was entirely her fault. He's also tasked to kill Colonel Volgin, as a favor to the Russians, destroy the Shagohod before Volgin can use it for his own ends, and rescue Sokolov properly this time. Standing against him are rogue Russian spec ops groups of the KGB, GRU, and most infamously the "Cobra Unit," The Boss's elite squad of quirky misfits, who served with her during WW2.

Surprisingly, Naked Snake actually accomplishes more than future protagonists ever could, with the help of another Soviet spy named Eva. Sokolov kinda "died" (he's alive in Portable Ops after being rescued, but PO's canonicity is dubious as the game wasn't written by Kojima, but he doesn't really impact the story past MGS3 so its kinda moot overall), but Volgin kinda "died" as well (apparently he was only in a near-death coma, kept alive by his unfaltering rage against Snake. Its kinda irrelevant in the long run), the Shagohod was destroyed, and The Boss is killed in what is probably one of the saddest moments in video games (mostly because of reasons listed below).

If you haven't gotten used to it yet, too bad, PLOT TWEESTS: The Boss was never really a traitor. Her original objective was to gain the trust of Colonel Volgin to obtain the "Philosopher's Legacy," fucktons of money left behind by a secret cabal of world leaders during WW1, but this was compromised after Volgin used an American nuclear weapon on Russian soil. To ensure that the US had a way out of starting WW3, The Boss was forced to accept the role of the villain, and had to rely on Snake to have the skills and fortitude to kill her, absolving the US of its crimes. By killing The Boss, Snake is heralded as a hero in the US and Russia, earning him the title of "Big Boss" from the President, [[Lamenters|but the trauma of sacrificing so much for his country made it feel like he was anything but a hero.]]

Also, Eva was actually a Chinese spy (if that wasn't kinda obvious, given Sigint's hints and her actions) and Ocelot was a triple agent (a GRU officer, working for a separatist faction, while working with the US government) who was actually Adam, the person meant to support Snake but was beaten to the punch (given this is his character trope, this probably should stop counting as a plot twist).

===Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops===
A game of questionable canon not directed or written by Hideo Kojima. The main antagonist is a bigger Villain Sue than Armstrong and Ocelot put together. Which is saying something because either would whip the floor with him. It was also a considered the worst game until recently (see Survive). Which is what you get when the primary writer is known for making shitty harem novels for morbidly obese otaku and directed by a script writer instead of a real director.

===Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots===
MGS4 is officially the "end" of the Solid timeline, as MGSV is about Big Boss's wacky misadventures in the 80's. The game is constantly criticized for basically being one long cutscene, due to the fact a lot of the game has a ''lot'' of cinematic content, than actual gameplay, to the point that MGS4 actually holds the world record for the longest cutscene in videogame history, who's finale spans a whopping 71 minutes (and reminder, this is JUST the ending).

The game follows Solid Snake, who has rapidly aged to an old man in his 60s due to being a clone, and apparently he's going to be a WMD as the FOXDIE virus injected into him back in the first ''Solid'' game is mutating into an indiscriminate bio-weapon. He's called in for one last mission by Colonel Campbell to assassinate "Liquid" Ocelot, the leader of one of the largest PMCs in the world, who has amassed too much power and is deemed a threat by world leaders. He reluctantly takes to the field again, as this is to be his final mission to end the madness he and his extended family was responsible for, before finally dying (by his hand if necessary). Along the way he's helped by just about every MG character from the previous games as one big nostalgiafest, including:

*Otacon, who's there for exposition;
*Raiden, who is now an impractically awesome near-immortal cyborg ninja;
*Dr. Naomi Hunter, who's attempting to atone for her sins;
*Colonel Campbell, who married Raiden's wife after becoming estranged to him;
*Rosemary, Raiden's wife who separated from him after a miscarriage. Acts as a psychologist to Snake;
*Vamp, who's trope as a bi-sexual vampire is ''really'' drilled into your skull here;
*Ocelot, who may or not be literally possessed by Liquid Snake's ghost (we're not kidding, this is the main reason why Ocelot became the series's big bad);
*Solidus, who's now in a coma;
*Meryl, who is now working for the US as an observer for PMCs;
*Johnny Sasaki, who somehow turned from comic relief to part-time action hero (because.....eh?);
*Mei Ling, who due to certain assets, is now a USN captain of her own ship;
*Big Boss, who finally woke up from his near-death coma;
*Eva, who's now leading an Eastern-European resistance group under the name "Big Mama";
*Sunny Gurlukovich, the daughter that Olga mentioned back in MGS2, now under the protection of Snake and Otacon.

To wrap up Kojima's decade-long fever dream: Big Mama dies attempting to save Big Boss's husk from being burned to ash, Vamp dies after being heavily wounded by Raiden and put down, Naomi dies after being guilt-tripped by Vamp's death, Snake manages to upload a computer virus that finally destroys the Patriots for real (but their influence continues on) and manages to kill Ocelot for real after one of the most nostalgia-drilling fist-fights in the series. Meryl and Johnny get married, Campbell and Rose reveal that their relationship was a play to keep the Patriots thinking that Raiden's kid was Campbell's, and Snake eats a bullet.

No he doesn't. Big Boss stops him and reveals that he's not dead (obviously) and the corpse that EVA died for was actually Solidus, whose limbs were removed and transplanted onto him when he was revivified. With the Patriots defeated and Major Zero's plug pulled, Big Boss allows himself to succumb to FOXDIE and Snake lives on.

===Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker===
The other direct sequel to Metal Gear Solid 3 on the PSP. A much better game between the two. It should have been released on consoles instead as Big Boss can't move and be in the prone position at the same time. This is where the series started it's slow decline that was fast tracked by Konami's sabotage of MGSV and the release of Survive. As one of three main writers behind Metal Gear. Tomokazu Fukushima, left the company during the early development of MGS4. Peace Walker would have been called Metal Gear 5 if it wasn't for Konami's executive meddling. Most of the problems in the game were fixed in the HD releases.

Oddly, everything that was put into MGSV came from Peace Walker. Base building, blueprints, recruiting soldiers, grand theft auto of military vehicles, and tape conversations originated here. While being more detailed and less annoying about it. The story is also considered to be superior to Metal Gear V as well.

===Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance===
Set four years after Guns of the Patriots, Revengeace is a completely different beast from any other Metal Gear game. First off, you play as Raiden for the entire game instead of Snake or Big Boss. Second, since this game was developed by Platinum Games instead of Konami, [[Flesh Tearers|stealth is mostly thrown out the window for glorious carnage]] (you can still try to use stealth when it's applicable to make the game easier, as enemies are vulnerable to insta-kills while you're undetected, but nothing's stopping you from just going in and murderfucking everyone.). And third, the stupid over-the-top tropes Metal Gear Solid was known for are hitched up to eleven. Seriously, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfpeFE4QhU0| look at this shit.] That's the equivalent of tossing around a [[Titan (Warhammer 40,000)| Warhound Scout Titan]] like a rag doll.

Long story short, Raiden receives a far more powerful cyborg body and is sent to eliminate Desperado; an off-shoot faction of the Patriots led by U.S Senator Armstrong, known for the "Nanomachines, son" [[meme]] and the most patriotic villain ever known. Besides that the plot is pretty much nonexistent, with Raiden running around and pretty much being the living avatar of [[rip and tear|RIP N' TEAR]]. The plot though did have some really funny moments where Raiden discovered the villains plan to create an army, kidnap children from third-world countries, put their brains in jars, have them remote control robots/cyborgs, and once they were skilled enough put their brains in those bodies so that they could get killed on the battlefield, not to mention there's a part where Raiden just lets a bunch of children die because he's too busy posing to help them out. Much like most of the series, this plan is doomed to failure before it starts when you realize that there's already a far better alternative in the form of nanomachines that make you invincible, they only stop working when it's plot convenient. It also regresses Raidens' character a bit (because much like every MGS sequel, the theme of the previous games are ignored), but nobody really gave a shit about that because of all the over-the-top ninja bullshit he constantly pulls off.

It also has a BITCHIN’ soundtrack

===Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain===
==== Ground Zeroes ====
The story begins with Ground Zeroes, set one year after the events of Peace Walker. It turns out Paz, a former friend of Big Boss and secret agent for Cipher, is alive and is being held in an American Interrogation camp on the southern tip of Cuba. Big Boss originally wanted to assassinate Paz because of her ties to the mysterious Cipher organization and suspects she might may have leaked critical information about the Militaires Sans Frontières. Miller on the other hand doesn't believe this and convinces Big Boss to bring her back alive for questioning. Coincidentally, Mother Base (formerly Outer Heaven, formerly Mother Base) is scheduled for a United Nations nuclear weapon inspection. After rescuing Paz and Chico, they find out that Paz had a bomb surgically planted in her abdomen as a setup. After a very gruesome scene of surgically removing the bomb from Paz's body, Big Boss successfully disposes the bomb as Paz tries to recover. They return to Mother Base only to see that it has come under attack by Cipher's covert strike force XOF, meaning the inspection was only a smokescreen for an attack. Big Boss manages to save Miller and an unnamed soldier (we find out his real alias is Mosquito, but he comes back later on). They all escape as Mother Base collapses and cue for Miller's famous meme quote "They played us like a damn fiddle!". Miller realizes Big Boss was right and demands answers from Paz. That is until Paz claims there is another bomb inside of her ([[/d/|heavily implied to be in her vagina, what the fuck Kojima]]) as she falls out of the helicopter and the second bomb inside her explodes causing the helicopter to lose control and crashes into another helicopter.

==== The Phantom Pain ====
Big Boss manages to survive the crash but falls into a coma for nine years. A pretty cool opening scene of Big Boss waking up to ''The Man Who Sold the World'' in a hospital bed in Cyprus. The doctors show Big Boss after the explosion that not only did he get shrapnel sticking out of his head and the inside of his body, but he also lost his left forearm in the process. The following night an assassin kills the doctors who took care of Big Boss and nearly kills Big Boss himself. That is until another patient stops the assassin and sets her on fire causing her to jump out the window. The patient reveals himself as 'Ishmael' and helps Big Boss escape (This isn't the only reference to the book Moby Dick, Ishmael calls Big Boss 'Ahab' while Big Boss is equipped with a hook hand prosthetic). As they both approach the elevator, they encounter a child wearing a gas mask and a straight jacket floating in the air (we know what you're thinking and yes, that is Psycho Mantis as a little kid) and a man covered in fire. Since gunfire is useless against him his only weakness is water. They both see that XOF units start killing the patients and hospital staff to ensure there are no witnesses. It becomes clear that they were sent in to eliminate Big Boss after finding out he had just woken up. After facing certain death against XOF soldiers and the Man of Fire, Big Boss and Ishmael escape the hospital using an ambulance. Unfortunately, the ambulance gets attacked by XOF forces and crashes. Big Boss survives, but Ishmael has disappeared leaving Big Boss to fend for himself. Just as an XOF helicopter is hovering over Big Boss, Psycho Mantis shows up then suddenly a giant fucking whale covered in fire swallows the helicopter and destroys it. To make things even more ridiculous, the Man of Fire shows up again riding a fucking winged unicorn made of fire. Luckily, a man riding a horse shows up to Big Boss' aid and that man is none other than Revolver Ocelot (now voiced by Troy Baker). After a chase ensues between the Man of Fire and Big Boss and Ocelot, they both manage to escape. Ocelot reminds Big Boss of what has happened before he fell into a coma and wants to help him and Miller rebuild their private army. It turns out Miller was captured by the Soviets and is being held for interrogation in Afghanistan. Big Boss joins up with Ocelot and sets out for Afghanistan. And that's all just the prologue.

Unfortunately, the rest of the story isn't nearly as awesome or cinematic, partly due to Konami's budget cuts forcing the game to be left in an unfinished state. Here's the gist; Big Boss slowly starts rebuilding his army by recruiting (read: kidnapping) Soviet and African soldiers, stealing tanks with balloons, and completing various contracts for money. However, its not long before he runs back into XOF forces, this time using mutant supersoldiers called the "Skulls" who use modified versions of the superpowered parasites used by the Cobra Unit, giving them freaky abilities like mind-controlling nearby soldiers or turning rock-solid. XOF is working on a new Metal Gear in Afghanistan, while working on a brand new superweapon on the Angola-Zaire border to eliminate entire languages through vocal-cord parasites, which are actually related to the Cobra Unit parasites. Actually these parasites have a lot of strange and unexplained abilities, like somehow being able to refine uranium ore or being used in the walking mechanisms for metal gears, or destroying metal. Whatever the case, Big Boss captures and falls in love with XOF sniper Quiet (who he learns is the same assassin who tried to kill him in the hospital), who is in turn won over by him because he's the motherfucking Big Boss. He also accidentally unleashes a parasite outbreak in Angola, which infects his own men, until he gets to the bottom of the infection. Finally after a big showdown in Afghanistan, Big Boss finally corners and kills Skull Face and his Metal Gear.

So, story over, right? HA no. Huey causes a second outbreak to try to bribe his way back into Cypher's hands, Quiet is forced to speak to rescue Big Boss (and thus runs away so she doesn't infect anyone, presumably to kill herself to avoid a slow and painful death), and baby Liquid runs away with all the child soldiers and steals the Metal Gear with him. And... that's pretty much it. The entire final battle was cut from the game, which according to plans would have been ''far'' more challenging and climactic than the two previous Metal Gear encounters, but unfortunately it never came to pass and likely never will. The only real ending we got was the reveal that Venom Snake was never Big Boss to begin with, just a brain-washed body double who would distract Cypher while the real Big Boss fucked off to do who-knows-what. We did get a decent epilogue, however, when several years after the game released, an Easter Egg was activated after every player-owned nuclear warhead was successfully deactivated in the PvP section of the game.

Phantom Pain is Skub incarnate; and is either considered one of the best game's in the series (thanks to it's ''amazing'' open stealth infiltration system and detailed mercenary management) or the ''worst'' mainline Metal Gear's (for it's often times sparse story, and undeveloped aspects) However, all will agree it ''is'' a Metal Gear game, which leads too...

===Metal Gear Survive===
What we got instead of remakes of the 8-bit games. However that would require remembering all the retcons, a little research about the politics and pop culture of the 90s and some creativity. Than paying David Hayter and Richard Doyle to return as the voices Solid Snake and Big Boss. Hell they could've had Hayter pull double duty as a script editor to keep them consistent with the canon. Lacking the ability and refusing to spend money to do just about any one of these things. Konami made this POS instead.

A portal in the sky transports you to an alternate dimension after Mother Base was destroyed by XOF, where nanomachines has mutated everyone into Romero-like [[zombie]]s (we're not kidding, this is as "Nanomachines son" for a plot device as it gets). As the name implies; your objective is to survive. Its basically every indie survival horror game you see on Steam, except this comes in with a hefty pricetag of 40 USD/EUR.

As the first game ever worked on without Kojima's input, it was originally supposed to be a testament if Konami can indeed replicate Kojima's brand of absurdly hilarious yet engaging writing, or if Kojima was indeed the only thing keeping Metal Gear afloat, and it indeed shows: it can easily be called the worst Metal Gear yet. The story is worse than Snake's Revenge and makes Bethesda era [[Fallout]] look good with sentient nanomachines from the 22nd century via time travel as the main villain.

It's story right out plagiarizes another video game made by Square Enix, Gunslinger Stratos. Just without the alternate universe dopplegangers. One could also argue that it ripoffs the premise from [[Doctor Who]] two parter "The Empty Child". However, unlike Steven Moffat the people behind Survive have no idea how to make a coherent plot. Proving for a second time that [[C.S._Goto|Gakuto Mikumo]] (who wrote the shitty story of Portable Ops) is a [[Isekai|no talent hack like most light novel writers]]. Blatantly ignoring that the real future of the Metal Gear universe is the much superior [[Mecha|Zone of the Enders]].(Sahelanthropus looks like a much less advanced Jehuty.) Pathetic that they couldn't make a better future of the franchise than a half decent Gundam fanfic series.

The game mechanics are something the olden survival games of yore (which aged about as well as bread left out in the open for 6 years), with you having to build a base using resources that you grind for, and such.

The characters are bland and calling you every 30 seconds for who knows what. You are reminded to take food and drink often but it's very difficult to get either. The main character from the single player campaign is a [[Original_character,_do_not_steal|blatant ripoff of Chris Redfield.]] While the player character is a mute because they couldn't afford to hire real voice actors after blowing their money on Matt Mercer. And do not forget that this piece of crap demands always online compatibility even for the single-player, and asking $10 for an extra save slot. Yes, 10 bucks for an extra save slot, not even F2P mobile games have that audacity. Also the zombie AI is crap, whose biggest opponents are world objects like vehicles (even an open-topped vehicle like a jeep can make you invincible), and the entire experience just feels like a game that's stuck in 2012, and never bothered to evolve to be better. There is really nothing worth picking up about this game, that you can't get anywhere else for cheaper and better.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen. After 30 years, this is how Metal Gear ends: not with a bang, but with a whimper as its dying body is devoured by Konami to salvage whatever profit they can from it before it finally rests in peace. (Well, that and Solid Snake's surprise return to ''Super Smash Bros.'', but Konami didn't need to do jack shit for that except say yes to Nintendo's money and let them do all the work.)

To put more nails in Konami's coffin, the new games made by Kojima and [[Castlevania]] producer Koji Igarashi after their departure from Konami (Death Stranding and Bloodstained, respectively), have become highly successful, while Konami's own new entries in the Metal Gear, Castlevania and Contra franchises have been met with derision and low sales. They can't even get sports or mobile games right, having lost their licenses for footy leagues they used for Pro Evolution Soccer to [[EA]] of all people. Nor can they keep a 10 year old dating sim port running without bugs. Fucking pathetic. The only hope for them at this point is selling their assets off to a large publisher such as Sega or Square Enix after they lose their Pachinko license. Due to Japan's illegal gambling crackdown and [[derp|parlors ignoring Coronavirus measures]]. At this point it seems Sony themselves has shown interest in doing so.

==See Also==
*[[Metal Gear Vindicare]]
*[[BattleTech]]

==Gallery==
<center>
<gallery>
Image: Absolutely disgusting.jpg
Image: Metal Gear-Titan Comparission.png|The size of a Warhound and the (contextual) power of an Imperator. [[Awesome]].
Image: Nanomachines, boy.png
Image: Metal Gear Model.jpeg
Image: MSG Agent Chart.png|Create your own MSG Agent!
</gallery>
[[Category: Video_Games]]
[[Category: Under_Development]]
[[Category:Meme]]

Metal Gear

2021-10-25T21:25:48Z

2600:1700:91C1:A4E0:6DB2:7B8A:C0F0:C2AF: /* Metal Gear and /tg/ */

[[File: MSG Title.jpeg|thumb|right|Metal Gear Solid title]]{{Template:/vg/}}
{{Spoilers}}
{{topquote|Nanomachines, son!|Senator Armstrong, explaining how Metal Gear gets away with anything it can't explain with traditional technobabble. (replace with parasites for pre-nanomachine era).}}

If you're here on the Internet and have ''not'' heard of Metal Gear or Metal Gear Solid, you're obviously pretty new or [[Stupid|just straight up ignorant]]... But for the sake of [[/tg/]] and everyone, we'll help.

Metal Gear and the subsequent games coming after it are action-adventure stealth games starting in 1987. While Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2 on the <strike>EN EE ESS</strike> EM ES EX TWO were well-received and iconic, it was Metal Gear Solid in 1998 on the PEE ESS JUAN that changed not only the franchise but third-person shooters in general and practically being the herald of stealth games. Though each game has a different story, it typically follows the supersoldier agent Solid Snake or Big Boss during the 21st century and the Cold War as he infiltrates something, destroys whatever's inside, and is a badass while doing it. We would explain more of the story here, but honestly it gets stupidly complicated with government conspiracies, clones, ghosts, [[meme|sudden but inevitable betrayals]], and many more. While somewhat grounded in reality, it has a very obvious sci-fi feel to it, similar to [[BattleTech]], [[Shadowrun]], and in some ways [[Warhammer 40,000|Warhammer 40K]]. Besides its well-crafted game play and frequently uneven and twisty plot, Metal Gear is mainly known for its [[memes]].

==Metal Gear and /tg/==
Like much of the Internet and 4chan, /tg/ has a pretty distinct love for Metal Gear. We've had several quest threads following the Metal Gear universe, most notably [http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive.html?tags=Metal%20Gear:%20Rise%20from%20Ashes%20Quest| Rise from Ashes] and [http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive.html?tags=Revengeance%20Quest| Revengeance Quest]. While there's not a definitive homebrew for it, there's limitless potential and [http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/38662709/| that certainly hasn't stopped us from trying].

[[Metal Gear Vindicare]] is a pretty obvious /tg/-MSG relation, being inspired by the famous codec used by Solid Snake in the game. Centers around [[Love Can Bloom]] with <s>[[Doomrider]] as a special guest.</s> '''DO COCAAAAIIIINNE!'''

A lot of things about Metal Gear correlate with the interests of fa/tg/uys. Despite what most people think, /tg/ loves their [[tau|giant]] [[Adeptus Evangelion|robots]], which Metal Gear Solid has in spades. There's also a good enough amount of both [[grimdark]] and [[Orks|hilarious stupidity]] to keep a wide variety of neckbeards entertained.

There was a limited edition version of [[Risk]] with Metal Gear tappings. However it is out print and now costs as much as a new video game console. Because Konami is even dumber than [[Games Workshop]].

==Characters==
===Solid Snake===
[[File: Solid Snake codec.png|thumb|left|I ''am'' happy]]
The protagonist for most of the games. He starts out his career in Metal Gear as a rookie FOXHOUND agent, uncovering the existence of the Metal Gear and the double-crossing of his superior, Big Boss. He later discovers that he's actually the clone-son of Big Boss, created for reasons that change from game to game. Snake spends the rest of the games fighting Big Bosses' other clones as well as uncovering the grand conspiracy his father had been retconned into fighting, while people talk about how hard the life that he chooses to live is even though it's his own fucking choice. He finally ends his career in Metal Gear Solid 4, his clone-genes rapidly degenerating and near the end of his life (by the time he's in his mid-thirties he's in his late sixties biologically, complete with heart problems and seizures). But he doesn't get to die before finally making amends with his father in a rather hilarious moment where Big Boss is convinced that unless he kills a really old man who was essentially a vegetable the whole series could happen again. In terms of personality there's not much to say, besides him wanting to lead huskies in the Iditarod if he were to ever retire.

===Big Boss===
[[File:Big Boss Salute.jpeg|thumb|right|250px|Good night, sweet prince.]]
Basically [[General Sturnn]]. But with an eye-patch. [[Farsight]] seems to take a lot of inspiration from him too.
While initially portrayed as the villain due to how much he loved war so he could get child soldiers to train into regular soldiers, one could argue whether or not his actions were justified given the later retcon of the Patriots existence (and then they'd remember that whole child soldier bit - then again, who knows if that was actually Big Boss or Venom Snake). Big Boss stars as the protagonist of all the Metal Gear games before Solid begins his career, dating back to the 1960s when he was known as Naked Snake (get it?). Naked Snake discovers the progenitor of Metal Gear in Soviet Russia while also being "betrayed" by his former leader, The Boss. After an arms deal goes wrong, he chooses to kill her to cover up America's involvement, which leaves a lasting impact for the rest of his life and was betrayed by his love interest, EVA, because nobody on the team realized that the agent he was supposed to meet (a man) was actually replaced by EVA (a woman). He decides to abandon the United States (even though patriotism was the theme of the previous game) and create his own military group "Militaires Sans Frontieres," the very mercenary group to have ever existed in the MGS world, later called "Diamond Dogs," while fighting his own shadow war against former comrade Zero who turned evil offscreen and is the founder of the Patriots (also happens offscreen). After fighting a number of early Metal Gear models, Big Boss began building a few Metal Gears of his own to try and even the odds. During a battle against one of the Patriots' splinter groups, Cypher, Big Boss pussies out and decides "Fuck this war, somebody else can deal with this shit" and leaves a body double, Venom Snake, to become the public face of his PMC while he fucked off to who knows where. Originally Big Boss fought Solid Snake in MG1 and died, this was retconned in MG2 where they said he didn't die, just had lots of his body replaced with machinery, and retconned into Venom Snake died instead in MG1, while Big Boss entered into a coma after MG2 until he was revived just after the patriots were defeated (nobody bothered to check to make sure he was dead).
He can also bench press 200 simi odd ton tanks and recharge batteries by eating glowing mushrooms for [[Orks| some reason.]]
TL:DR, he's a ubersoldier. Also has done enough shit to make James Bond look like a pansy. Made a cool base.

===Gray Fox===
Initially just an NPC with some backstory as FOXHOUND's best soldier. In Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake ([[Fail|To differentiate it from the load of fail that was Metal Gear 2 on the NES]]) he's retconned as Solid Snake's best friend. Mid-way into the game he is revealed as the second in command of Zanzibar Land under Big Boss & the pilot of the first real Metal Gear. He is also the first of the melee only boss battles, with [[Mekboy | land mines surrounding the boss arena to spice things up]]. Because the AI was shit (and he isn't the player character) he loses to Snake. He also kills his girlfriend accidentally in one of the most heavily foreshadowed scenes of all time.
In Metal Gear Solid he comes back as the first [[Adeptus Mechanicus|Cyborg Ninja]] as a tutorial battle for the game's melee system. [[Railroading| In short telling the player how to beat him.]] His final act is damaging Metal Gear Rex with some kind of [[Skub|laser or plasma weapon]] that he didn't have in previous appearances before being squished by Metal Gear. His sacrifice allows Snake to finally defeat Rex with his Stinger Missiles. Also appears in a prequel game of [[C.S. Goto|questionable canon]].
Later on his backstory was expanded a little more, and it was revealed that he was a child soldier fighting in an area well known for their child soldiers, and he was able to amass a large kill-streak because none of his enemies thought that child soldiers existed, [[Fail|in an area full of them.]]
His ability to lower the intelligence of everyone he met impressed the CIA, who decided to make him into the perfect soldier, unfortunately this ability affected the CIA too and they assumed that wiping all of his memories, including the memory of any martial art he knew or fought against, would make him a better fighter.
He also later murdered the parents of Naomi, then chose to adopt her, because why not? Naomi is also the person who turns him into a cyborg and then lets him loose, knowing full well that he'll want another rematch against Snake, and knowing full well that if Snake failed to complete the mission a Nuke could be launched against the US. The "book" included with MGS2 "In the Darkness of Shadow Moses" says she was arrested, charged with treason and broken out by a mysterious savor, implied to be Solid Snake. However in an optional Codex Call(and another retcon due to Konami's downfall starting in 2006) Campbell suspects that it was Liquid Ocelot who broke her out and captured her to do experiments. So she gets away just fine.
One would think they could get Paul Eiding to make a ItDoSM audio book but since the company ran the franchise into the ground this won't happen until Konami goes under and is bought out by real game developers.

===Liquid Snake===
[[File:Brother Liquid.png|thumb|right|Liquid quite literally most of the time. This even extends to when Ocelot brainwashed himself to become Liquid.]]
The antagonist of Metal Gear Solid and Snake's clone brother. Liquid has a distinctly British accent and blond hair. According to the game's very loose grasp of genetics <s>(later ret-conned into Ocelot convincing Liquid this is how genetics work, which is even more dumb since this implies Liquid, an elite ex-British SAS member, could not pick up a goddamned high-school science textbook to do extra research),</s> He actually failed biology as a child which tells you quite a bit. Liquid tell snake inherited all the recessive genes of Big Boss, while Snake inherited all the dominant genes, and because of this he believed he was made from "inferior genes" and that's the reason he's evil. No seriously, the entire reason he's evil is because he doesn't like how he looks, and thus becomes Doctor Doom. Even as a child, he was a surprisingly competent soldier, giving Venom Snake (who he believed was his father Big Boss) a lot of headaches when he started acting out. He also murdered kids and stole the Metal Gear Venom Snake had before vanishing in a cliffhanger that never got resolved in the main series (you'll have to look to youtube to see what they wanted to do, and even then that still ends up on a cliff-hanger). It was later revealed though that it was actually him who had the dominant genes and Snake who had the recessive genes, even though he believed it to be the opposite.

Liquid would have died from Skull Face's parasite had he not become BFFs with his future comrade, Psycho Mantis who had the ability to do pretty much everything, and was retconned into being possessed by Liquid since Psycho Mantis now gets possessed by non-Psychic people, even though he's wearing his mask which was designed to stop peoples thoughts from entering his head. Liquid has massive Daddy issues (the aforementioned genes) and is incredibly stupid, which lead him to rebel against the US government and seize Metal Gear REX for himself. He also really hates Snake for the same aforementioned gene issue, possessing a really intense inferiority complex and needing to constantly prove himself. Also turned Gray Fox into a blood puddle, because can't aim a [[fail|laser for crap]]. Snake fights him several times, including shooting down his helicopter and Metal Gear Rex, but the bastard JUST. WON'T. DIE. Of course he finally does die from an engineered virus... sort of. "Liquid" takes possession of Ocelot but this was retconned out later so it doesn't matter.

===Ocelot===
A Russian gunslinger and a guy with a LOT of mixed loyalties that make no sense when you think about it. Formerly a member of GRU (the Soviet Military's version of the civilian KGB) and a secret agent for the USA, Ocelot joined with Big Boss (due to a combination of charisma and because Ocelot has a major crush on Big Boss, bordering on actual romance.), helping him in secret despite nominally being a member of the Patriots (and later deciding to destroy them, for Big Boss' sake). Ocelot joined Liquid's rebellion, but only to act as the Patriot's inside man and steal the plans for Metal Gear REX, even though as the governing intelligence they would already have had them. He also manages to steal Metal Gear RAY, but at this point he starts acting out his secret plan to destroy the Patriots from within. How does he do this? Well....

# [[What|Pretend to be possessed by the ghost of Liquid]] and steal Metal Gear RAY which was later retconned into him using hypnosis to make himself think he's Liquid, which gives him all of Liquid's personalities and skills, because that's what happens in this universe (it's how Big Boss made his body double too).
# Use one of the Patriots' AI to infiltrate their system and take effective control over their military assets, because AI who know that the new AI will be under Liquid's control will just hand it to him and wait to die.
# When the patriots send Snake after him, put up a convincing show of resistance by attempting to kill him multiple times.
# Steal the railgun off of Metal Gear REX and aim it at the Patriots' main satellite, which is still armed with a live nuke because nobody in the government told their successors about the nuke, because written logs don't exist in this world, everything is passed down through word of mouth, and the patriots forgot that the nuke was there too. If it makes you feel any better, the US government also forgot they have a fully-armed (we're not even kidding, come MGS4, and the thing's weapon systems are fully armed and operational) 15-ft bi-pedal mech, fully equipped with classified next-generation technology, sitting in an abandoned nuclear storage facility.
# Hope that Snake is still alive at this point and that he's developed the worm necessary to kill the Patriots AI, which Liquid could have done at any time so he wouldn't have had to worry about all the earlier bullshit.
# Fistfight him bare-chested until you die of exhaustion.
# Realize how hilariously dumb Kojima's story-telling ability is, after reading everything in this section
# ???
# Profit!
Yeah... when we talk about how convoluted the story is, it's usually Ocelot's fault. Still, for an elderly old bastard, he's pretty damn badass. Dude can also pull off some [[/co/|Taskmaster]] level shit and bite CQC moves from his opponents. He's also the third canon cyborg via replacing Liquid's Arm with a prosthetic and [[What|dented his own ship with it (but somehow, couldn't break Solid Snake's face during their fist-fight).]]

Also, he has a [[Slaanesh| torture fetish]] and is a [[Furry|furry old fuck, the "Ocelot" code-name was before Fox Hound decided to go full-furry with operative code-names.]]. TLDR, he is [[Wat]] incarnate.

===Otacon===
The [[weeaboo]] of the series. We're not exaggerating, by the way. He wanted to work on Metal Gear REX specifically because he's obsessed with [[anime]]. Otacon is your typical nerdy support character, giving Snake technical assistance in his fight against the Metal Gears and is the only reason REX was able to be defeated because he intentionally developed it with an exploitable weak spot that would have made it a hindrance against on the battlefield. This carries over to the next several games where he'll design something far inferior to what already existed, only to let you use that better thing later on anyway. He's also a quite literally hopeless romantic, as his two romantic interests ended up dying. Though to be honest, the first was a terrorist who showed no real interest in him, and the second was Naomi, who upon realizing she had cancer that wasn't doing a fucking thing because she stopped it with nanomachines, decided to commit suicide. Also we learn that his dad committed suicide because he had sex with his stepmom. Yeah.

===Huey===
Otacon's dad. Despite having the same general appearance, voice actor, and role as Otacon, Huey deserves special mention for how much of a [[that guy|cock]] he is and how despite all his faults, Otacon is infinitely more tolerable. So, he's a paraplegic engineer who got drafted by the CIA into helping to build Peace Walker, not realizing how insane the project really is (this is a persistent theme for him). After being rescued by Big Boss, Huey works for him and develops Metal Gear ZEKE as a counter to the various AI weapons the CIA had built. He also ended up marrying his design partner, the heavily-implied-to-have-had-a-lesbian-crush-on-The-Boss Dr. Strangelove, with whom they had a son named Hal (aka Otacon). Now, here's where the dark shit settles in: <s> after getting tricked by Cipher into letting them onto Mother Base to destroy it </s> after selling out Big Boss and MSF to Cipher, Huey gets abducted and is forced to work on a new Metal Gear, Sahelanthropus. Because the cockpit can't fit a full-sized human, he tries to get his son Hal to pilot it. Strangelove vehemently opposes this, so he ends up stuffing her inside an AI pod to suffocate. After getting recaptured by Big Boss, he insists that he never betrayed him and that he wasn't willingly working for Cipher. But after Big Boss succeeds in defeating Skull Face, Huey steals the vocal chord parasite and makes it more deadly by making it immune to its original antidote in an attempt to sell it to Cipher for protection, even having the gall to call Big Boss a murderer for mercy-killing the men Huey infected. Naturally, this pisses off Big Boss, so he sends him adrift on a tiny life raft. Huey lives out the rest of his days being a bad parent, eventually drowning himself (and nearly drowning his stepdaughter) when he found out Hal had sex with his new wife. After learning all that, one can only imagine how badly Hal was treated and feel some genuine pity for him.

===Meryl===
Colonel Roy Campbell's daughter (he told everyone she was his niece because he didn't want them to know her mother had an affair with him) and the only FOXHOUND agent to not join Liquid's rebellion. She starts out as a rookie way in over her head, but she helps out Snake by providing him with useful information. Snake also starts to develop a romantic interest in her after all the shit they go through, and then dumps her to go hunt Metal Gears because Snake decided that Metal Gears shouldn't exist, a plan which was doomed to failure since their design was on the internet and literally everyone could download it. In Metal Gear Solid, depending on whether Snake submits to Ocelot's torture, Meryl lives or dies at the end of the game. This is later retconned in Metal Gear Solid 4, where she lives but also learns the truth that she's Roy's daughter, not his niece, which pisses her off. Meryl becomes the commander of her own unit which she names after the group who tried to kill her, and decides that because at this point Snake's turned into a crusty old fart, she's going to marry her perpetually incontinent subordinate stalker (he saw her once and was then pining for her years after the fact), who's also a weeaboo.

===Raiden===
He's introduced as the "true" protagonist of Metal Gear Solid 2, but his original appearance is nowhere near as badass as Snake. He's a [[Fulgrim|white-haired effeminate Bishie]] that tends to rile up most people who loathe anime stereotypes. Raiden starts out as a Child Soldier in Africa (despite being whiter than white-out) before being taken in by the Patriots as their successor to Solid Snake. He's lived nearly his entire life in simulations and being fucked over by AIs. Once he's actually let out into the real world to stop Solidus and his terror cell, he meets Snake, and together they discover the existence of the Patriots.

Raiden gets a significant upgrade after MGS2, where he gets kidnapped by the Patriots and has his entire body below his upper jaw cut off and replaced by a cyborg ninja body (akin to a reverse [[Ferrus Manus]]). Everyone agrees that his version of Raiden is much better, and he ends up starring in the spin-off game Metal Gear Rising, where he uses his sword and ninja athleticism to fight other cyborgs and a regular human who was stronger than him due to having [[Flash Gitz| a better weapon, Power Armor]] and skills. In the Metal Gear verse your top of the line upgrades are [[Games Workshop|barely useful in less than four years]].

===Solidus===
The last of Big Bosses' clones, Solidus was much more under the control of the Patriots, sometimes. He spent some time fighting in Africa, where he picked up an orphaned Raiden and turned him into a pawn of the Patriots. While he was eventually made President, this really didn't count for much as the Patriots still made all the decisions and he was basically a puppet. Solidus decides that he's had enough of this shit and steals the Patriots' new warship, Arsenal Gear, and decides to take the fight directly to them. Of course, this didn't end well for him when Snake and Raiden interfere and the ship crashes into Manhattan. He gets killed by Raiden, sort of-not really as nobody bothered to check the body (falling into a coma instead of dying), but his body ends up being a macguffin because his DNA is an exact match to Big Boss, allowing Ocelot to hack into the Patriots network, because even though the Patriots know what's happening and could stop it they let it happen anyway.

===The Patriots===
Also known as "Cipher", or "La-Li-Lu-Le-Lo" if you're under their direct control since they decided the best way to hide their name is telling everyone that they can't say their name. Financed by the inheritance of the 20th Century's wealthiest men, the Patriots control literally everything. Originally this was a group formed by Big Boss, Zero, Sigint, Para-Medic, Ocelot, and Eva in order to fulfill The Boss' wishes of creating a world without borders and ending the Cold War since the entire series is based around people wanting to do what The Boss wanted to do, despite most of them having minimal attachment to the boss at best. However, this group split in half over differences on how to fulfill this vision. Zero wanted to control the entire world and all facets of human life through all-knowing AIs, while Big Boss wanted to create "Outer Heaven," a place where soldiers would always belong and not be the puppets of governments (because having people always ready to fight would obviously mean everyone becomes peaceful and happy). When Zero went comatose, the group was taken over for a short time by Skull Face, the guy responsible for cleaning up the mess in MGS3 even though there wasn't anyone like that originally (retcon) and the location should have made it impossible. He wanted to fulfill the Boss' vision by eliminating language itself using a language-based parasite because he believed that a persons personality and way of thinking had everything to do with the language they spoke (he was also retarded). Eventually the Patriots was controlled by Five AIs: JD, GW, TJ, AL, & TR (John Doe, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt respectively) who had no self preservation whatsoever. These AIs decided that the best thing to unite the world was to plunge it into perpetual conflict and proxy wars, bringing together the worst of Zero's and Big Boss' visions and directly working against everything the series said they were working towards. The Patriots AI were killed off when Snake unwittingly uploaded a worm that killed all of them, finally freeing the world from their influence.

==Types of Metal Gears==
If the title of the game didn't hint at it enough, a prominent part of the game(s) are these giant mechs called (you guessed it) Metal Gears. In the beginning they're simply mobile platforms to launch nuclear weapons, but they evolve to fulfill many other roles and become far more dangerous in general.

'''Shagohod''': Technically not a Metal Gear, but created the precedent for mobile nuclear platforms. This crazy contraption was basically a giant armored hovercraft that could use rocket-boosters to give its nuclear payload an extra kick of speed, designed to launch nukes from any surface and give the Soviet Union the edge in the Cold War. Of course the whole point of the Cold War was that both sides were fucked if ANY nukes were launched, so it became pointless before it was built. It also had point-defenses up the wazoo.

'''Metal Gear RAXA''': The first proper Metal Gear ever built. A four-legged Metal Gear that could be launched from a ICBM. If you're asking why in the fuck they have to use a Metal Gear as a middleman nuclear platform when they're already launching it from an ICBM, supposedly it's because the missiles are harder to intercept on the Metal Gear than on the ICBM... but who's to say they can't intercept the ICBM carrying the Metal Gear?

'''Peace Walker''': A four-legged walker that was fully AI controlled. It's described as having a stealth frame, but it wouldn't exactly be hard to spot considering the size of the thing. It could only fire nukes defensively, but could be tricked into launching a premature attack through a faked nuclear launch signal sent through the hacked NORAD system. Was intended to be the ultimate assurace of Mutually Assured Destruction by being an mobile, autonomous, and intelligent AI system that would guarantee a retaliatory strike upon whoever fired their nukes first. Originally created because a branch of the government didn't believe people would be able to launch nukes and kill millions of innocent people (which he'd prove by launching a nuke himself). Turns out it wasn't needed at all because the final act (and anyone with common sense) proved him completely wrong.

'''Metal Gear ZEKE''': Big Boss' first attempt at a Metal Gear, this one was fully bipedal. Originally it was AI controlled too, but was modified to use a human pilot when Cypher attempted to steal it, the modifications being completed in days or minutes depending on when you last checked it, and nobody guarding it thought that it was a good idea to stop the modifications that weren't supposed to happen, and the two people doing them would never have been able to make them in the first place. This metal gear was also customizable and could be sent out on combat missions alongside MSF soldiers.

'''Sahelanthropus''': This one was designed by Otacon's Dad, Huey. While technically more advanced than Metal Gear REX in that it could walk upright, one flaw was that the cockpit was too small for a full-sized human. Cypher got around this by using Pyscho Mantis to control it psychically, because in Phantom Pain Psycho Mantis could do whatever he wanted, which makes you question why they need robots when they already have control over a superhuman. Sahelanthropus is also the absolute proof of why Metal Gears are useless (as if Metal Gear: Rising didn't already do that), despite costing millions to make and countless resources, it's easily defeated by a man on a man-sized robot that would have cost a fraction of the resources to develop, and if it didn't have the ability to create clouds that destroyed metal, it could have been easily defeated by one tank.

'''TX-55''': The Metal Gear that appears in the first game (which is now chronologically not the first one). This model didn't have that many frills, though it could fire two nukes despite being relatively tiny. It does nothing while Snake just uses C4 to blow it up and dodges the [[Rage|annoying laser cameras]]. Presumably it's the most durable one because the only way to hurt it is to use a shitload of C4 on its legs in a certain order, because [[Rage|armor paneling redundancies]].

'''Metal Gear D''': The first real Metal Gear the player ever fights in the release order. An upgraded version of TX-55. It only had a machine guns and missiles during it's boss battle, but apparently it could also fire [[Anal_circumference|six nukes one after another]].

'''Metal Gear REX''': This dinosaur-looking motherfucker takes the original Metal Gear concept one step further by firing nukes from a [[Tau|railgun]] instead of a ballistic missile, making nukes nearly impossible to track (though it was never designed to do so, and the waste heat it would generate makes that highly implausible, it just happened to work out that way). It also had a badass assortment of weaponry, from Gatling Guns to crotch lasers and a crap-ton of missiles. Even after Snake battled it in MGS1, it was still tough enough to take on RAY in MGS4. After MGS1, hundreds of REX knockoffs started spreading throughout the world thanks to Ocelot's douchebaggery.

'''Metal Gear RAY''': Designed to be the ultimate anti-Metal Gear weapon, RAY failed fucking hard in that regard. It's amphibious by design, and instead of carrying nukes, its weapons include a powerful water cannon that can cut metal. Despite being built specifically to fight Metal Gears, it still loses in a fight against an already damaged Metal Gear REX. For some reason Ocelot never uses the missile spam attack seen in Metal Gear Solid 2 when he pilots the manned version in MGS4. Still not a cake walk though since you need too spam the fire button instead of holding it down to make this fight easier. Since Metal Gear battles that are not the first boss hardly ever are.
The others seen in MGS2 and Rising are smaller unmanned knockoffs.

'''Metal Gear RAY MOD0''': An upgrade over RAY seen in Metal Gear Rising. With the rise of carbon nano-tube tech; the armor was made lighter and stronger, allowing it to carry more weapons. Upgrades include: 4 limb-mounted twin-linked gatling guns, micro and macro missile launchers, an HF arm blade roughly the size of a small building, and a mouth-mounted plasma cannon. Despite all this, every last one of these guys encountered were destroyed by some Rhodesian weeaboo ninja with a sharp stick and a smart-talking Brazilian samurai with an incomprehensibly powerful sword and fighting technique.

'''Metal Gear EXCELSUS''': Not really a Metal Gear, it was only named so for marketing reasons, but still impractically awesome either way. Seen only in Metal Gear Rising; EXCELSUS was meant as an anti-cyborg gear, because cyborgs were becoming too powerful for conventional warfare. Due to this, people thought the only counter to this was to go back to making giant mechs with impractically large and powerful weapons (under the logic that if you can't outmanuver them; outgun them). EXCELSUS is basically a scorpion-shaped mech roughly as tall and wide a sports stadium and armed with two giant HF blades and twin plasma cannons. Its destroyed by Raiden in the most hilariously over-the-top way possible; he SUPLEXES THE DAMN THING, rips one of it's arm blades off, and engages it in an arm-wrestling match with one of it's severed arms. Reminder, this was designed to kill cyborgs.

'''Gekko''': Small Metal Gears made up of a combination of synthetic organic muscle and mechanical technology. They have the head/upper body of a REX, but they have a pair of lizard legs to walk around on. You'd think that those legs would be easy pickings for bullets, but actually they won't buckle for anything less than explosives. They also allow the GEKKO to jump really high, climb on walls, and sweep kick you, so good luck running away from them. They also moo like cows and take shits. Seriously. We're not fucking joking.

==Plot==
===Metal Gear ===
The original story on the NES. While the future 3D games are the stuff of legends, the old ones didn't get better with age (they're good for nostalgia, but gameplay as expected during the pioneer age of vidya gaems, is unpolished at best).

It has rookie FOXHOUND operative Solid Snake infiltrating Outer Haven, a mercenary empire led by a mysterious legendary mercenary. Big Boss, leader of FOXHOUND, originally sent one of their best operatives named "Grey Fox" to infiltrate the area, but was captured, leaving only the message "Metal Gear" before disappearing. BB then only sends Snake to investigate, in an operation dubbed "Operation Intrude N312".

So to make a long-story less long and all the obligatory plot twists: Big Boss is actually the leader of Outer Haven (this was later ret-conned to being Big Boss' body double: Venom Snake) and the real Big Boss (we think) only sent in Snake thinking that he would be killed as he didn't have the experience to go up against hardened war veterans (all those guys you fultoned in MGS5? They're these guys). Metal Gear is actually a bi-pedal tank capable of launching nuclear weapons from anywhere. Also Grey Fox is alive, and wants to kill you after being convinced by Big Boss to turn on the US government.

===Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake===
Sequel to the first game. The game now features the fictional nation of Zanzibar, another mercenary empire led by another "legendary mercenary". Zanzibar kidnapped Dr. Kio Marv, a scientist who created a compound named "OLIX" which could create an oil-substitute compound at little cost. Due to diminishing oil supplies, Zanzibar plans to hold the world hostage by controlling the only new reliable source of oil. They plan to enforce their position using OLIX and of course, a nuclear-equipped walking battle tank. Snake retired after the events of the first game, but was pressed by Campbell into service, due to this new crisis. Now, Snake must rescue Dr. Marv and bring an end to Zanzibar.

Surprisingly, this mission also goes well for Snake, managing to save Dr. Magnar and destroy Zanzibar's Metal Gear. But you guessed it, plot twists: Grey Fox is still alive, and this would be his final days as he dies after fighting Snake (but is forcibly brought back from the grave by the Patriots later), and Big Boss is actually still alive (although technically he was always alive, you just killed his body-double at first, with recent retcons considered), but Snake puts him down, once and for all (And this is the actual Big Boss now, but he didn't actually die, rather he was saved by the Patriots after the battle, but was in a coma. This plot point gets wrapped up in MGS4.).

===Metal Gear Solid===
Metal Gear Solid is a bit of a "reboot" of the franchise, where most of future games will follow this style of gameplay (or improve upon it).

The story involves Solid Snake being forced back into service after Liquid Snake, his brother, stages a coup with the Next-Generation Special Forces, and Fox Hound, taking Metal Gear REX and several personalities hostage. Their demands are money and for the US government to surrender the remains of Big Boss, as they require his DNA to fix their genetic flaws. Failure to do so, will cause the terrorists to launch a nuclear weapon from REX.

As a solo infiltrator Snake must defeat the members of the NGSF and Fox Hound, save the DARPA chief and president of the ArmsTech corporation, and retrieve Metal Gear REX. But as much as it was intended; he wasn't alone. He's assisted by an operations team that he contacts via codec that's currently operating from a submarine, an NGSF defector named Meryl, and REX's designer; Otacon. Also a mysterious cyborg ninja who is there to both assist and kill you, specifically in a first-fight.

But, plot twist, the ninja was Grey Fox all along and only got you here as a duel to the death with you was his final wish, you were just there to be a carrier of the FOXDIE virus, to ensure the members of Fox Hound are killed either way, then allow the US government to retrieve REX undamaged. Snake sort of "succeeds" in his mission (Revolver Ocelot is still alive, two of the hostages are dead, and REX is "kind of" destroyed.), failing most of his objectives, but managing to prevent nuclear holocaust from occurring.

As an additional Plot Twist: Revolver Ocelot planned everything with then-president George Sears (AKA: Solidus Snake), and everything went [[Just as Planned|all according to plan]] from his stand-point (Whether him losing his gun hand is part of it or not, is up to debate).

===Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty===
Known mostly as where the story of the Patriots and information control started.

After MGS1, Ocelot leaks plans of REX to the world, causing numerous countries to start making their own home-grown nuclear weapons programs through this data. Due to this, the US Marines are commissioned Metal Gear RAY, a not-metal gear that's designed to take on other giant robots, rather than launch nukes. [[Rage|Why they needed their own is only explained in optional dialogue that you have to go out of your way to find]]. As conventional weaponry (anti air and anti tank mostly or just a crap ton of explosives) can easily defeat Metal Gears. In short the USMC want to stick it to the Navy who have their own Metal Gear project.

This is caught by Snake's and Otacon's attention, who infiltrate the tanker transporting RAY to get photo evidence of the US government building another Metal Gear (never actually considering that in the age of Photoshop, the USG can easily deny these claims). Things go not as planned after Ocelot and a bunch of Russian mercenaries take over the tanker. Things are even more complicated after Ocelot betrays the mercenaries, then takes RAY for himself, sinking the oil tanker, and pinning the entire incident on Snake. Snake is assumed to have died during the tanker incident. Also Snake meets Olga Gurlukovich, daughter of the mercenary commander's daughter, for....reasons.

Fast forward a few years, and a facility called "Big Shell" is built on-top of the oil spill, to facilitate clean-up of the patch of water. Said facility is then taken over by the "Sons of Liberty" a disenfranchised US Special Forces group, led by former president George Sears, who intends to rid the world of the Patriots' influence, supported by a group of Russian mercenaries. He plans to do this by gaining access to nuclear weapons and requires the President's authorization to allow him to use it. During this time, they take the US president, and his cabinet hostage during a routine visit from them.

Along with a SEAL team, the US government sends "Raiden" a bishie "rookie" of Fox Hound.(he's trained with VR, but has no field experience to speak of. If you discount his stint as a child soldier. [[Twilight|Who was designed to appeal to teenage girls. A demographic known for its awful taste.]]) Also there's this SEAL named Iroquis Pliskin who sounds, looks, and acts a lot like Solid Snake, but it can't be him because he's dead. Plus there's also this female cyborg ninja with a thick Russian accent, who's....just there, I guess.

His objectives were to rescue the president, prevent the terrorists from blowing-up Big Shell (as the chemicals used for de-contaminating the oil would poison the area around Manhattan), and neutralize the Sons of Liberty....atleast that was the plan. As with the first game; Raiden fails his original mission as the Big Shell is eventually destroyed, the US President is dead, and Solidus gains access to another superweapon that he was able to use. But he was able to prevent Armageddon by stopping Solidus by having a sword-duel to the death. Anyways:

PLOT TWEEST: Pliskin is actually Solid Snake (whether this can still be considered a twist is debatable, but meh), the Ninja with the feminine Russian accent was Olga all along, Big Shell was just a cover for the Patriots attempting to build another Metal Gear called "Arsenal Gear", the oil spill was [[Just as Planned]] to allow it's construction and the Big Shell was never doing any clean-up work at all, and this entire flubdubbery was actually an exercise to allow the Patriots to gather data on the SSS program or "Solid Snake Simulator", a program that would allow them to train a soldier at-par with Solid Snake with Raiden's experiences, using Ocelot as an observer. Ocelot was actually working with the Patriots, if that was ever a surprise. Also the Colonel Campbell and Rosemary advising you were actually the Patriot AIs, bringing into question whether everything Raiden has been told by the two is real or not. Snake also comes off looking like an asshole in this game as he does things such as using Raiden as bait for Solidus and withholds information. Which is kind of the point. As being a super spy for twenty years some odd years would make just about anyone else into a jerkass. He also knew that the Patriots were monitoring Raiden. A proper reason for keeping somebody you don't trust in the dark about your plans.

A TWIST TO THE PLOT TWIST: Ocelot was just a pawn (or so the Patriots think), SSS was actually for "Selection for Societal Sanity", a program enacted by the Patriots to gather data on how they can filter and censor information, to ensure the world only listens to the Patriot's point of view, as they deem that humans are incapable of forming context for information, resulting in dozens, to hundreds of opinions and interpretations, that inevitably cause either a stagnation of progress and conflict. By creating a context for everyone to adhere to, it is that much easier to influence the masses on how to think.

Another twist: Everything Raiden knows may or may not be a lie, but the validity of it is left ambiguous to allow the player to decide whether its truth or a lie.

Retrospective:
As many sources attest to. MGS2 was supposed to the magnum opus for Kojima and wanted to leave the series in the hands of younger developers. There are a few problems with this. Sons of Liberty would be the second game for most players. As the eight bit games were never released internationally until 2005.(other than a shitty port of MG1 and a really bad third person shooter on the NES) Making the game's twists feel forced and unearned. Another problem is that players got vastly different dubs. Not just language but Solidus and Olga have the same voice actors as Snake and Meryl. Talking no differently from their roles in MGS1. The devs also despised the changes that improved English dub of the game and refused to let it happen again. Disrespecting their larger audience who can't even play the Japanese version of MGS2.

So again, despite being a fanboy of America. It's Kojima fault for not realizing that [[derp|Japan has different values]] from the rest of the world. He and his staff didn't understand how western culture views things. As Raiden comes off as a poor man's Shinji Ikari for most of the game. [[fail|Another large problem is that one of the translators is a racist Karen who now whines about the MeToo movement.]]

Another issue is that America wasn't bad off and didn't have the shitty economy Japan had in 2001 until 2007. Nor did big social media websites exist at the time to unwittingly assist in spreading conspiracy theories and accelerate the decline even further. [[Neckbeards|Geekdom]] also didn't accept anime otaku culture as they do now. It also blames no in particular for these problems. As Japanese culture has the rather dumb ass view of not shitting on the flaws of your enemy. [[Star Trek| Thus falling on its face compared to more successful franchises.]]

The largest flaw is that the game's story is based around Richard Dawken's The Selfish Gene. A book at the time of development was over twenty years out of date. Which is a long time when it comes to science and long enough for most of its theories to be discredited.
Worse for the devs and writers as a whole. Is that the Bioshock games, Specs Ops The Line(both subversive video games that did what MGS2 did but better) and anime such as Mobile Suit Gundam (shitting on those who glorify WW2 Japan) or Ghost in the Shell (itself based on Blade Runner) have the same messages but aren't as nice about it. MGS2 would most likely had been better received if it was meaner and actually went out of its way to criticize those whom it was railing against.
Of course most people in their twenties, even fresh military recruits, are not obviously going to be anything like Solid Snake. But it seems that Kojima and Fukushima don't realize or have forgotten [[Isekai| how shitty the tastes of most teenagers and twenty year olds actually are.]]

Also most people in the west unlike those in Asia. Think leaving plot threads open for an announced sequel as a sign of laziness, opposite of a large franchise such as the [[Marvel_Comics#Marvel_Cinematic_Universe|Marvel Cinematic Universe]]. Whose writers and producers actually planned ahead, even in the case of their most famous director leaving for his own projects.

===Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater===
Chronologically the first game in the series, MGS3 is pretty much a Fix Fic for the [[C.S. Goto|half assed story of MGS2]]. The game is still plays out like the old games, but as most of the activity is now in outdoor environments, additional features are added like the need to hunt and eat food for stamina, and the wound system that would cripple the player in certain areas due to injury (which was later pulled out of later games, because its just kinda dumb and needlessly slows the action down). MGS3 was initially made without Kojima's input but it was so bad that Konami had no choice but to ask him to come back. [[derp| Japanese culture being what it is]] means he couldn't refuse.

MGS3 follows the adventures of "Jack", code-named "Naked Snake" (named so because he has little gear during missions, hence "naked"). He was selected to be the pioneer of the FOX group, a military initiative aimed at training elite operatives for deep-infiltration missions, which is overseen by an ex-SAS operative known only as Major Zero (why the blue blazes the American government would enlist a British national as the leader one of their black ops groups is only something Kojima could explain) and also by The Boss, Jack's mentor and the greatest soldier America has ever known.

Their original mission that acts as a trial for FOX is to help scientist Nikolai Stepanovich Sokolov defect to the West, growing tired of his creations becoming weapons of war (not really realizing the West will pretty much press him for the same ends), by rescuing him from a stronghold deep in Russian territory. Said weapon is a giant tank, capable of launching nuclear missiles without the use of a silo, named "Shagohod" (Walker, even though it's screw-propelled). Things originally went well, up until the ambush led by GRU Major Ocelot (who appears to have mellowed with age, as he's an insufferable fanboy during his youth), which Snake manages to overcome, thanks to Ocelot's cockiness. But things went [[Not as Planned]] when he realized his mentor, The Boss, defected to a Soviet separatist faction led by Colonel Volgin. This led to Sokolov being kidnapped again, the Shagohod being stolen, and Snake being left almost for dead after a hilariously one-sided fight with The Boss. Things went even more not as planned after Volgin uses the Davy Crockett nuclear weapon that The Boss gave him to destroy Shagohod's design facility, blowing any chance of the US keeping this operation a secret completely out of the water.

To head off the prospect of open warfare between the US and USSR, the CIA sends Naked Snake back into the field a week later to kill The Boss, under the official story that she had gone rogue and the destruction was entirely her fault. He's also tasked to kill Colonel Volgin, as a favor to the Russians, destroy the Shagohod before Volgin can use it for his own ends, and rescue Sokolov properly this time. Standing against him are rogue Russian spec ops groups of the KGB, GRU, and most infamously the "Cobra Unit," The Boss's elite squad of quirky misfits, who served with her during WW2.

Surprisingly, Naked Snake actually accomplishes more than future protagonists ever could, with the help of another Soviet spy named Eva. Sokolov kinda "died" (he's alive in Portable Ops after being rescued, but PO's canonicity is dubious as the game wasn't written by Kojima, but he doesn't really impact the story past MGS3 so its kinda moot overall), but Volgin kinda "died" as well (apparently he was only in a near-death coma, kept alive by his unfaltering rage against Snake. Its kinda irrelevant in the long run), the Shagohod was destroyed, and The Boss is killed in what is probably one of the saddest moments in video games (mostly because of reasons listed below).

If you haven't gotten used to it yet, too bad, PLOT TWEESTS: The Boss was never really a traitor. Her original objective was to gain the trust of Colonel Volgin to obtain the "Philosopher's Legacy," fucktons of money left behind by a secret cabal of world leaders during WW1, but this was compromised after Volgin used an American nuclear weapon on Russian soil. To ensure that the US had a way out of starting WW3, The Boss was forced to accept the role of the villain, and had to rely on Snake to have the skills and fortitude to kill her, absolving the US of its crimes. By killing The Boss, Snake is heralded as a hero in the US and Russia, earning him the title of "Big Boss" from the President, [[Lamenters|but the trauma of sacrificing so much for his country made it feel like he was anything but a hero.]]

Also, Eva was actually a Chinese spy (if that wasn't kinda obvious, given Sigint's hints and her actions) and Ocelot was a triple agent (a GRU officer, working for a separatist faction, while working with the US government) who was actually Adam, the person meant to support Snake but was beaten to the punch (given this is his character trope, this probably should stop counting as a plot twist).

===Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops===
A game of questionable canon not directed or written by Hideo Kojima. The main antagonist is a bigger Villain Sue than Armstrong and Ocelot put together. Which is saying something because either would whip the floor with him. It was also a considered the worst game until recently (see Survive). Which is what you get when the primary writer is known for making shitty harem novels for morbidly obese otaku and directed by a script writer instead of a real director.

===Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots===
MGS4 is officially the "end" of the Solid timeline, as MGSV is about Big Boss's wacky misadventures in the 80's. The game is constantly criticized for basically being one long cutscene, due to the fact a lot of the game has a ''lot'' of cinematic content, than actual gameplay, to the point that MGS4 actually holds the world record for the longest cutscene in videogame history, who's finale spans a whopping 71 minutes (and reminder, this is JUST the ending).

The game follows Solid Snake, who has rapidly aged to an old man in his 60s due to being a clone, and apparently he's going to be a WMD as the FOXDIE virus injected into him back in the first ''Solid'' game is mutating into an indiscriminate bio-weapon. He's called in for one last mission by Colonel Campbell to assassinate "Liquid" Ocelot, the leader of one of the largest PMCs in the world, who has amassed too much power and is deemed a threat by world leaders. He reluctantly takes to the field again, as this is to be his final mission to end the madness he and his extended family was responsible for, before finally dying (by his hand if necessary). Along the way he's helped by just about every MG character from the previous games as one big nostalgiafest, including:

*Otacon, who's there for exposition;
*Raiden, who is now an impractically awesome near-immortal cyborg ninja;
*Dr. Naomi Hunter, who's attempting to atone for her sins;
*Colonel Campbell, who married Raiden's wife after becoming estranged to him;
*Rosemary, Raiden's wife who separated from him after a miscarriage. Acts as a psychologist to Snake;
*Vamp, who's trope as a bi-sexual vampire is ''really'' drilled into your skull here;
*Ocelot, who may or not be literally possessed by Liquid Snake's ghost (we're not kidding, this is the main reason why Ocelot became the series's big bad);
*Solidus, who's now in a coma;
*Meryl, who is now working for the US as an observer for PMCs;
*Johnny Sasaki, who somehow turned from comic relief to part-time action hero (because.....eh?);
*Mei Ling, who due to certain assets, is now a USN captain of her own ship;
*Big Boss, who finally woke up from his near-death coma;
*Eva, who's now leading an Eastern-European resistance group under the name "Big Mama";
*Sunny Gurlukovich, the daughter that Olga mentioned back in MGS2, now under the protection of Snake and Otacon.

To wrap up Kojima's decade-long fever dream: Big Mama dies attempting to save Big Boss's husk from being burned to ash, Vamp dies after being heavily wounded by Raiden and put down, Naomi dies after being guilt-tripped by Vamp's death, Snake manages to upload a computer virus that finally destroys the Patriots for real (but their influence continues on) and manages to kill Ocelot for real after one of the most nostalgia-drilling fist-fights in the series. Meryl and Johnny get married, Campbell and Rose reveal that their relationship was a play to keep the Patriots thinking that Raiden's kid was Campbell's, and Snake eats a bullet.

No he doesn't. Big Boss stops him and reveals that he's not dead (obviously) and the corpse that EVA died for was actually Solidus, whose limbs were removed and transplanted onto him when he was revivified. With the Patriots defeated and Major Zero's plug pulled, Big Boss allows himself to succumb to FOXDIE and Snake lives on.

===Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker===
The other direct sequel to Metal Gear Solid 3 on the PSP. A much better game between the two. It should have been released on consoles instead as Big Boss can't move and be in the prone position at the same time. This is where the series started it's slow decline that was fast tracked by Konami's sabotage of MGSV and the release of Survive. As one of three main writers behind Metal Gear. Tomokazu Fukushima, left the company during the early development of MGS4. Peace Walker would have been called Metal Gear 5 if it wasn't for Konami's executive meddling. Most of the problems in the game were fixed in the HD releases.

Oddly, everything that was put into MGSV came from Peace Walker. Base building, blueprints, recruiting soldiers, grand theft auto of military vehicles, and tape conversations originated here. While being more detailed and less annoying about it. The story is also considered to be superior to Metal Gear V as well.

===Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance===
Set four years after Guns of the Patriots, Revengeace is a completely different beast from any other Metal Gear game. First off, you play as Raiden for the entire game instead of Snake or Big Boss. Second, since this game was developed by Platinum Games instead of Konami, [[Flesh Tearers|stealth is mostly thrown out the window for glorious carnage]] (you can still try to use stealth when it's applicable to make the game easier, as enemies are vulnerable to insta-kills while you're undetected, but nothing's stopping you from just going in and murderfucking everyone.). And third, the stupid over-the-top tropes Metal Gear Solid was known for are hitched up to eleven. Seriously, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfpeFE4QhU0| look at this shit.] That's the equivalent of tossing around a [[Titan (Warhammer 40,000)| Warhound Scout Titan]] like a rag doll.

Long story short, Raiden receives a far more powerful cyborg body and is sent to eliminate Desperado; an off-shoot faction of the Patriots led by U.S Senator Armstrong, known for the "Nanomachines, son" [[meme]] and the most patriotic villain ever known. Besides that the plot is pretty much nonexistent, with Raiden running around and pretty much being the living avatar of [[rip and tear|RIP N' TEAR]]. The plot though did have some really funny moments where Raiden discovered the villains plan to create an army, kidnap children from third-world countries, put their brains in jars, have them remote control robots/cyborgs, and once they were skilled enough put their brains in those bodies so that they could get killed on the battlefield, not to mention there's a part where Raiden just lets a bunch of children die because he's too busy posing to help them out. Much like most of the series, this plan is doomed to failure before it starts when you realize that there's already a far better alternative in the form of nanomachines that make you invincible, they only stop working when it's plot convenient. It also regresses Raidens' character a bit (because much like every MGS sequel, the theme of the previous games are ignored), but nobody really gave a shit about that because of all the over-the-top ninja bullshit he constantly pulls off.

It also has a BITCHIN’ soundtrack

===Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain===
==== Ground Zeroes ====
The story begins with Ground Zeroes, set one year after the events of Peace Walker. It turns out Paz, a former friend of Big Boss and secret agent for Cipher, is alive and is being held in an American Interrogation camp on the southern tip of Cuba. Big Boss originally wanted to assassinate Paz because of her ties to the mysterious Cipher organization and suspects she might may have leaked critical information about the Militaires Sans Frontières. Miller on the other hand doesn't believe this and convinces Big Boss to bring her back alive for questioning. Coincidentally, Mother Base (formerly Outer Heaven, formerly Mother Base) is scheduled for a United Nations nuclear weapon inspection. After rescuing Paz and Chico, they find out that Paz had a bomb surgically planted in her abdomen as a setup. After a very gruesome scene of surgically removing the bomb from Paz's body, Big Boss successfully disposes the bomb as Paz tries to recover. They return to Mother Base only to see that it has come under attack by Cipher's covert strike force XOF, meaning the inspection was only a smokescreen for an attack. Big Boss manages to save Miller and an unnamed soldier (we find out his real alias is Mosquito, but he comes back later on). They all escape as Mother Base collapses and cue for Miller's famous meme quote "They played us like a damn fiddle!". Miller realizes Big Boss was right and demands answers from Paz. That is until Paz claims there is another bomb inside of her ([[/d/|heavily implied to be in her vagina, what the fuck Kojima]]) as she falls out of the helicopter and the second bomb inside her explodes causing the helicopter to lose control and crashes into another helicopter.

==== The Phantom Pain ====
Big Boss manages to survive the crash but falls into a coma for nine years. A pretty cool opening scene of Big Boss waking up to ''The Man Who Sold the World'' in a hospital bed in Cyprus. The doctors show Big Boss after the explosion that not only did he get shrapnel sticking out of his head and the inside of his body, but he also lost his left forearm in the process. The following night an assassin kills the doctors who took care of Big Boss and nearly kills Big Boss himself. That is until another patient stops the assassin and sets her on fire causing her to jump out the window. The patient reveals himself as 'Ishmael' and helps Big Boss escape (This isn't the only reference to the book Moby Dick, Ishmael calls Big Boss 'Ahab' while Big Boss is equipped with a hook hand prosthetic). As they both approach the elevator, they encounter a child wearing a gas mask and a straight jacket floating in the air (we know what you're thinking and yes, that is Psycho Mantis as a little kid) and a man covered in fire. Since gunfire is useless against him his only weakness is water. They both see that XOF units start killing the patients and hospital staff to ensure there are no witnesses. It becomes clear that they were sent in to eliminate Big Boss after finding out he had just woken up. After facing certain death against XOF soldiers and the Man of Fire, Big Boss and Ishmael escape the hospital using an ambulance. Unfortunately, the ambulance gets attacked by XOF forces and crashes. Big Boss survives, but Ishmael has disappeared leaving Big Boss to fend for himself. Just as an XOF helicopter is hovering over Big Boss, Psycho Mantis shows up then suddenly a giant fucking whale covered in fire swallows the helicopter and destroys it. To make things even more ridiculous, the Man of Fire shows up again riding a fucking winged unicorn made of fire. Luckily, a man riding a horse shows up to Big Boss' aid and that man is none other than Revolver Ocelot (now voiced by Troy Baker). After a chase ensues between the Man of Fire and Big Boss and Ocelot, they both manage to escape. Ocelot reminds Big Boss of what has happened before he fell into a coma and wants to help him and Miller rebuild their private army. It turns out Miller was captured by the Soviets and is being held for interrogation in Afghanistan. Big Boss joins up with Ocelot and sets out for Afghanistan. And that's all just the prologue.

Unfortunately, the rest of the story isn't nearly as awesome or cinematic, partly due to Konami's budget cuts forcing the game to be left in an unfinished state. Here's the gist; Big Boss slowly starts rebuilding his army by recruiting (read: kidnapping) Soviet and African soldiers, stealing tanks with balloons, and completing various contracts for money. However, its not long before he runs back into XOF forces, this time using mutant supersoldiers called the "Skulls" who use modified versions of the superpowered parasites used by the Cobra Unit, giving them freaky abilities like mind-controlling nearby soldiers or turning rock-solid. XOF is working on a new Metal Gear in Afghanistan, while working on a brand new superweapon on the Angola-Zaire border to eliminate entire languages through vocal-cord parasites, which are actually related to the Cobra Unit parasites. Actually these parasites have a lot of strange and unexplained abilities, like somehow being able to refine uranium ore or being used in the walking mechanisms for metal gears, or destroying metal. Whatever the case, Big Boss captures and falls in love with XOF sniper Quiet (who he learns is the same assassin who tried to kill him in the hospital), who is in turn won over by him because he's the motherfucking Big Boss. He also accidentally unleashes a parasite outbreak in Angola, which infects his own men, until he gets to the bottom of the infection. Finally after a big showdown in Afghanistan, Big Boss finally corners and kills Skull Face and his Metal Gear.

So, story over, right? HA no. Huey causes a second outbreak to try to bribe his way back into Cypher's hands, Quiet is forced to speak to rescue Big Boss (and thus runs away so she doesn't infect anyone, presumably to kill herself to avoid a slow and painful death), and baby Liquid runs away with all the child soldiers and steals the Metal Gear with him. And... that's pretty much it. The entire final battle was cut from the game, which according to plans would have been ''far'' more challenging and climactic than the two previous Metal Gear encounters, but unfortunately it never came to pass and likely never will. The only real ending we got was the reveal that Venom Snake was never Big Boss to begin with, just a brain-washed body double who would distract Cypher while the real Big Boss fucked off to do who-knows-what. We did get a decent epilogue, however, when several years after the game released, an Easter Egg was activated after every player-owned nuclear warhead was successfully deactivated in the PvP section of the game.

Phantom Pain is Skub incarnate; and is either considered one of the best game's in the series (thanks to it's ''amazing'' open stealth infiltration system and detailed mercenary management) or the ''worst'' mainline Metal Gear's (for it's often times sparse story, and undeveloped aspects) However, all will agree it ''is'' a Metal Gear game, which leads too...

===Metal Gear Survive===
What we got instead of remakes of the 8-bit games. However that would require remembering all the retcons, a little research about the politics and pop culture of the 90s and some creativity. Than paying David Hayter and Richard Doyle to return as the voices Solid Snake and Big Boss. Hell they could've had Hayter pull double duty as a script editor to keep them consistent with the canon. Lacking the ability and refusing to spend money to do just about any one of these things. Konami made this POS instead.

A portal in the sky transports you to an alternate dimension after Mother Base was destroyed by XOF, where nanomachines has mutated everyone into Romero-like [[zombie]]s (we're not kidding, this is as "Nanomachines son" for a plot device as it gets). As the name implies; your objective is to survive. Its basically every indie survival horror game you see on Steam, except this comes in with a hefty pricetag of 40 USD/EUR.

As the first game ever worked on without Kojima's input, it was originally supposed to be a testament if Konami can indeed replicate Kojima's brand of absurdly hilarious yet engaging writing, or if Kojima was indeed the only thing keeping Metal Gear afloat, and it indeed shows: it can easily be called the worst Metal Gear yet. The story is worse than Snake's Revenge and makes Bethesda era [[Fallout]] look good with sentient nanomachines from the 22nd century via time travel as the main villain.

It's story right out plagiarizes another video game made by Square Enix, Gunslinger Stratos. Just without the alternate universe dopplegangers. One could also argue that it ripoffs the premise from [[Doctor Who]] two parter "The Empty Child". However, unlike Steven Moffat the people behind Survive have no idea how to make a coherent plot. Proving for a second time that [[C.S._Goto|Gakuto Mikumo]] (who wrote the shitty story of Portable Ops) is a [[Isekai|no talent hack like most light novel writers]]. Blatantly ignoring that the real future of the Metal Gear universe is the much superior [[Mecha|Zone of the Enders]].(Sahelanthropus looks like a much less advanced Jehuty.) Pathetic that they couldn't make a better future of the franchise than a half decent Gundam fanfic series.

The game mechanics are something the olden survival games of yore (which aged about as well as bread left out in the open for 6 years), with you having to build a base using resources that you grind for, and such.

The characters are bland and calling you every 30 seconds for who knows what. You are reminded to take food and drink often but it's very difficult to get either. The main character from the single player campaign is a [[Original_character,_do_not_steal|blatant ripoff of Chris Redfield.]] While the player character is a mute because they couldn't afford to hire real voice actors after blowing their money on Matt Mercer. And do not forget that this piece of crap demands always online compatibility even for the single-player, and asking $10 for an extra save slot. Yes, 10 bucks for an extra save slot, not even F2P mobile games have that audacity. Also the zombie AI is crap, whose biggest opponents are world objects like vehicles (even an open-topped vehicle like a jeep can make you invincible), and the entire experience just feels like a game that's stuck in 2012, and never bothered to evolve to be better. There is really nothing worth picking up about this game, that you can't get anywhere else for cheaper and better.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen. After 30 years, this is how Metal Gear ends: not with a bang, but with a whimper as its dying body is devoured by Konami to salvage whatever profit they can from it before it finally rests in peace. (Well, that and Solid Snake's surprise return to ''Super Smash Bros.'', but Konami didn't need to do jack shit for that except say yes to Nintendo's money and let them do all the work.)

To put more nails in Konami's coffin, the new games made by Kojima and [[Castlevania]] producer Koji Igarashi after their departure from Konami (Death Stranding and Bloodstained, respectively), have become highly successful, while Konami's own new entries in the Metal Gear, Castlevania and Contra franchises have been met with derision and low sales. They can't even get sports or mobile games right, having lost their licenses for footy leagues they used for Pro Evolution Soccer to [[EA]] of all people. Nor can they keep a 10 year old dating sim port running without bugs. Fucking pathetic. The only hope for them at this point is selling their assets off to a large publisher such as Sega or Square Enix after they lose their Pachinko license. Due to Japan's illegal gambling crackdown and [[derp|parlors ignoring Coronavirus measures]]. At this point it seems Sony themselves has shown interest in doing so.

==See Also==
*[[Metal Gear Vindicare]]
*[[BattleTech]]

==Gallery==
<center>
<gallery>
Image: Absolutely disgusting.jpg
Image: Metal Gear-Titan Comparission.png|The size of a Warhound and the (contextual) power of an Imperator. [[Awesome]].
Image: Nanomachines, boy.png
Image: Metal Gear Model.jpeg
Image: MSG Agent Chart.png|Create your own MSG Agent!
</gallery>
[[Category: Video_Games]]
[[Category: Under_Development]]
[[Category:Meme]]

Dreadnought

2021-10-25T17:46:39Z

2600:1700:91C1:A4E0:6DB2:7B8A:C0F0:C2AF: /* Castraferrum Pattern */

[[File:Dow2r sm dreadnought ultra dlc.jpg|400px|thumbnail|right|Too wounded to live. Too precious to die.]]
{{Topquote|Only in death does duty end.|The [[God-Emperor of Mankind|Emperor of Mankind]]'s inscription on the sarcophagus of Sagittarus Malacque, first Dreadnought of the [[Adeptus Custodes]]}}
{{Topquote|No vengeance can compare to the vengeance of the dead.|A Dreadnought saying}}
{{Topquote|BREAKING NEWS: MAN LITERALLY TOO ANGRY TO DIE|Meme made by Noah Cogliette}}
{{Topquote|That the one who no longer wants to live for himself should now continue to live merely as a machine for the use of others is an extravagant demand.|Arthur Schopenhauer}}

[[Space Marines]] are phenomenally tough, but there's a limit even to their durability. A battle-brother may be so grievously wounded that no amount of cybernetics and cloned tissue can bring him back to fighting strength. In cases like these, an [[Apothecary]] has two choices: grant his brother the Emperor's Peace and extract his [[gene-seed]], or have him installed in a specialized life-support sarcophagus and attach that to an array of weapons and mobility systems, turning him into a '''Dreadnought'''.

The advantages to becoming a Dreadnought include the ability to support the battle-brothers as a walking siege engine, blasting vehicles and fortifications with heavy weapons and ripping open hard targets with hydraulic claws. Heavily-armored and no longer feeling pain, a Dreadnought can wade into swarms of light infantry with near-impunity, smashing, stomping, and shooting until nothing's left but greasy stains. The life-support systems in the sarcophagus allow the Dreadnought's occupant to live nearly forever, as demonstrated by [[Bjorn the Fell Handed]] of the [[Space Wolves]], who has lived in such a state since the mid-31st millennium. Therefore, Dreadnoughts tend to gather lifetimes of experience and are often called upon to [[Storythread|share that experience with newer battle-brothers]]. Having a Dreadnought on the field is both a force multiplier and a morale booster.

All that power [[Grimdark|comes at a cost, of course]]. The near-dead battle-brother no longer has senses of his own, his eyes and ears wired to the sarcophagus's auspex arrays. He lives in a bath of cool fluid, numb and sleeping without dreaming, when his services as a warrior or historian are not needed. Should he be crippled on the battlefield, he can do nothing to save himself and must have faith in his brothers and the God Emperor that they will retrieve him. The act of just creating one is highly traumatic to the interee and creates [[Bjorn_the_Fell_Handed#Stormfangs|mental issues]] that living marines are not affected by. The best way of regulating this is by spending most of their time in suspended animation or full blown stasis till they are needed.

Tabletop wise, Dreads are an effective all-rounder and are fairly cheap to boot. They're good at any role they're tooled for, whether it's for blowing up tanks with twin-linked [[lascannon]]s or [[meltagun]]s or mowing down infantry with an [[Assault Cannon|assault cannon]] or [[Heavy Flamer|heavy flamer.]] They can also be formidable close combat units as they can be tooled with [[Power weapon#Dreadnought Power Fist|dreadnought-sized power fists,]] for example. You ''could'' also deep-strike them in [[Drop Pod]]s, ensuring hilarity when you get lucky and they end up where they precisely need to be. Sadly with 8th edition drop pods can't carry dreads anymore. However the '''out of production''' forgeworld dreadnought drop pod is still a thing. The only ones that you can still find are pricy, or chinese recasts. But there's nothing stopping you from [[Kitbash|modifying a standard pod]] [[Counts as|and using it as one.]]

Do note, however, that many enemies focus anti-armor weapons on them (especially if there isn't a [[Land Raider]] to [[DISTRACTION CARNIFEX|distract]] them). A footslogging Dread, without heavy use of cover, will be a burning hulk of points within two turns, relying on the deep striking Drop Pods to get them where they need to go.

==Dreadnought Variants==
There's a whole bunch of Dreadnought variants that do different things. There are also [[Wraithlord]]s, [[Deff Dred]]s, and [[Helbrute]]s, which used to be called Eldar Dreadnoughts, Ork Dreadnoughts, and Chaos Dreadnoughts, respectively.

===Castraferrum Pattern===
Is the name for the traditional "box" dreadnought that everyone is familiar with, comes in MkIV and MkV flavours (just so you know, MkIV are the ones with the helmet-head). Designed by the Mechanicus during the Great Crusade, specifically for its smaller size (to assist battle-brothers ''indoors''), while its reactor runs on pretty much any fuel and the chassis is completely customisable; hence, there are a terrific number of variations, though the Castraferrum is usually outfitted with a hydraulic claw with mounted bolter or flamer and a heavy ranged weapon.

* '''Hellfire Dreadnought:''' The most common variation of [[shooty]] dread, swaps out its close combat weapon for a [[Missile Launcher|missile launcher.]] (Not considered a separate pattern in the crunch because the "vanilla" dread statblock covers both punchy and Hellfire)
* '''Ironclad Dreadnought:''' Even more heavily armored melee dreadnoughts with a [[Miscellaneous Weapons#Seismic Hammer|Seismic Hammer]], [[Hunter-Killer Missile]]s, and a built-in [[Ironclad Assault Launcher]], designed to put giant holes in tanks and bunkers. It may also be equipped with a [[Hurricane Bolter]] if you need a big blob of light infantry killed fast.
* '''Siege Dreadnought:''' Specialized bunker-busting Dreadnoughts equipped with [[Miscellaneous Weapons#Assault/Siege Drill|Assault Drills]] and [[Inferno Cannon]]s. If they manage to come close enough to any building, no matter how fortified, they would wreck it and burn the shit out of anyone inside.
* '''Venerable Dreadnoughts:''' Simply put, they're really old Dreadnoughts that have been locked up for a long time and as such are better at fighting due to experience. Also tend to get sleepy and lose their keys.
* '''Chaplain Dreadnoughts:''' Some Chapters have Venerable Dreadnoughts that used to be [[Chaplain]]s. [[awesome|This basically means they have all those special effects that Chaplains do in a Dreadnought body]]. What makes a Chaplain so special enough to be put into a Dreadnought besides those buffs, we have no idea. As [[Chapter Master]]s or [[Brother-Captain|Captains]] to lend their expertise to the chapter HQ or [[Techmarine|Masters of the Forge]] would make much more sense. One could guess that they are stuffed into Venerable Dreads or the larger more advanced variants below.
<gallery>
File:Hellfire Dread.jpg|Hellfire Dreadnought
File:99120101076_SpaceMarineIroncladDreadnoughtNEW02.jpg|Ironclad Dreadnought
File:Siege_Dreadnought.jpg|Siege Dreadnought
File:99120101083_VenerableDreadnoughtNEW01.jpg|Venerable Dreadnought
File:DreadnoughtChaplain01.jpg|Chaplain Dreadnought
</gallery>

====Chapter Specific Dreads====
* '''[[Furioso Dreadnought]]:''' Heavily armored [[Blood Angels]] dreadnoughts with ''two'' close combat weapons designed to [[RIP AND TEAR]] lots of troops in brutal close combat! Sometimes they even put a blood-crazed maniac from the [[Death Company]] inside, which turns a Furioso into an unholy, uncontrollable, and unstoppable [[rape]] machine.
**'''[[Librarian Dreadnought|Furioso Librarian Dreadnoughts]]:''' Blood Angels can also lock [[psykers]] up in Dreadnoughts, creating <strike>un</strike>holy amalgamations called Furioso [[Librarians]]. In addition to the badassery above, they replace one of their fists with a [[Force Weapons|force weapon]] and can kill you with mind bullets. Furioso Librarians were once capable of flying (DAMN YOU [[Matt Ward|WAAAAARRRRDDDD]]), but no longer while they are between codices. As of 8th Codex, they indeed fly again.
* '''[[Mortis Dreadnought]]:''' A variant supposedly exclusive to the [[Dark Angels]] that sports two copies of the same ranged weapon, for maximum [[dakka]]. This was apparently due to the Dark Angels' talent for writing things down (for entirely practical reasons, like [[Fallen Angels|keeping track]] [[Dwarf|of grudges]], rather than writing down [[Codex Astartes|some bible for space marines]] or [[Lorgar|the repressed/begrudging teeming masses]]) as all Legions had access to this pattern, but only the Angels remembered how to make a leftie dreadnought ranged weapon that wasn't a missile launcher.
** ''' [[Deathwing Venerable Dreadnought|Deathwing Dreadnoughts]]:''' The Dark Angels venerable dreads are all members of the inner circle and so reserve special hatred for <s>[[The Fallen]]</s> FILTHY CHAOS SCUM.
* '''[[Doomglaive Dreadnought|Doomglaive Dreadnoughts]]:''' A specialist dreadnoughts used by the [[Grey Knights]], comes with a nemesis force weapon and a psycannon as standard. Can attempt cleave attacks in close combat and try to hit additional dudes.
* '''[[Space Wolves Venerable Dreadnought]]:''' Not exactly unique in design compared to other Venerables, but the veteran [[Space Wolves|Wolves]] interred in them are so viking that they want to keep on vikinging even after death, meaning that the [[Techmarine|Iron Wolves]] of the chapter figured out how to give them a Blizzard Shield and a fucking huge Frost Axe. They lack ranged weapons but, you know, [[Awesome|Dreadnought-sized double-headed axe]]!
*'''[[Wulfen Dreadnought]]:''' Sometimes, a Space Wolf entombed in a Dreadnought succumbs to the Curse of the Wulfen, becoming a snarling metal beast whose violent temper makes him poorly suited for normal Dreadnought weaponry. Instead, the Iron Priests give him a great axe and a Great Wolf Claw and point him in the general direction of the enemy. The best-known of these is MURDERFANG, who has to be frozen solid with [[Helfrost Weaponry|Helfrost weaponry]] in between battles to prevent him from killing his battle-brothers.

<gallery>
image:FuriosoDreadnought.jpg|<center>Furioso</center>
image:FuriosoLibrarian.jpg|<center>Furioso Librarian</center>
image:MortisDreadMini.jpg|<center>Mortis</center>
image:DeathwingDreadnought.jpg|<center>Deathwing</center>
image:DoomglaiveDreadnought.jpg|<center>Doomglaive</center>
File:99120101116_SWVenerableDread01.jpg|<center>Space Wolves</center>
image:WulfenDreadnought.jpg|<center>Wulfen</center>
</gallery>

===Contemptor Pattern===
[[File:Grey Knights Contemptor Dreadnought.jpg|350px|thumbnail|right|Yes, this is a Contemptor of the Grey Knights. And [[Forgeworld|no, they don't have them]]. Why the fuck did they not use these instead of the goofy [[Dreadknight]]? (Because the [[Matt Ward|Ward]], that's why.)]]
Really old Dreadnoughts from before the [[Horus Heresy]] that are bigger and stronger than "modern" Dreads. A few Chapters still have them and deploy them to the field. They look more humanoid and Anime-like, and people get puzzled as why the Grey Knights do not use these instead of the goofier [[Dreadknight]], but the reasons they ''don't'' use them are exactly the same as why they started using the Castraferrum pattern instead; plus, Contemptors are becoming rarer and rarer in 40k, because the Adeptus Mechanicus keeps forgetting how to build things competently.

They have a bunch of mysterious cybernetic/AI stuff, which probably means that you should keep these away from the [[Adeptus Mechanicus]], since they like stripping them out for parts to use on their [[Legio Cybernetica|robots]]. Unlike regular Dreads, they have access to Cyclone Missile Launchers, Heavy Conversion Beamers, Chainfists, Graviton Guns, Plasma Blasters, and the Kheres-Pattern Assault Cannon. They also have an advanced Atomantic Reactor which no one knows how to make anymore, that is coupled to a field generator that gives them an invulnerable save at the expense of making a Vehicle Explodes result more dangerous.

A plastic one of these came as part of [[Betrayal at Calth]], and the sheer terribleness of the model made every 30k player cry.

You've got to ask why [[Bjorn the Fell Handed|Bjorn]] isn't one of these, he's certainly old and important enough. Contemptors were never as popular among the Space Wolves as they preferred the reliability of the Castraferrum pattern, and they also had a negative reputation for excess savagery during the early days of the Legion which stained the reputations of those interred within them. Its negative reputation became a self-fulfilling cycle when the Legion [[Iron Priest|Iron Priests]] began selectively interring marines who already had dark deeds under their names.

*'''[[Contemptor-Mortis Dreadnoughts]]:''' A modified Contemptor Dreadnought most often used by the [[Dark Angels]] that puts out a massive amount of [[dakka]]... so massive, in fact, that modern autocannon Dreads live in jealousy. Also, they have targeting arrays to fire at flyers.
*'''[[Contemptor-Furioso Dreadnoughts]]:''' While any Contemptor can be kitted out with two close combat weapons only the [[Blood Angels]] do this exclusively, since they don't have access to "regular" Contemptors in the rules, which also means they don't get access to the cool relic weapons.
**'''[[Contemptor-Incaendius Dreadnought]]:''' A specialized Contemptor built in special Mechanicum enclaves on Baal, unique to the Blood Angels as a result of a pact with the Forge World Anvillus. It has a pair of improved Dreadnought Lightning Claws and A MOTHERFRACKING JUMP-PACK. You heard that. A Dreadnought with an actual Jump-Pack like Assault Marines (and ironically more down-to-earth when compared to their Librarian Dreads).
*'''Contemptor-Cortus Dreadnoughts:''' A more easily produced Contemptor, made from less sophisticated materials and spare parts cannibalised from other dreadnoughts, resulting in less armour, less effective shielding, and a worse user interface. However, they are faster and more cost effective than the standard Contemptors, and can overcharge their reactors for even more speed at a risk to themselves.
*'''[[Contemptor-Osiron Dreadnought|Contemptor-Osiron Dreadnoughts]]:''' The Osiron Class Dreadnought was a type of Contemptor used by the [[Thousand Sons]]. These dreadnoughts were created by [[Magnus]] himself, and consisted of a mortally wounded psyker Space Marine laced with a psychometric barrier for his brain. Therefore they were considered as Humanity's first psychic Dreadnought.
*'''[[Venerable Contemptor Dreadnought|Venerable Contemptor Dreadnoughts]]:''' A Contemptor Dreadnought that is part of the [[Adeptus Custodes]] and is thus automatically given the title of ''''Venerable'''' cause they're just that badass. Essentially a golden Contemptor Dreadnought that is armed with a standard issue Autocannons, Power Fists and Multi-Melta. For just 30 more points you get the Aegis (Which grants a 5+ invulnerable save), and Deep Strike abilities, plus the aforementioned venerable. Considered as a cheaper alternative to the Custodes' walkers (Yes, the Contemptor Dreadnought is considered as the equivalent of a worn down rented car for the Golden Bananas. [[Cheese|This should tell you how OP they are]]).
*'''[[Contemptor-Galatus Dreadnought]]s:''' Used exclusively by the [[Adeptus Custodes]], these Dreads were badass. How badass? Besides being more advanced overall, they came with an extra shield for solid defense, and a giant fucking sword with a built-in [[heavy flamer]]. Truly a marvel worthy of the Emperor's bodyguards. Want to turn Terminators into piles of ruined flesh with one swipe? This is the weapon of choice. Want to roast a mob of angry Hormagaunts just by pointing your sword at them? This is also the weapon of choice. Accept no substitutes.
*'''[[Contemptor-Galatus Dreadnought#Contemptor-Achillus Dreadnought|Contemptor-Achillus Dreadnought]]s:''' Yet ''another'' variant of a [[Adeptus Custodes]] exclusive dreadnought. The Contemtor-Achillus swaps the giant sword and shield with a ECKS BAWKS HUEG FUCK OFF Power Spear called the Dreadspear with an inbuilt Corvae Las-Pulser and two hand-mounted Storm Bolters. If you want to skewer the [[Anal Circumference|rear ends]] of [[Land Raider|Land Raiders]], this is the walker for you.

<gallery>
image:Soh-contemptor-mortis3.jpg|<center>Contemptor-Mortis</center>
image:Contemptor-Furioso 2.jpg|<center>Contemptor-Furioso</center>
image:ContemptorIncaendius.jpg|<center>Contemptor-Incaendius</center>
File:Contemptor-Cortus.jpg|<center>Contemptor-Cortus</center>
File:OsironPattern.jpg|<center>Contemptor-Osiron</center>
File:Contemptor_Venerable_Dreadnought.jpg|<center>Venerable Contemptor</center>
image:ContemptorGalatus.jpg|<center>Contemptor-Galatus</center>
image:ContemptorAchillus.jpg|<center>Contemptor-Achillus</center>
</gallery>

===Deredeo Pattern===
[[File:Deredeo Dreadnought.jpg|300px|thumbnail|right|Bet on Deredeo when you need more [[Dakka|DAKKA]] but got no Mortis.]]
The <s>Dorito</s> Deredeo is a dedicated heavy weapons platform, rather than a general purpose chassis like the Castraferrum or the Contemptor. To this end it gets access to specialized wargear which cannot be found anywhere else, like a tank busting version of an autocannon or a unique plasma battery.

Developed alongside the Castraferrum Pattern and Lucifer Pattern, the Deredeo Pattern was designed as a heavy assault platform. Rather than being a general assault unit like others of its kind, the Deredeo Pattern Dreadnought is a dedicated heavy weapons platform, intended to combine superior firepower with the flexibility and durability of a Dreadnought chassis. It was initially deployed in limited numbers to each of the Legions due to difficulties in its manufacture, its durability and firepower saw demand for the Deredeo pattern increase after the outbreak of the Horus Heresy.

The model is a reworking of one of the three 1st edition Dreadnought patterns (with the other two being the Furibundus and Contemptor) from [[Forge World|FW]]'s workshop. It is equipped with an [[Anvilus Autocannon Battery]] (which are S7 Sunder Autocannons for tank busting), torso-mounted [[Heavy Bolter|heavy bolters]]/[[Heavy Flamer|flamers,]] and the [[Aiolos Missile Launcher]] (<s>which always hits the side armour of enemy tanks, doesn't require line of sight to fire,</s> can be aimed at a different target from the autocannons, and is Pinning as well). Like the Contemptor Mortis, it has Atomantic Shielding and a Helical Targeting Array to take down fliers. It can also be equipped with Armoured Ceramite in the off-chance it ever gets into melta range. Alternately, it can switch out the autocannons for a twin-linked [[Hellfire Plasma Carronade]] that lets it fire off either 4 S7 AP2 shots or a single S7 AP2 Large Blast (with Gets Hot! on the latter mode, not that it matters much since it's still twin-linked), or an [[Arachnus Heavy Lascannon Battery]], which isn't twin-linked but does fire 2 S10 AP2 shots, and if its shots score a penetrating hit on a vehicle the shot has a 50% chance of having it count as TWO penetrating hits instead of one! In Horus Heresy games it can also replace the missile launcher with an Atomantic Pavaise that improves its invulnerable save and lets anyone within 3" of it use the save too, at the expense of a larger explosion radius if it ever goes down. Since this can improve existing invulnerable saves by +1 for units which already have them, it's an ideal complement to [[Terminators]] with good ranged weapons (e.g. Tyrant Siege Terminators or anyone with an Assault Cannon).

They will soon be receiving two new options: a set of four [[Boreas Air Defence Missile]]s, which are one use but hit hard (S8 AP2 Heavy 1) and cancel Jink saves, and the [[Volkite Falconet Battery|Volkite Falconet]], which spits out a considerable number of Deflagrate-inducing shots (Heavy 6 S7 AP2) and causes infantry that survive getting wounded by it to only fire snap shots.
{{clear}}

===Leviathan Pattern===
{{anchor|Leviathan Pattern}}
[[File:Leviathan_Dread.png|300px|thumbnail|right|Having a [[Neckbeard|fatter body]] does not negate you from tearing shit up. ]]
AKA, the Hulkbuster Pattern. Unlike other patterns, the Leviathan was apparently designed in secret on Terra instead of Mars. It is also said to take just as much resources to manufacture as an Imperial Knight... And despite the fact that it looks like it has considerably more mass than a regular Castraferrum dread, it is still nowhere near the size of a Knight, so those resources must be unique/exotic materials or from remote systems. Or superior materials with a small successful creation rate. For example, we can technically make theoretical room-temperature superconductors now as one major possibility exists in Jovian planet atmospheres. However, only a teeeeensy bit could be made per fucktons of fucktons of materials spent trying to make any at all.'''Yeah... this is not even slightly correct...''' This could be the approach the Imperium uses for its finest such as Astartes whatever and warships.

The Leviathan is a specialist siege dreadnought, like an enhanced Ironclad variant, but like the Deredeo it comes with its own unique weapons not found anywhere else. By default, it begins with two [[Miscellaneous Weapons#Leviathan Siege Claw|Siege Claws]] with built-in [[meltagun]]s that have a 50% chance of causing d3 extra wounds on a successful To Wound roll. These can be replaced with [[Miscellaneous Weapons#Leviathan Siege Drill|Siege Drills]] for Armourbane, and it also has two torso-mounted [[Heavy Flamer|heavy flamer]] that can be swapped out for [[Volkite Caliver]]s if you REALLY need that blob of infantry dead. While it's a beast in assault since it gains 2 HoW attacks and +1 I on the charge, it's equally vicious if kitted out for shooting- its ranged options are a [[Leviathan Storm Cannon]] (S7 AP3, Heavy 6, and Sunder with a range of 24"), the [[Cyclonic Melta Lance]] (Range 18" S9 AP1 Heavy 3, Melta) or a [[Grav Flux Bombard]], which acts like 30K's Graviton Weapons in that affected targets need to roll either at or under their Strength at 2d6 or be wounded (if infantry) or roll 3d6 for armor penetration (for vehicles), taking DOUBLE the number of Hull Points it would normally take if it penetrates successfully- and either way, the Large Blast leaves behind difficult/dangerous terrain for the next turn. Either of those can be further supplemented with a one-use Phosphex Discharger so enemy blobs can make like Fallujah and eat a dose of Willie Pete, and can also take a pack of three [[Hunter-Killer Missile|hunter-killer missiles]] for a little bit of long-range [[Rhino]]-popping. Its Reinforced Atomantic Shielding gives it a 4++ invulnerable save against all sources, but also increases the radius and Strength of an Explodes! result on the vehicle damage table by D3 (like damn near everything [[Forge World|FW]] makes that has an invuln) so be careful there. It's potentially a blessing in disguise if you're charging into the midst of the enemy, but don't expect it to take down [[Titan]]s in its dying throes.

A few of these still serve in the 41st millennium, though they lose out on several of their options (volkite calivers and phosphex discharger). This also ties into its status as a Relic of the Armoury, as these things are so unreliably kill-crazy that they are only sent out on the Chapter Master's direct say-so. The reason why this is so is unknown, even the loyalists aren't exempt from their pilots devolving into unhinged madmen. Some suspect this is due to the still poorly understood technologies that went into the dread's creation. As for Chaos, they're typically seen as revered warriors, being alive since the Horus Heresy and are just as fucking nuts, if not more, like most Chaos dreadnoughts.

Loyalists have the prefix of "Relic" while Chaos Leviathan are "Hellforged". Besides how they look, they differ in the [[Original character, do not steal|names of the weapons]] they can take.

For [[Zone Mortalis]] it should probably be said that the Leviathan Dreadnought is possibly the most terrifying thing in the entire world to deal with in tight, narrow corridors. Its two Heavy Flamers gain Shred and Rending by default in Zone Mortalis, and its default Meltaguns mean it can just vaporize any other walkers it comes across. This thing becomes the pinnacle of destruction whenever playing with the Blip Rule, as your opponent won't even know where the fuck it is.

Since it comes at 260 points base, you could easily just bring three of these, an HQ, and two scout squads to snag objectives. Just let the Leviathans become mobile platforms of absolute destruction that cause everything that walks around the corner to experience critical existence failure within the span of a single assault phase.

===[[Redemptor Dreadnought|Redemptor Pattern]]===
[[File:RedDread.jpg|260px|right|thumb|New toys for ass-kicking.]]
The new walking death machine in the dreadnought line. This pattern was created by [[Belisarius Cawl]] as part of the [[Primaris Marines|Primaris Space Marines]] project since their size could make the potential entombing in regular dread patterns difficult (and not to play a little with dreadnought tech, create his own pattern [[Profit|and make you buy the new model]]).

These Redemptor Dreadnoughts are giant war machines that crush bone and splinter skulls as they bludgeon through enemy ranks. They are more cunningly wrought than the Dreadnoughts of traditional design, roughly equivalent to the aforementioned Leviathan pattern. Although it could be said that the Leviathan specializes in siege warfare whereas the Redemptor is more shock orientated in function, with extra guns replacing the atomantic shielding of the Leviathan.

These goliaths of battle are powered by hyper-dense reactors and sophisticated fibre bundles. They can accelerate from a thudding stomp to a loping, thunderous gait that shakes the ground, barrelling through hails of fire in glorious defiance. Such is the miraculous but dangerous design of the Redemptor’s neural links that its inhabitant, despite being entombed in the sarcophagus within the Dreadnought’s chest, can exercise control with surprising dexterity and speed.

As expected with all things Primaris, he's bigger, stronger and sturdier than most patterns, sharing many things with the Leviathan, including a ''major'' flaw of its own: it tends to kill its pilots rather quickly due to unknown reasons (possibly because said neural links are ''too'' well-designed, or maybe it's because the AdMech saw nothing wrong with making it work like their own [[Onager Dunecrawler]]; knowing the cogboys, we have to assume it's the latter) so it's yet unknown how the pattern will fare in the future, but if that flaw has become a noticeable trend in just the century or so of the Indomitus Crusade, then there's no way the Redemptor can be expected to preserve valued veterans for ''millennia'' like regular dreads can, which is kinda [[fail|half the point of a dreadnought in the first place]].

It comes with a choice of gatling cannon or plasma incinerator on the right arm, with a Redemptor fist and heavy flamer support weapon or gatling cannon on the left, 2 chest-mounted fragstorm grenade launchers or storm bolters and a carapace-mounted Icarus rocket pod for aerial denial.

===[[Telemon Heavy Dreadnought|Telemon Pattern]]===
[[File:Telemon-Heavy-Dreadnought2.jpg|260px|right|thumb|The biggest, baddest Dread around.]]
The third Adeptus Custodes-exclusive Dreadnought (because Emps saved all the best toys for the Golden Banana-men, which is just as well - could you imagine what might have happened if Horus had had these?!), and one so big it can be mistaken for a Knight. Fewer than a handful of Telemon Dreadnoughts are to be found within the ranks of the Legio Custodes, each intended to stand sentinel over its charges no matter the forces brought against it.

The honor of interment in one of the few existing Telemon sarcophagi is awarded to only the most celebrated warriors. Rare is the foe who can stand against the array of esoteric, hand-crafted weapons that grace its chassis or the ferocious will and warrior skill of the master Custodian interred within.

As they are reserved for the most elites in the Imperium. The Telemon's weaponry included in its armaments are the Telemon Caestus, which can be assembled with fist open or closed and has an in-built wrist-mounted Plasma weapon called the Proteus Plasma Projector. The ornate armor work includes an Aquila motif, and two fans are included, meaning the Caestus can be mounted on either of the left or right arm; and a choice of the Arachnus Storm Cannon or the Iliastus Accelerator Culverin (or a second Caestus, because why not?), with two separate elbow fans making it mountable on either arm of a Telemon Heavy Dreadnought. All of them are then topped with an oversized Cyclone Missile Launcher called the Spiculus Bolt Launcher. It is also possible to forgo the Caestus entirely for a second gun, but this is not recommended as your Telemon now has no melee weapon.

As previously mentioned, the Telemon Pattern Heavy Dreadnought towers over even a Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought, with a bulk <strike>comparable</strike> a good deal bigger than that of the Leviathan Pattern or the Primaris Redemptor pattern Dreadnoughts, but in an Artificer-wrought hull. The Telemon Heavy Dreadnought bears a striking resemblance to the [[Aquilon Terminator]] Armour worn by the elites of the Custodes but the size of a house.

===Other Patterns===
So far the Castraferrum, Contemptor, Deredeo, Leviathan, and Telemon are the only patterns of dreadnought that are available as models. ''(unless you count some of the chaos daemon-engines, but who knows what they started as?)''

Other types have been named though, and it is also said that some of these older pre-heresy patterns could have been piloted by non-astartes. So we can cross our fingers that more dreadnoughts may be coming eventually.
*'''Lucifer:''' Said to be the prototype for the Contemptor, but doesn't have the advanced systems, instead it supposedly has [[Power_Armour#Mark_III:_Iron_Armour|shitloads of frontal armour]]. And what Imperial retard decided to name it the '''''Lucifer'''''? I mean, Emps, c'mon! You ''really'' want to make it a [[Chaos|target]] that badly!?
*'''Furibundus''': The other old Rogue Trader pattern. It's also one of the most fugly but since Forge World is set on updating the old stuff they'll fix that or make it more [[Chaos_Dreadnought#Mhara_Gal_Dreadnoughts|Grotesque]]. If they ever [[Games_Workshop|get around to making it.]] According to Warhammer Community, it was a precursor to the Furioso Dreadnought. Appropriately enough for a close-combat Dread, the name roughly means 'frenzied' or 'maddened'.

==Meme==
[[File:Dreadserve.jpg|250px|right|thumb|Even in death, the mighty Astartes warrior still serves for the Emperor, as demonstrated by venerable brother Rogerius Federer.]]
"Even in death, I still serve" was a phrase scattered throughout Warhammer 40k, but it didn't become a [[meme]] until the original [[Dawn of War]] game, where it's one of the Dreadnought's more common quotes.

==The making of a Dreadnought==

1: Take 1 outstandingly badass [[Space Marine]]

2: Cut him in half (hopefully before he does the same to you)

3: Leave the dying body on the doorstep of some [[Adeptus Mechanicus]] guy

4: ???

5: [[Profit|PROFIT!!!]]

On a less lulzy note, the novel ''The Unforgiven'' gives us an insight as to what being put inside a Dreadnought is like, as well as a clear reason why the usual occupants are marines who've been chewed up and spat out by at least three separate Carnifexes. The process of implanting the neural connectors is so painful to a lucid brain that it can sometimes kill a Space Marine out of shock. Let me reiterate that this is a Space Marine, a Space Marine with the some of the best painkiller hormones in the galaxy, with mental conditioning and hypno-memetic psycho-reactive blocks to protect their minds from pain and torture, and the procedure is typically done with the [[Apothecary]] close at hand to monitor the pain threshold. It's still, somehow, even to a son of the Emperor, painful enough to almost kill them. Holy shit. If they survive, they can pretty much wrestle with the usual daemons and barbacue some Xenos while they are at it

==Gallery==
<gallery>
File:Brother koolaidius by blazbaros-d2z8e3j.png|After his internment into a Dreadnought, Brother Koolaidius has specialized in dynamic entry at any location, usually attending to battle brothers with refreshment needs.
File:Breadnought.jpg|Fear the motherfucking Breadnought.
File:Rapenought.jpg|Even in death, I still fuck your army.
File:Powerfisting.jpg|I have come to destroy your anus.
File:Angry_7.jpg|The Dreadnoughts of the Angry Marines are also known as the [[Belligerent Engine|Belligerent Engines]].
Image:1262002329676.jpg|Suck it.
Image:Custodian-Contemptor.jpg|I came to reap the souls of those [[Chaos Space Marines|Traitorous Scum...]][[Rape|if there was any...]]
File:Leviathan Dreadnought.jpg|What's with the Battle Bunnies thing anyw...[[Sisters of Battle|ooooh]]. That. No problem with it.
</gallery>

==See Also==
*[[Tankred]], the original memenought. He endures, for he is here for the bitches.
*[[Donovan]]
*[[Chaos Dreadnought]], the [[Chaos|evil]] (well, [[grimdark | more evil]]) version
*[[Grandpa Dreadnought]]
*[[Bjorn the Fell Handed]], of the [[Space Wolves]], and the oldest living [[Space Marine]] in the Imperium.
*[[Davian Thule]], of the [[Blood Ravens]], also known as Davian Cool. Famous for conquering Kronus, beating up Eliphas the Inheiritor, and getting nomed by a Tyranid Warrior
*[[Belligerent Engine]], a catch-all term for the Dreadnoughts of the [[Angry Marines]].
*[[Spared]], a short story about a Dreadnought and some [[Tau]].
*[[Entombed]], a not-so-short story about a Dreadnought.
{{40k-Imperial-Vehicles}}
{{Marines-Forces}}
{{Blood Angels}}
{{Dark Angels}}
{{Black-Templars}}
{{Deathwatch}}
{{Grey Knights}}
{{Space Wolves}}
{{Custodes}}
{{Thousand Sons}}
[[Category: Walkers]]

Advance Wars

2021-10-25T17:45:09Z

2600:1700:91C1:A4E0:6DB2:7B8A:C0F0:C2AF:

{{/vg/}}

[[File:AdvancedWarsTitle.jpeg|thumb|250px|HEY KIDS - WAR IS [[Dwarf Fortress|FUN]]!.]]
'''Advance Wars''' is a [[video game]] series for the Nintendo consoles and handhelds and the older brother of [[Fire Emblem]]. Which means it's probably cutesy, family friendly, and costs less than competitors. To a normal person, this would sound perfect - to a veteran of [[/tg/]], this is [[heresy]] and complete opposite of things they are used to. The remakes of the first two games will be out on the Nintendo Switch in 2022. If it sells well enough, it would convince Nintendo to do more with the franchise.

But despite that, it is still about war, [[derp|with all its glory and all its horror]]. I mean... just look [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_W34QsM6NY| at it]

==Summary==
Advance Wars is a turn-based, [[Awesome|Panzer General]]-inspired strategy game that is set in an alternate modern and [[weeaboo]] universe (with western cultural <s>influences</s> blatant, obvious, and yet amusing stereotypes). Gameplay involves making dudes from preset bases, using those dudes to take over buildings (by stomping on them.... ''tad'' odd, I know), and using those buildings to build MORE dudes to eventually [[meme|kill all the dudes in the enemy base]] and stomp on the base itself.

However, only footsloggers can stomp on the buildings, while everything else can kill them - in a way, it's a perfect balance. On the other hand, it's annoying, because infantry is fragile as a piece of paper, when it's out of cover. And when in cover, it's slow. And there are dozen of nuances that are surprisingly simple to learn but annoying to overcome.

Oh and there's some aircraft and navy battle stuff but they're not really important, the stomping on things, is, though.

One important factor in the battle, is the CO (Commanding Officer) which leads the army. Each of them has a set of different abilities, therefore ensuring that the games will always be unbalanced as all hell.

And then we get to the latest game in the series, Days of Ruin. Turns up the grimdark fairly far and makes fog and weather the norm rather than the exception, creating an appropriately tense atmosphere far more appreciative of reconnaissance, cleverness, and [[just as planned]]. The single-player campaign is [[Skub|very polarizing]] compared to its lighthearted predecessors. Combined with a whole slew of very careful unit modifications and additions this is the evenhanded tactics game you [[Skub|really want]].

There was also a spinoff known as ''Batallion Wars'' for the gamecube, with a sequel for the Wii that added online multiplayer on Nintendo's now defunct online service. These games were action real time strategy with a more of a focus on the action and implementing third person shooter aspects such as the player directly taking control of units. Unlike the rest of the series, they were produced out of Japan by British developers. Whilst they were well received, most fans ultimately preferred the turn based strategy aspects of the series.

Thus far the series has been in a coma, with no titles released since Days of Ruin.

==Factions==

=== GBA ===

The designs and COs various factions are all influenced by the four most important powers in World War 2 - or, at least, by stereotypes and cutesy re-imaginings of the 4 main powers, with less genocide and war crimes.

* Orange Star (Red Star in the Japanese version) is the USA
* Blue Moon is the USSR (You don't know how lucky you are, boy)
* Green Earth is Nazi Germany
* Yellow Comet is Imperial Japan
* Black Hole isn't based off any singular world power, but goes for a much more "alien" look, with their soldiers all being clad in space-suits and their vehicles mostly being [[METAL BOXES|Blocky, angular things]]

Also, there are [[xenos|aliens]] or something, but fuck those guys.

If you want to think in terms of Warhammer 40k, you can think along those lines:

* Orange Star are [[Space Marines]] as they are overall most average in power and style.
* Blue Moon is the [[Imperial Guard]] as they love their artillery and cheap unit spam.
* Green Earth are [[Eldar]], because they are all specialized towards a certain unit type and also tend to be [[Eldrad|dicks]] about everything.
* Yellow Comet are [[Tau|Communist Weeaboos]] for obvious reasons.
* Black Hole is [[Chaos]], especially since in the first game they were a reskin of Orange Star, and therefore were [[Chaos Space Marines]]. They have a lot of random-effect powers and specialized crazy shit.

...You should also stop calling your cat "Xeno Scum".

=== Days of Ruin ===

* Rubinelle 12th Battalion: The post apocalyptic remains of the army of the country of Rubinelle, it was formerly affiliated with the New Rubinelle Army. Essentially the counterpart to Orange Star right down to the red color scheme.
* Lazurian Army: The army of Rubinelle's rival nation of Lazuria. Like Blue Moon, their color is blue and they act as the initial antagonist before the true antagonist is revealed.
* New Rubinelle Army: The fascist government that rules post apocalyptic Rubinelle. Its color is yellow, though its lacks any real similarities to Yellow Comet.
* Intelligent Defense Systems: Private military contractor organizations that sells weapons of mass destruction. With their black palette and position as the true enemy, they could be loosely compared to Black Hole.

==Units==

Your army. They all have distinct roles, and depending on which CO you select, will appear as a certain faction. They're all identical (sans color and Infantry units) on the non-battle-animation map.

===Foot soldiers===

Foot soldiers are very important because you need them to capture properties and get gold. Or you can just [[Tarpit|spam them to jam the heck out of chokepoints]].

* '''Infantry:''' Infantry are the weakest- and yet most important- unit in the game. They move slowly (3 tiles a turn), countered by their ability to cross mountains and rivers slowly, and free movement through woods. Their firepower is VERY low, since they only have rifles; at best an Infantry unit will finish off a 1 hp Tank. Though they are plenty effective against other infantry and mech units. Their main draw is their ability to capture shit; they'll take cities, bases, airports, and other properties for you, at a speed dictated by their health. Most of the time they will be critical to your operations. They're commonly used at high tiers for their excellent spamming capability; as meat-shields they excel.
* '''Mech:''' Anti-tank infantry units. Moves only 2 spaces a turn, but can cross mountains and rivers without penalty, and carry a bazooka that lets them engage light armor such as tanks and recon jeeps. They're another useful unit- while their mobility leaves a lot to be desired for, they can be spammed in obscenely large numbers if one does not care about winning QUICKLY. They stand a chance against armor, though their defense is still low, meaning you generally have to attack first. Also has a slight firepower bonus with their rifles over regular Infantry, but that really doesn't matter. Surprisingly potent up through mid-game: they're realistically as powerful as a regular tank, and while they're much slower sticking them in an APC gives them the option to either ride quickly or march through difficult/impassible terrain like mountains.
* '''Bikes:''' Added in DoR. High-speed infantry unit. Though they slow down significantly when crossing non-road terrain, bikes let you get a head start on capturing distant cities and bases before your enemy can. Though they're vulnerable to anything that kills infantry (read: pretty much anything), bikes extend your reach and income quickly, and can beat down regular infantry with slightly more powerful guns.

===Direct-attack vehicles===

* '''Recon:''' It's basically a jeep with a heavy machine gun mounted; fastest moving ground unit in the game, but suffers mobility penalties on literally anything that isn't a road. Can rape infantry units (but must be cautious against mechs). Has a huge vision radius, making them critical on Fog of War maps.
* '''AA Gun/Anti-Air:''' SPAAG vehicles with low anti-armor firepower, but their 40mm autocannons can one-hit kill footsoldiers in certain terrain, and they tend to one-hit kill (or at least very severely debilitate) any air units. Defense is also good, meaning that they can slowly beat Recons to death without much problem. If the enemy is shitting waves of footsoldiers at you, this is probably your best bet.
* '''Tank:''' A set of light tanks, your bread and butter. Can fuck up Infantry and Mechs bad with their turret MG, and can also engage light armor with a tank cannon. Since they're so cheap, they can be spammed in mass amounts as a generalist tank. Though their firepower is low against heavy armor. They have high mobility, at 6 spaces, and also don't have as severe terrain penalties as tire-using Recons, meaning they are excellent flankers and versatile attackers capable of driving through the shattered bodies of a broken frontline to tear up the exposed artillery or rockets.
* '''Medium Tank:''' Heavyweight bruisers that will smash up most other units while taking little damage in return. If your opponent went mostly for light-medium units like bikes, tanks, and anti-airs a few medium tanks will push them around without sacrificing too much in terms of speed or flexibility. The predators to watch out for are artillery, rockets, and bombers, though enough mech infantry can whittle down a medium tank's hp. Almost worthless in AW2 and DS, because of its bigger cousins, unless you really couldn't afford more than 16000 G.
* '''Neotank:''' Added in AW2, removed from DoR. A monster of a tank which overpowers the Medium Tank in pretty much every way, packing slightly higher attack & defense and the same movement speed as a regular Tank. Same strengths and weaknesses as other tank classes, just bigger and better.
* '''Megatank/War Tank:''' Added in DS and somewhat modified for DoR. Superheavy seige-breakers with superior combat ability but huge drawbacks in cost, mobility, and supply. This tank is so big that rather than being shown as a squad in battle animations like most land units, it's just one giant tank. Seriously impractical in most cases, but if you see your enemy fielding a heavily armored column, just one war tank with some support can flatten a path to victory (one war tank can happily kill two medium tanks or almost a half-dozen regular tanks given decent terrain and ammunition).
* '''Oozium:''' An extremely rare special land unit that only appears in Dual Strike. Oozium cannot be constructed, so the only way it can be used is by playing on a map that has some at the start. These are extremely resilient giant slime monsters (yes really) with the ability to instakill any unit it attacks with no risk of being damaged by a counterattack. However in addition to being irreplaceable if present at all, damage done to Oozium is permanent, and it cannot counterattack. It also has the worst mobility out of any unit in the series, able to move at most one space per turn. It can somehow attack air units, however, making ranged attacks its only major weakness. If that's not an option, throwing enough non-ranged units at it, while expensive, will eventually kill it.

===Indirect attack vehicles===

Indirect attack vehicles can target squares which they aren't adjacent to. They usually can't move and fire, most of them have a minimum range, and they are usually sitting ducks when attacked directly.

* '''[[Basilisk Artillery Gun|Artillery]]:''' Dirt cheap indirect attack unit with a range of 2-3 spaces. That might sound like shit, but at a blocked-up chokepoint it is the difference between spending 5 turns shooting the same 2 infantry cycling back and forth, and breaking through to your objective. Also reasonably powerful even against stronger units like Medium Tanks, giving them a good use even in the late game. To decide whether you need artillery, just look at the map: Are there choke points, mountains, or dense forests? If so, buy you some basilisks. Is the map dominated by water, aircraft, or wide-open roads and plains? If so, ... don't.
* '''Rockets:''' Expensive, longer-range version of the Artillery. Excellent damage but serious problems moving across non-road terrain. Surprisingly useful anti-naval units: their long range and high firepower projects a lot of power out into normally impassable waters and almost every naval unit costs more than a rocket group. Perfect food for battle copters, though.
* '''Missiles:''' Same basic stats as the rocket, but can only attack air units. Will obliterate any flier in the game from far enough away, serving as either powerful area denial or a trump card hidden in obscured terrain. Too powerful to ignore, but too immobile to use unsupported -- it has a minimum range, and every flier is faster than its maximum range.
* '''Piperunners:''' Only appears in DS. The silliest unit in all Advance Wars, and that's saying something. It's got the same maximum range as rockets and missiles, with slightly less minimum range, it has stupidly high attack and defense, and it can attack anything other than a submerged submarine. The only downside is that, as its name implies, it can ''only'' move along pipelines. If you're playing on a map without pipes, it'll sit on top of its factory for the whole game. These units are probably at least partially based on the Train unit from Super Famicom Wars (a Japan-only predecessor to the Advance Wars series), which were bound to railroad tracks instead pipes, could be used as transport, and were faster.
* '''Anti-tanks''': A DoR addition. Powerful and infuriating anti-tank artillery. Unlike the self-propelled guns representing normal artillery units, anti-tanks are crew-served weapons with large blast screens. Despite being moderately expensive, anti-tanks are difficult to counter and problematic to engage: they attack at range like artillery but also have no minimum range and are capable of counterattacking direct-damage attackers like tanks or infantry. Their offense is very strong, particularly against medium or war tanks, and an anti-tank's defense is nearly unmatched, with most units dealing less than 3 HP of damage even if attacking at full health. An attack force relying mostly on tanks (as most attack forces do) will very quickly find itself ground to a halt. The best countermeasures (bombers, seaplanes, battle copters, and battleships) are costly, restricted by available airports or seaports, and are efficiently countered out themselves. Only infantry and perhaps rockets fight cost-effectively against anti-tanks, and the former present the great difficulties of employing slow units against long-ranged indirect-fire weapons.

===Utility vehicles===

* '''APC:''' Unarmed, but can pack an Infantry squad inside. Can also supply fuel, gas, etc. in unlimited supply to other units, giving it a critical role as a supply unit. Used for cheeky tactics such as driving past the enemy flank and plopping an Infantry unit on their HQ. Somewhat low defense though. Days of Ruin renamed them to '''Rigs''' and gave them the ability to build temporary airports or seaports to serve as fuelling stations for planes or ships. In the first game the AI was obsessed with killing these, so you could lure their entire army away from the objective with a few serving as distractions (something that is actually required for the completing certain maps as fast as possible).
* '''Flare tank:''' Another DoR invention. Lightweight vehicles with an anti-infantry machine gun and a long-ranged flare launcher that clears the fog of war in an area, including revealing units hidden in forests or cities. Essential to breaking the line of a clever opponent, and to almost any big action in Days of Ruin if you're playing with Fog of War on.

===Sea units===

Sea units go on the water, as you'd expect. A lot of maps are based around islands, meaning that you need to build them to ship your units back and forth, but they're a very secondary consideration on non-island maps.

* '''Lander:''' Vulnerable but essential transport ships capable of carrying two units of any size at once. An attacking army needs several of these, making killing or protecting these the prime directive for both sides. For some reason you can only stick two infantry units in one, but can stick two APCs loaded with two infantry units each (for a total of four) in one.
* '''Cruisers:''' These were an odd duck in the noblebright AW games, where they were a hard counter to submarines and flying units, but couldn't actually attack other ships. This made them very dependent on getting the first strike -- if they took a hit from a full-health bomber or sub, or a battleship took a potshot at them, they were toast. Then Days of Ruin gave them the ability to shoot other ships, and suddenly they're one of the best units in the game. Weirdly enough, cruisers have always been able to carry and refuel helicopters, giving them a niche supporting role in a combined-arms sort of battle.
* '''Battleship:''' Naval siege engine with superb damage and the singular ability to move and fire at long range, dominantly powerful but require support. Once you have a cruiser or two this is probably your prime naval unit. Days of Ruin cranked their price even higher but gave them the ability to move and attack, thoroughly breaking some maps.
* '''Submarine:''' Stealth-capable naval superiority unit with enough firepower to sink a lander or cripple a battlecruiser. Can "submerge," as an action, using twice as much fuel but making themselves invisible to all but adjacent enemies. And the only unit besides a cruiser capable of attacking a submerged submarine is another submerged submarine. Fighting cruisers takes crafty and evasive tactics, and usually amounts to "don't". Used carefully a submarine can recoup many times its own cost, as even one solid strike on a battleship will cost more than the sub. If you can afford the expense, a hit squad of a few submarines and a scattered few cruisers and battleships can wipe out much larger and more expensive fleets.
* '''Carrier:''' Both DS and DoR feature aircraft carriers. They're quite different between the two games, but what they have in common are a huge price tag, monstrous power in the right hands, but relatively low defense and a dependence on other ships to protect them. In both games, planes can land on them for resupply. In DS, they pack an anti-air missile with a massively long range -- just as powerful as the Missile but much less susceptible to being flown over. In DoR, they're unarmed, but can build very nasty seaplanes to harass the enemy.
* '''Black Boat:''' A variant on the Lander which only appeared in DS. It can only carry infantry and mechs, but it can also repair adjacent naval units for 1HP. Unarmed, but dirt cheap, and good for spamming infantry in the early game on island maps.
* '''Gunboat:''' DoR's replacement for the Black Boat. They can carry one foot soldier and have a single salvo of transport-killing missiles. Good for infantry spam on island maps but die horribly to most other naval units.

===Air units===

Air units can, um, fly. Which makes them the gamechangers on most maps. Helicopters can be shot at by most ground units, whereas planes can only be targeted by specialised anti-air weaponry.

* '''T Copter:''' Transport heli, basically a flying, terrain-ignoring APC. But it can't supply units, and can also be mercilessly raped by AA guns, balancing it. Used for even cheekier HQ-dropping tactics.
* '''B Copter:''' An attack helicopter, good defense against ground units, mostly because only machine guns and rifles can hit it. Can batter enemies to death with its autocannon and missiles, though an AA Gun will instant-kill it. Also is helpless against fighter jets.
* '''Fighter:''' Air superiority unit with exceptional speed and enough firepower to cripple any other flier in one salvo. Also excellent as a fast but expensive reconnaissance unit. Fighters are quite costly to build, especially in the early stages of a map. With no anti-ground capability at all it's often reasonable to only build fighters when your opponent(s) already have an air unit or two, but sometimes getting an early fighter can dissuade your foes from ever taking off in the first place.
* '''Bomber:''' The Fighter's fat, ground-attacking cousin. Pure offense fliers that hammer most ground units with impunity, but expensive, highly vulnerable to its counters, and can't counterattack air units. When you're looking to bust up a ground army with insufficient anti-air, accept no substitutes; a bomber is capable of reducing a medium tank to an expensive pile of scrap in one run. As most ground units cannot engage a bomber at all it's a key offensive weapon on some maps.
* '''Black Bomb:''' Only appears in DS. It's the fastest unit in the game, but it doesn't attack -- you can instead set it to explode, which deals 5 damage to anything within 2 squares of it, be it Infantry or Neotank (although it isn't allowed to kill anything, it'll just leave them on 1 health). It immediately dies (without exploding) if anything attacks it or if its very small fuel supply runs out. In spite of these restrictions, it has the potential to be very very nasty, mostly because it can only be killed by dedicated anti-air weapons.
* '''Stealth:''' Only in DS. Capable of attacking every unit except for submerged submarines, but not as powerful as fighters or bombers, and built like tissue paper. Acts like a flying submarine -- it can become invisible to other units at the cost of burning stupidly large amounts of fuel per turn.
* '''Duster:''' Added to DoR. Propeller-driven WW2-era fighters, extremely cheap, highly mobile and capable of modest combat duty but badly outgunned against real anti-air or especially fighters. Do not expect these to win you the war; dusters are unquestionably budget fliers. However, a duster can make a real nuisance of itself by slowing infantry advances, especially if your opponent doesn't have anti-air tanks nearby.
* '''Seaplane:''' Another DoR addition. These are built from Carriers and can attack every unit type in the game except for submerged submarines. They don't pack as much firepower as Fighters or Bombers, but are still incredibly versatile beasts and brutally overpowering if your economy is strong enough to support more than one carrier. Their main balancing factor, aside from dependence on Carriers, is their incredibly small fuel tank and ammo reserve, so they're somewhat tethered to their mothership unless you have some friendly airports on hand.

==COs==

The Commanding Officer, the one who directs the troops. Most COs have a day-to-day passive ability of some kind, which means a strength AND a weakness (with only deliberate game-breakers having no weakness), and all COs can activate a CO Power by getting into combat. Interestingly, all powers grant a 10% defense boost in addition to other effects even though it's not described in the manual or hint screens.

Abbreviations signify which games they are playable in:

* AW 2 = Advance Wars 2
* DS = Dual Strike
* Days of Ruin is a different continuity, so they get their own section altogether.

===Advance Wars Mainline CO list===
====Orange Star====
* Andy: The middle-roader of the middle-road. No real strengths and weaknesses, with a power that repairs his dudes. Has a personality that fits his playstyle, plain and unremarkable, but reliable and without real annoyances. He does need to be reminded what airports are though. Generally unused in multiplayer beyond one's first few matches, because any CO with a particularly good day-to-day ability or CO power will have an advantage over him.
* Max: Every crew of heroes needs a big beefy guy. Crappy with artillery, but great in a straight up fight, with big damage buffs to all direct combat. Has exactly the personality one would expect from a big, beefy guy. Might or might not be dating Nell. In the first game he was the most broken CO in the entire list, having 150/100 attack/defense stats (including his range-challenged indirects) along with movement bonuses from his CO powers. Having the range on his indirects' range isn't a big deal since he doesn't need them. Nerfed to hell in AW2 (though that in practice just makes him a good high-tier CO) with 120/100 stats.
* Sami: Infantry specialist and standard issue [[Hot Chicks|Hot Chick]]. The most finesse-oriented Orange Star CO, relying on skirmish tactics and a bonus to capturing cities to gain a property advantage in the early game, followed by a wall of rapidly-replenishing mechanized infantry and tanks in the late. Also, that CO power that lets her one-shot-capture any property in the game in one go is cheating good if she can land it on the enemy base; her tagteam with Eagle in DS can potentially end games in one turn. Likes: Drinks, guns, camo, WW II fighter-pilot jackets. Dislikes: Straight fights, shenanigans.
* Nell: Commander-in-chief of the army, and the sexy voice constantly bitching in your ear throughout the first game. Super-lucky, all of her units have a higher chance to deal extra damage; her CO powers boost this to the point where infantry can trade evenly with anti-air tanks. In practice, this makes her a strong generalist with no weakness, since her units will invariably be dealing more damage in all situations over the long-term. She's also Rachel's big sister.
* Hachi (AW 2): Is the map merchant in the first game. When playable he's one of the strongest COs in the game, focusing on decreasing the cost of units without making them any weaker. Also, his super CO power lets him shit out units from ANY CITY. Which means you can suddenly plant some ungodly powerful unit like a Medium Tank or Neotank down next to the enemy's base in those maps with cities along them. He is absolutely hated, and is one of those COs that you basically have already lost to.
* Jake (DS): The Japanese version is just kinda bland, while the American version speaks entirely in hip-hopisms which get so annoying that the main villain himself flat out says he's had it up to HERE with his "hipster slang". Your choice which is worse. He gets an attack bonus when fighting in the open on the Plains. In practice, this isn't too reliable, though his CO powers are alright: both grant him a boost to indirect attack range while his super boosts mobility. Friendzoned by Rachel. First co-protagonist of the DS game.
* Rachel (DS): Nell's little sister, and the serious one. ''Dual Strike'''s "Andy" character, with few real strengths or weaknesses. She has a mix of different powers: her day-to-day allows her to repair units more quickly than usual, her regular CO power is a downgraded version of Nell's power, and her CO power carpet bombs the enemy. Particularly strong on smaller maps. Second co-protagonist of the DS game.

====Blue Moon====
* Olaf: Grumpy Orange Star defector, who started out as a cowardly starter villain before succumbing to the ravages of time and transforming into Santa Claus as the games progress. Specializes in winter combat and fighting in the snow, with a CO power that summons a storm (inflicting damage in later games) and units that gain bonuses and ignore penalties for ice. Rain, unfortunately, fucks up his shit even worse than usual. He is mostly regarded as a midtier CO; having the same "nothing-special" problem as Andy, though his CO power works better for fucking up mobility-oriented COs. Basically has no downside if you are smart enough to disable random weather while your buddy is in the bathroom.
* Grit: Indirect combat specialist, and another Orange Star defector. Max's opposite, a long-range specialist whose artillery shoots further and hits harder, but whose tanks crumble more easily under direct assault. Lazy gunfighting badass, who may or may not still be schtupping Nell behind their countries' backs. One of the more broken COs due to his utterly murderous indirects, which only get longer-ranged and more powerful with his CO powers.
* Colin (AW 2): Sickly, insecure rich kid conscripted in the face of the alien invasion in the sequel. His units kind of suck, having 90/100 stats, but their cheap price lets him crank them out fast enough to do [[communism]] proud. One of the best COs in both games he appears in, because he can simply drown the enemy in troops, and you will be surprised how many infantrymen you can squeeze out from your budget having just built 2 neotanks already. His CO power multiplies his money by 1.5 (allowing him to asspull even more units), but his Super CO Power is widely regarded as immensely broken: you just need to save up and build no units for a few turns, pop the SCOP, and all of a sudden you will see mechs one-shotting Megatanks from full health. Jesus Christ.
* Sasha (DS): Colin's sexy, confident older sister. Her units don't gain any advantage or disadvantage from her leadership, but she gets extra money from all her properties, and her powers drain enemy CO gauges and give her more money whenever her dudes shoot stuff. One of the nastiest one-two punches in the game when she teams up with her little brother, as she covers his weaknesses (sub-par attack power, susceptibility to some CO powers) while enhancing his strengths (giving him ''even more money'' than usual). Has a thing for Jake.

====Green Earth====
* Eagle: Badass fighter pilot and angry German who keeps getting fooled by clones. Air units benefit from potent buffs, and his CO power lets his entire army reactivate and move again, something that has proven more and more difficult to balance as the games go on. Doesn't like water so his naval units are weaker. Starts dating Sami after they almost kill each other, and mellows out a little by the second game. Basically the go-to Green Earth CO for any map that doesn't overly rely on naval units, as his vehicles and infantrymen are just fine. Pro-tip: Use his CO power to park your aircraft right above enemy factories/shipyards/airports and watch as they can't produce jack shit.
* Drake: Badass fatass admiral. His navy is powerful, which is good when you have one and useless when you don't, his units all ignore rain penalties, and his CO power, on top of direct damaging the entire enemy army, halves their fuel, immensely fucking over them on Fog of War-enabled maps, and flipping the bird to any and all naval units, especially submarines. Done right it can single-handedly reverse the enemy's momentum. Fun, if situational. Personality-wise, a fun, good-natured guy who loves food and relaxing more than combat. Also apparently used to be a pirate or something.
* Jess (AW 2): Grumpy German tank commander (inspired by Rommel) with a suit and a fuckhueg tank shell she carries everywhere. Good with, you guessed it, tanks and other mechanized units, and her CO power resupplies all of them and buffs up their firepower and speed. Cools down a little in ''Dual Strike'', apparently dealing with Eagle just puts her on the rag. Surprisingly regarded as a low-tier CO; her infantrymen are nerfed (along with most non-vehicle units), and that means she will severely struggle at getting an economic advantage, which in turn means she will struggle to build her more powerful vehicles. Though she is good at trolling Sami hard. Her infantry were buffed in Dual Strike making her mid-tier.
* Javier (DS): A flamboyant Don Quixote clone who is the sole generalist among his more-specialized comrades, Javier is either laughably mediocre or utterly broken. On top of the usual offence bonuses from communications towers, he also gets defence bonuses; just having two will give him a solid advantage over most COs, while three essentially means that the game is all but won, nevermind his CO powers which ''double'' or ''triple'' his bonuses. However, on maps where there are no communications towers (and there are a lot of them), he is probably the weakest CO, with only his defence against indirect attacks to fall back on.

====Yellow Comet====
* Kanbei: Angry [[Legend of the Five Rings|Lion Clan-style]] raw raw Bushido stereotype. His powers mirror Colin's: better units at a higher price, especially in AW2 where they get buffed more than normal. Like Colin, really powerful, especially once he gets a good enough economy to put out tanks that can go toe-to-toe with other COs' medium tanks, and has a very straightforward CO power that just ''buffs the hell out of his entire army''. The buff wasn't that big in the original, the sequels changed that, with AW2 giving him the biggest passive attack and defensive buff of any CO in the series until Days of Ruin, while not making his units anymore expensive than in the original. On top of this he also gained a Super CO power that gives an even bigger buff. Generally a very high-quality CO built for countering enemies that rely on sheer numbers. Has no drawback in maps that don't give you the option to build units and force you to fight with only predeployed ones. Even the cost of his units isn't much of a weakness because when you station units on terrain with good defense bonuses, combined his innate buffs, means the enemy attacking will typically lose engagements they would have won against anybody else so if the enemy knows what is good for them they won't even attack him. His Super CO power makes his army all but invincible, a humble infantry can get blasted by attacks that would kill it outright and not take any damage.
* Sonja: Kanbei's much more cool-headed daughter. Master strategist, passable tactician. Her units have a grab-bag of unusual abilities, including increased vision in fog-of-war and hidden unit HP (allowing you to troll the enemy with careful Medium Tank shuffling on Fog of War maps), and the ability to circumvent some terrain bonuses. Her CO powers let her units shrug off enemy attacks and return fire with full effectiveness. 'Very'' situational, but has some good counter-picks and makes a good partner in ''Dual Strike''. She is utterly useless against AI, because they ignore her health-hiding abilities.
* Sensei (AW 2): An increasingly-senile PC from the old series turned into an old man who won't take off his lucky parachute. Buffed infantry and helicopters, with transports that move farther on a regular day to day basis; his only drawback is his weaker naval play. Hard to master, but generally reckoned to be broken in high-level plays. His CO power doesn't really take that long to charge, and shits free 9 HP infantry into every unoccupied city he owns. His super CO power does the same, but with mechs. Taught Kanbei and Grimm everything he knows.
* Grimm (DS): Fat pro-wrestler-turned-[[neckbeard]]. His units abuse steroids for a beefy attack boost, but suffer defense penalties from the side effects. Flat, but fun, if you like watching your tanks mulch mediums one turn and get wrecked the next.

====Black Hole====
* Sturm (AW & AW 2): Pretty much just [[Star Wars|Darth Vader]] doing his best [[Commissar]] cosplay. In the original game, the version fought at the end of the game buffed offense but lowered defense, the playable one doing the opposite. In AW2 both versions are the same, and as [[BBEG]], he is the best CO in the game, buffing all his units without increasing cost (in fact Kanbei has his passive raised to keep Sturm's units from being as strong as his), with no real weaknesses and a CO power that summons a meteor shower to devastate the enemy army, even its long charge time not enough to balance it. Super-potent, but what do you expect from the final boss? Main enemy in the first two games, killed by Hawke when he tries to nuke the world into uninhabitability at the conclusion of the second. Badass theme and generally extremely broken CO. That doesn't actually even cover WHY he's so broken and not just a superior Kanbei; his units ''ignore terrain movement penalties,'' except for snow but that doesn't appear often enough to be a real weakness. What Lash gets as a CO power he has as a passive ability. In other words, unless it's totally impenetrable (say, a tank trying to cross a mountain), his units will just fly through them, meaning that it's utter child's play for him to acquire a total economic advantage.
** The only CO from AW2 who does not appear in DS. Hawke made sure to double-tap.
* Flak (AW 2): Evil version of Max, and the Black Hole army's vicious, expendable muscle. Like Nell, has a chance to deal bonus damage, but unlike her sometimes whiffs completely. His CO and Super CO powers are the shittiest in the game; they increase dispersion, meaning that sometimes your infantry will fuck up a tank, but that also means your Medium Tank might do a single point of damage to the enemy's regular Tank. He DOES have an awesome theme though, and spouts some entertaining lines. Sometimes used as a self-imposed challenge.
* Adder (AW 2): Juda from [[Fist of the North Star]] in a Nazi uniform with guyliner. An otherwise-average CO with a quick-charging movement buff that catches you upside the head when you least expect it. Extremely annoying and anger-inducing lines and smug personality, making it all the more fun to smash him with a superior CO.
* Lash (AW 2): Mad, petulant teenage genius and Sonja's evil counterpart. Specializes in terrain use and builds all the evil superweapons. Defects to the good guys in ''Dual Strike'', where she learns to use her dark science for good. Surprisingly good CO: her units gain firepower bonuses that increase according to the defensiveness of their terrain. Both her CO powers eliminate terrain movement penalties, with her super CO doubling her firepower bonuses. Anti-social.
* Hawke (AW 2): The stoic, competent [[Eliphas]] in an army of cackling supervillains. His units have universal stat-buffs with no cost increase (though not as much as Sturm's) in exchange for a slow-charging CO power that does minor damage to enemies and repairs minor damage to friendlies. Not earth-shattering, but puts out a complete game that makes him hard to counter. Keeps killing off his bosses for being too crazy and evil, and defects to the good guys with Lash partway through ''Dual Strike''. In AW2, he is the one Black Hole CO besides Sturm to be vaguely competent; when he sees his enemies surrounded and preparing to rebuild their army, he just immediately attacks instead of waiting or doing some sort of retarded time-limited superweapon plan.
* Jugger (DS): Either a defective robot or [[Adeptus Mechanicus|a guy who likes pretending to be one]]. Gameplay-wise, pretty much Flak with even more erratic luck. In practice, this encourages taking risks with weaker units while avoiding stronger ones. Same as with Flak, he's wholly inferior to Nell in most respects.
* Kindle (DS): Smug, upper-class bitch who looks like a lit birthday candle. Gets a massive attack boost when fighting on urban terrain. Unusually, her CO power is often more useful than her super, since it damages any enemy units sitting on properties and increase her urban terrain bonus; all her super does is give an even higher bonus, along with a slight firepower bonus according to how many properties she owns.
* Koal (DS): Frustrated would-be master strategist with a bloated ego and a kabuki actor's face. A bookworm who gets all his tips from Sun Tzu's big book of war. His units get buffs for fighting on roads and he's got Adder's quick-charging speed buff power. In practice, his day-to-day bonus is kind of useless, since lack of defence on roads means that you do not want your ground units to be caught fighting on them.
* Von Bolt (DS): The new [[BBEG]], filling in Sturm's gigantic shoes as best as he can. [[Emperor|An impossibly old man confined to a techno-throne, draining away other life into himself so that he can never truly die.]] Has Hawke's stat buffs, and his CO power fries a huge area, damaging and paralyzing friend and foe alike. No slouch, but not the monster final enemy his predecessor was.

===Days of Ruin CO List===

====Rubinelle 12th Batallion "Brenner's Wolves"====
* Will: [[Thaddeus|Idealistic kid struggling with a grimdark-riddled world]]. Unusually for a protagonist, he's somewhat specialized, equipped with Jake's movement buff CO power and plains bonus. Once his mentor pulls an Obi-Wan, his balls grow three sizes and he takes over the army to keep his mentor's ideals alive. Finishes the game fairly happy, and boffing your worst enemy's daughter-clone after destroying him has got to be the '''best''' kind of vengeance.
* Brenner: [[Tarkus|Grizzled veteran who leads from the front, favoring defensive tactics and coming through with powerful humanity]]. He saves Will and keeps his unit on the straight and narrow in the face of the apocalypse. Dies half-way through, because that ''never'' happens to the hero's mentor. Has Andy's repair power, but his CO aura boosts defense.
* Lin: [[Cyrus|Cynical, gloomy skirmish fighter teaching tactics to the new meat.]] Also wants Brenner to slip her the d, which makes the ongoing comparisons on this page ''hilarious''. Also the one who does dirty business for more-idealistic comrades, like blowing Greyfield's brains out rather than dragging him in to stand trial ([[Awesome| after giving him a speech on how much he sucks]]). Gameplay-wise, she's got Sonja's Fog of War powers, but also gives out a pretty big all-around stat boost in a fairly small area.
* Isabella: An attractive and mysterious amnesiac girl Will finds and saves in the middle of the mountains, who turns out to have encyclopedic knowledge of military matters who becomes very important to the plot later on. Never actually fights in the campaign, which is a shame because next to Caulder she's the best CO in the game, with a big aura that gives out buffs to all stats for all units, and a ''nasty'' power that buffs range ''and'' speed simultaneously, giving her army any number of viable builds.

====Lazuria====
* Forsythe: [[Davian Thule| Honorable old soldier]] who looks exactly like Lee Van Cleef. Pretty cool guy, shame the protagonists had come down with a bad case of the stupids and sided with Greyfield against him. Gunned down like a dog once he surrenders, kicking off Brenner's rebellion. Gameplay-wise, is the only CO with no power, but makes up for it with a giant aura that hands out a modest buff to all units. Thankfully you don't have to fight him before the CO power system becomes a part of the campaign.
* Tasha: [[Avitus|Angry, violent bitch out for revenge.]] Mellows out a little once Brenner's Wolves go rogue to save her and her army, and she joins the gang to help bring down Greyfield, then to fight Caulder. Fighter pilot who plays a lot like Will, but with air units instead of tanks.
* Gage: ...Crap, ran out of ''Dawn of War'' characters. Cold-hearted sniper who follows orders without questions regarding the moral implications of his work. Joins the Wolves with Tasha halfway through the game, and takes charge to open fire on crazed civilian cultists attacking the army that he thinks his fellows might have qualms about shooting. Has Grit's buffs and CO power, but the reworked CO system gives him a much more complete game.

====New Rubinelle====
* Admiral Greyfield: Fat evil sumbitch who sets himself up as generalissimo, then as a king of Rubinelle. About as stable as a house of cards, and [[Commissar|guns down his own men to maintain morale]] at the drop of a [[hat]]. Nukes lots of his own men to kill Brenner, then gets counter-attacked by the resurgent Wolves. Picks the one member of the army who isn't Lawful Good to surrender to, who promptly airs out his skull. Gameplay-wise, he buffs defense to helicopters and naval units and has a power that resupplies all his men, which is okay... so long as the map has ports. Honestly kind of terrible in most matches, but has a lulzy synergy with Sea Planes that's worth it just to see.
* Waylon: Southern-fried mercenary pilot who ends up working for Greyfield. Not really 100% evil, but still kind of a dick. Mechanically, he buffs defense to usually-fragile air units, giving them a lot of staying power.

====Intelligent Defense Systems====
* Penny: Calder's youngest "daughter," and bug-fuck nuts as a result of her creator's experiments on her brain. She talks to her bear, "Mr. Bear," and likes big explosions. Ultimately defects to the good guys once her father tries to get her to kill herself to take them down. Gameplay-wise, is the ''only'' CO in the game with an army-wide power (immunity to weather effects), on top of a minor buff in a huge area. Do not screw with the [[loli]].
* Tabitha: Calder's eldest "daughter," and a daddy's girl. Considering who her daddy is, this makes her kind of a bitch. Unlike most COs, she doesn't so much buff her army as pump one unit into god-mode with a '''gigantic''' buff to attack and defense (only AW1 Max gave as big a buff and it was just to attack). Her power calls in an air strike, but the big buff of her maxed-out aura means few ever bother using it.
* [[Fabius Bile|Caulder]]: Loony mad scientist and sinister PMC owner. That's ''double evil'' and [[Azariah Kyras| shit gets very bad when he shows up]]. The [[BBEG]] behind all the events of the game, [[Dark Eldar| because he's a dick and likes to watch everyone suffer]], and the abusive creator of his "clan" of gene-tinkered clones. (Including, incidentally, ''himself'', he killed the real Caulder). Makes the final battle an absolute motherfucker, with an above average sized aura that repairs all units for half their health every day and gives them a big buff to all stats (tied with Tabitha for the biggest buff in the game). He doesn't have a CO power and can't increase his CO Zone but the buffs he starts with are all he needs for him to be banned from PvP games for being too powerful. On TOP of that the mission you fight him is at at his death factory which will spewing loads of cannons and mortars, some of which can't be destroyed. In short, a worthy successor to the throne of Sturm and a very memorable villain.

====Others====
* The Beast: Crazy post-apocalyptic bandit king who serves as the primary villain in the first segment of the story. Once a bloodthirsty sergeant in the New Rubinelle army, he went crazy after the meteors hit and now can't even remember his own name. Essentially a beginning game bandit who got lost on his way to [[Fire Emblem]], then swapped his axe for a machine gun and motorcycle. Whilst he is unplayable and lacks any special abilities, the Beast is still rather memorable, especially for his [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahLMpX2Z72Q rocking theme song].
* Mayor of Freehaven: Never fights, but manages to be a despicable, memorable villain none the less. Deliberately antagonizes the heroes and screws them over for his own gain knowing they morally can't shoot him. His eventual, well deserved death is glorious.
* Cyrus: The last of Caulder’s clone “family” and the only guy. This is not because Calder wanted to do experiments in creating some kind of incest harem anime scenario, but because [[grimdark| he wanted a backup body to transfer his mind into in case he ever died]]. Unfortunately for him, but fortunately for all other life on earth, Cyrus is a good kid with a conscience who does not suffer from the streak of insanity that runs in the family. Once the old man is dead, [[This Guy|he hands over a cure for the supercharged plant parasite his dad had unleashed and then dies to prevent himself from being body jacked.]]

==More 40k Relations and other Notes==
[[File:AWBoardgame.jpg|thumb|300px|[[Derp|This costs more than the actual Video Game.]]]]
Any [[Warhammer 40000|40k]] player who plays Advance Wars will breathe with relief for the fact that he doesn't have to worry about morale of his troops. After all, the infantry for all factions are [[Imperial Guard|cheap and expendable]] - but they are fearless and don't need [[Commissars]].

However, there is still [[nerdrage]] to be had, because:
* Even the mighty [[Baneblade|Megatank]], the biggest tank in the series to date, can't even crush a puny squad of soldiers. Instead, it has to rely on it's main armaments of [[Dakka|<s>eleven</s> five barrels of hell]]. <s>Which work on Command & Conquer logic, and therefore suck against infantry (and wasting precious ammo and time on infantry is painful).</s> Megatanks use their [[Heavy Stubber|infinite-ammo machine guns]] on infantry. It will still get [[tarpit|easily walled out by infantry spam]], so make sure to use your leftover money on Recons for screening.
* There are only two variants of infantry, although to be true, since the game is "Panzer General: Light", you don't really need dozens of different infantry units, since it can be assumed that infantry uses a variety of weapons, while only Assault Rifles/Rocket Launchers/Machine Guns are shown. It's a game for 12 year olds for [[Emperor|god's]] sake!
* No special characters appear, so all of the units are little more than minions for the slaughter. And units you can't build are also minions to be slaughtered. Truly, this is a game fit for all children in the [[Imperium|Imperium of Man]].
** Days of Ruin lets you attach your player character to a unit of your choice. This nets you some useful aura buffs.
* The last game of the TBS series has turned [[grimdark]], but has a somewhat happy ending. Therefore it's too happy for 40k players and too dark for the [[/v/|vidja]] fans of the series.

[[Category:Video Games]]

Dreadnought

2021-10-25T15:01:32Z

2600:1700:91C1:A4E0:6DB2:7B8A:C0F0:C2AF: /* Castraferrum Pattern */

[[File:Dow2r sm dreadnought ultra dlc.jpg|400px|thumbnail|right|Too wounded to live. Too precious to die.]]
{{Topquote|Only in death does duty end.|The [[God-Emperor of Mankind|Emperor of Mankind]]'s inscription on the sarcophagus of Sagittarus Malacque, first Dreadnought of the [[Adeptus Custodes]]}}
{{Topquote|No vengeance can compare to the vengeance of the dead.|A Dreadnought saying}}
{{Topquote|BREAKING NEWS: MAN LITERALLY TOO ANGRY TO DIE|Meme made by Noah Cogliette}}
{{Topquote|That the one who no longer wants to live for himself should now continue to live merely as a machine for the use of others is an extravagant demand.|Arthur Schopenhauer}}

[[Space Marines]] are phenomenally tough, but there's a limit even to their durability. A battle-brother may be so grievously wounded that no amount of cybernetics and cloned tissue can bring him back to fighting strength. In cases like these, an [[Apothecary]] has two choices: grant his brother the Emperor's Peace and extract his [[gene-seed]], or have him installed in a specialized life-support sarcophagus and attach that to an array of weapons and mobility systems, turning him into a '''Dreadnought'''.

The advantages to becoming a Dreadnought include the ability to support the battle-brothers as a walking siege engine, blasting vehicles and fortifications with heavy weapons and ripping open hard targets with hydraulic claws. Heavily-armored and no longer feeling pain, a Dreadnought can wade into swarms of light infantry with near-impunity, smashing, stomping, and shooting until nothing's left but greasy stains. The life-support systems in the sarcophagus allow the Dreadnought's occupant to live nearly forever, as demonstrated by [[Bjorn the Fell Handed]] of the [[Space Wolves]], who has lived in such a state since the mid-31st millennium. Therefore, Dreadnoughts tend to gather lifetimes of experience and are often called upon to [[Storythread|share that experience with newer battle-brothers]]. Having a Dreadnought on the field is both a force multiplier and a morale booster.

All that power [[Grimdark|comes at a cost, of course]]. The near-dead battle-brother no longer has senses of his own, his eyes and ears wired to the sarcophagus's auspex arrays. He lives in a bath of cool fluid, numb and sleeping without dreaming, when his services as a warrior or historian are not needed. Should he be crippled on the battlefield, he can do nothing to save himself and must have faith in his brothers and the God Emperor that they will retrieve him. The act of just creating one is highly traumatic to the interee and creates [[Bjorn_the_Fell_Handed#Stormfangs|mental issues]] that living marines are not affected by. The best way of regulating this is by spending most of their time in suspended animation or full blown stasis till they are needed.

Tabletop wise, Dreads are an effective all-rounder and are fairly cheap to boot. They're good at any role they're tooled for, whether it's for blowing up tanks with twin-linked [[lascannon]]s or [[meltagun]]s or mowing down infantry with an [[Assault Cannon|assault cannon]] or [[Heavy Flamer|heavy flamer.]] They can also be formidable close combat units as they can be tooled with [[Power weapon#Dreadnought Power Fist|dreadnought-sized power fists,]] for example. You ''could'' also deep-strike them in [[Drop Pod]]s, ensuring hilarity when you get lucky and they end up where they precisely need to be. Sadly with 8th edition drop pods can't carry dreads anymore. However the '''out of production''' forgeworld dreadnought drop pod is still a thing. The only ones that you can still find are pricy, or chinese recasts. But there's nothing stopping you from [[Kitbash|modifying a standard pod]] [[Counts as|and using it as one.]]

Do note, however, that many enemies focus anti-armor weapons on them (especially if there isn't a [[Land Raider]] to [[DISTRACTION CARNIFEX|distract]] them). A footslogging Dread, without heavy use of cover, will be a burning hulk of points within two turns, relying on the deep striking Drop Pods to get them where they need to go.

==Dreadnought Variants==
There's a whole bunch of Dreadnought variants that do different things. There are also [[Wraithlord]]s, [[Deff Dred]]s, and [[Helbrute]]s, which used to be called Eldar Dreadnoughts, Ork Dreadnoughts, and Chaos Dreadnoughts, respectively.

===Castraferrum Pattern===
Is the name for the traditional "box" dreadnought that everyone is familiar with, comes in MkIV and MkV flavours (just so you know, MkIV are the ones with the helmet-head). Designed by the Mechanicus during the Great Crusade, specifically for its smaller size (to assist battle-brothers ''indoors''), while its reactor runs on pretty much any fuel and the chassis is completely customisable; hence, there are a terrific number of variations, though the Castraferrum is usually outfitted with a hydraulic claw with mounted bolter or flamer and a heavy ranged weapon.

* '''Hellfire Dreadnought:''' The most common variation of [[shooty]] dread, swaps out its close combat weapon for a [[Missile Launcher|missile launcher.]] (Not considered a separate pattern in the crunch because the "vanilla" dread statblock covers both punchy and Hellfire)
* '''Ironclad Dreadnought:''' Even more heavily armored melee dreadnoughts with a [[Miscellaneous Weapons#Seismic Hammer|Seismic Hammer]], [[Hunter-Killer Missile]]s, and a built-in [[Ironclad Assault Launcher]], designed to put giant holes in tanks and bunkers. It may also be equipped with a [[Hurricane Bolter]] if you need a big blob of light infantry killed fast.
* '''Siege Dreadnought:''' Specialized bunker-busting Dreadnoughts equipped with [[Miscellaneous Weapons#Assault/Siege Drill|Assault Drills]] and [[Inferno Cannon]]s. If they manage to come close enough to any building, no matter how fortified, they would wreck it and burn the shit out of anyone inside.
* '''Venerable Dreadnoughts:''' Simply put, they're really old Dreadnoughts that have been locked up for a long time and as such are better at fighting due to experience. Also tend to get sleepy and lose their keys.
* '''Chaplain Dreadnoughts:''' Some Chapters have Venerable Dreadnoughts that used to be [[Chaplain]]s. [[awesome|This basically means they have all those special effects that Chaplains do in a Dreadnought body]]. What makes a Chaplain so special enough to be put into a Dreadnought besides those buffs, we have no idea. As [[Chapter Master]]s or [[Brother-Captain|Captains]] to lend their expertise to the chapter HQ or [[Techmarine|Masters of the Forge]] would make much more sense. One could guess that they are stuffed into the larger more advanced variants below.
<gallery>
File:Hellfire Dread.jpg|Hellfire Dreadnought
File:99120101076_SpaceMarineIroncladDreadnoughtNEW02.jpg|Ironclad Dreadnought
File:Siege_Dreadnought.jpg|Siege Dreadnought
File:99120101083_VenerableDreadnoughtNEW01.jpg|Venerable Dreadnought
File:DreadnoughtChaplain01.jpg|Chaplain Dreadnought
</gallery>

====Chapter Specific Dreads====
* '''[[Furioso Dreadnought]]:''' Heavily armored [[Blood Angels]] dreadnoughts with ''two'' close combat weapons designed to [[RIP AND TEAR]] lots of troops in brutal close combat! Sometimes they even put a blood-crazed maniac from the [[Death Company]] inside, which turns a Furioso into an unholy, uncontrollable, and unstoppable [[rape]] machine.
**'''[[Librarian Dreadnought|Furioso Librarian Dreadnoughts]]:''' Blood Angels can also lock [[psykers]] up in Dreadnoughts, creating <strike>un</strike>holy amalgamations called Furioso [[Librarians]]. In addition to the badassery above, they replace one of their fists with a [[Force Weapons|force weapon]] and can kill you with mind bullets. Furioso Librarians were once capable of flying (DAMN YOU [[Matt Ward|WAAAAARRRRDDDD]]), but no longer while they are between codices. As of 8th Codex, they indeed fly again.
* '''[[Mortis Dreadnought]]:''' A variant supposedly exclusive to the [[Dark Angels]] that sports two copies of the same ranged weapon, for maximum [[dakka]]. This was apparently due to the Dark Angels' talent for writing things down (for entirely practical reasons, like [[Fallen Angels|keeping track]] [[Dwarf|of grudges]], rather than writing down [[Codex Astartes|some bible for space marines]] or [[Lorgar|the repressed/begrudging teeming masses]]) as all Legions had access to this pattern, but only the Angels remembered how to make a leftie dreadnought ranged weapon that wasn't a missile launcher.
** ''' [[Deathwing Venerable Dreadnought|Deathwing Dreadnoughts]]:''' The Dark Angels venerable dreads are all members of the inner circle and so reserve special hatred for <s>[[The Fallen]]</s> FILTHY CHAOS SCUM.
* '''[[Doomglaive Dreadnought|Doomglaive Dreadnoughts]]:''' A specialist dreadnoughts used by the [[Grey Knights]], comes with a nemesis force weapon and a psycannon as standard. Can attempt cleave attacks in close combat and try to hit additional dudes.
* '''[[Space Wolves Venerable Dreadnought]]:''' Not exactly unique in design compared to other Venerables, but the veteran [[Space Wolves|Wolves]] interred in them are so viking that they want to keep on vikinging even after death, meaning that the [[Techmarine|Iron Wolves]] of the chapter figured out how to give them a Blizzard Shield and a fucking huge Frost Axe. They lack ranged weapons but, you know, [[Awesome|Dreadnought-sized double-headed axe]]!
*'''[[Wulfen Dreadnought]]:''' Sometimes, a Space Wolf entombed in a Dreadnought succumbs to the Curse of the Wulfen, becoming a snarling metal beast whose violent temper makes him poorly suited for normal Dreadnought weaponry. Instead, the Iron Priests give him a great axe and a Great Wolf Claw and point him in the general direction of the enemy. The best-known of these is MURDERFANG, who has to be frozen solid with [[Helfrost Weaponry|Helfrost weaponry]] in between battles to prevent him from killing his battle-brothers.

<gallery>
image:FuriosoDreadnought.jpg|<center>Furioso</center>
image:FuriosoLibrarian.jpg|<center>Furioso Librarian</center>
image:MortisDreadMini.jpg|<center>Mortis</center>
image:DeathwingDreadnought.jpg|<center>Deathwing</center>
image:DoomglaiveDreadnought.jpg|<center>Doomglaive</center>
File:99120101116_SWVenerableDread01.jpg|<center>Space Wolves</center>
image:WulfenDreadnought.jpg|<center>Wulfen</center>
</gallery>

===Contemptor Pattern===
[[File:Grey Knights Contemptor Dreadnought.jpg|350px|thumbnail|right|Yes, this is a Contemptor of the Grey Knights. And [[Forgeworld|no, they don't have them]]. Why the fuck did they not use these instead of the goofy [[Dreadknight]]? (Because the [[Matt Ward|Ward]], that's why.)]]
Really old Dreadnoughts from before the [[Horus Heresy]] that are bigger and stronger than "modern" Dreads. A few Chapters still have them and deploy them to the field. They look more humanoid and Anime-like, and people get puzzled as why the Grey Knights do not use these instead of the goofier [[Dreadknight]], but the reasons they ''don't'' use them are exactly the same as why they started using the Castraferrum pattern instead; plus, Contemptors are becoming rarer and rarer in 40k, because the Adeptus Mechanicus keeps forgetting how to build things competently.

They have a bunch of mysterious cybernetic/AI stuff, which probably means that you should keep these away from the [[Adeptus Mechanicus]], since they like stripping them out for parts to use on their [[Legio Cybernetica|robots]]. Unlike regular Dreads, they have access to Cyclone Missile Launchers, Heavy Conversion Beamers, Chainfists, Graviton Guns, Plasma Blasters, and the Kheres-Pattern Assault Cannon. They also have an advanced Atomantic Reactor which no one knows how to make anymore, that is coupled to a field generator that gives them an invulnerable save at the expense of making a Vehicle Explodes result more dangerous.

A plastic one of these came as part of [[Betrayal at Calth]], and the sheer terribleness of the model made every 30k player cry.

You've got to ask why [[Bjorn the Fell Handed|Bjorn]] isn't one of these, he's certainly old and important enough. Contemptors were never as popular among the Space Wolves as they preferred the reliability of the Castraferrum pattern, and they also had a negative reputation for excess savagery during the early days of the Legion which stained the reputations of those interred within them. Its negative reputation became a self-fulfilling cycle when the Legion [[Iron Priest|Iron Priests]] began selectively interring marines who already had dark deeds under their names.

*'''[[Contemptor-Mortis Dreadnoughts]]:''' A modified Contemptor Dreadnought most often used by the [[Dark Angels]] that puts out a massive amount of [[dakka]]... so massive, in fact, that modern autocannon Dreads live in jealousy. Also, they have targeting arrays to fire at flyers.
*'''[[Contemptor-Furioso Dreadnoughts]]:''' While any Contemptor can be kitted out with two close combat weapons only the [[Blood Angels]] do this exclusively, since they don't have access to "regular" Contemptors in the rules, which also means they don't get access to the cool relic weapons.
**'''[[Contemptor-Incaendius Dreadnought]]:''' A specialized Contemptor built in special Mechanicum enclaves on Baal, unique to the Blood Angels as a result of a pact with the Forge World Anvillus. It has a pair of improved Dreadnought Lightning Claws and A MOTHERFRACKING JUMP-PACK. You heard that. A Dreadnought with an actual Jump-Pack like Assault Marines (and ironically more down-to-earth when compared to their Librarian Dreads).
*'''Contemptor-Cortus Dreadnoughts:''' A more easily produced Contemptor, made from less sophisticated materials and spare parts cannibalised from other dreadnoughts, resulting in less armour, less effective shielding, and a worse user interface. However, they are faster and more cost effective than the standard Contemptors, and can overcharge their reactors for even more speed at a risk to themselves.
*'''[[Contemptor-Osiron Dreadnought|Contemptor-Osiron Dreadnoughts]]:''' The Osiron Class Dreadnought was a type of Contemptor used by the [[Thousand Sons]]. These dreadnoughts were created by [[Magnus]] himself, and consisted of a mortally wounded psyker Space Marine laced with a psychometric barrier for his brain. Therefore they were considered as Humanity's first psychic Dreadnought.
*'''[[Venerable Contemptor Dreadnought|Venerable Contemptor Dreadnoughts]]:''' A Contemptor Dreadnought that is part of the [[Adeptus Custodes]] and is thus automatically given the title of ''''Venerable'''' cause they're just that badass. Essentially a golden Contemptor Dreadnought that is armed with a standard issue Autocannons, Power Fists and Multi-Melta. For just 30 more points you get the Aegis (Which grants a 5+ invulnerable save), and Deep Strike abilities, plus the aforementioned venerable. Considered as a cheaper alternative to the Custodes' walkers (Yes, the Contemptor Dreadnought is considered as the equivalent of a worn down rented car for the Golden Bananas. [[Cheese|This should tell you how OP they are]]).
*'''[[Contemptor-Galatus Dreadnought]]s:''' Used exclusively by the [[Adeptus Custodes]], these Dreads were badass. How badass? Besides being more advanced overall, they came with an extra shield for solid defense, and a giant fucking sword with a built-in [[heavy flamer]]. Truly a marvel worthy of the Emperor's bodyguards. Want to turn Terminators into piles of ruined flesh with one swipe? This is the weapon of choice. Want to roast a mob of angry Hormagaunts just by pointing your sword at them? This is also the weapon of choice. Accept no substitutes.
*'''[[Contemptor-Galatus Dreadnought#Contemptor-Achillus Dreadnought|Contemptor-Achillus Dreadnought]]s:''' Yet ''another'' variant of a [[Adeptus Custodes]] exclusive dreadnought. The Contemtor-Achillus swaps the giant sword and shield with a ECKS BAWKS HUEG FUCK OFF Power Spear called the Dreadspear with an inbuilt Corvae Las-Pulser and two hand-mounted Storm Bolters. If you want to skewer the [[Anal Circumference|rear ends]] of [[Land Raider|Land Raiders]], this is the walker for you.

<gallery>
image:Soh-contemptor-mortis3.jpg|<center>Contemptor-Mortis</center>
image:Contemptor-Furioso 2.jpg|<center>Contemptor-Furioso</center>
image:ContemptorIncaendius.jpg|<center>Contemptor-Incaendius</center>
File:Contemptor-Cortus.jpg|<center>Contemptor-Cortus</center>
File:OsironPattern.jpg|<center>Contemptor-Osiron</center>
File:Contemptor_Venerable_Dreadnought.jpg|<center>Venerable Contemptor</center>
image:ContemptorGalatus.jpg|<center>Contemptor-Galatus</center>
image:ContemptorAchillus.jpg|<center>Contemptor-Achillus</center>
</gallery>

===Deredeo Pattern===
[[File:Deredeo Dreadnought.jpg|300px|thumbnail|right|Bet on Deredeo when you need more [[Dakka|DAKKA]] but got no Mortis.]]
The <s>Dorito</s> Deredeo is a dedicated heavy weapons platform, rather than a general purpose chassis like the Castraferrum or the Contemptor. To this end it gets access to specialized wargear which cannot be found anywhere else, like a tank busting version of an autocannon or a unique plasma battery.

Developed alongside the Castraferrum Pattern and Lucifer Pattern, the Deredeo Pattern was designed as a heavy assault platform. Rather than being a general assault unit like others of its kind, the Deredeo Pattern Dreadnought is a dedicated heavy weapons platform, intended to combine superior firepower with the flexibility and durability of a Dreadnought chassis. It was initially deployed in limited numbers to each of the Legions due to difficulties in its manufacture, its durability and firepower saw demand for the Deredeo pattern increase after the outbreak of the Horus Heresy.

The model is a reworking of one of the three 1st edition Dreadnought patterns (with the other two being the Furibundus and Contemptor) from [[Forge World|FW]]'s workshop. It is equipped with an [[Anvilus Autocannon Battery]] (which are S7 Sunder Autocannons for tank busting), torso-mounted [[Heavy Bolter|heavy bolters]]/[[Heavy Flamer|flamers,]] and the [[Aiolos Missile Launcher]] (<s>which always hits the side armour of enemy tanks, doesn't require line of sight to fire,</s> can be aimed at a different target from the autocannons, and is Pinning as well). Like the Contemptor Mortis, it has Atomantic Shielding and a Helical Targeting Array to take down fliers. It can also be equipped with Armoured Ceramite in the off-chance it ever gets into melta range. Alternately, it can switch out the autocannons for a twin-linked [[Hellfire Plasma Carronade]] that lets it fire off either 4 S7 AP2 shots or a single S7 AP2 Large Blast (with Gets Hot! on the latter mode, not that it matters much since it's still twin-linked), or an [[Arachnus Heavy Lascannon Battery]], which isn't twin-linked but does fire 2 S10 AP2 shots, and if its shots score a penetrating hit on a vehicle the shot has a 50% chance of having it count as TWO penetrating hits instead of one! In Horus Heresy games it can also replace the missile launcher with an Atomantic Pavaise that improves its invulnerable save and lets anyone within 3" of it use the save too, at the expense of a larger explosion radius if it ever goes down. Since this can improve existing invulnerable saves by +1 for units which already have them, it's an ideal complement to [[Terminators]] with good ranged weapons (e.g. Tyrant Siege Terminators or anyone with an Assault Cannon).

They will soon be receiving two new options: a set of four [[Boreas Air Defence Missile]]s, which are one use but hit hard (S8 AP2 Heavy 1) and cancel Jink saves, and the [[Volkite Falconet Battery|Volkite Falconet]], which spits out a considerable number of Deflagrate-inducing shots (Heavy 6 S7 AP2) and causes infantry that survive getting wounded by it to only fire snap shots.
{{clear}}

===Leviathan Pattern===
{{anchor|Leviathan Pattern}}
[[File:Leviathan_Dread.png|300px|thumbnail|right|Having a [[Neckbeard|fatter body]] does not negate you from tearing shit up. ]]
AKA, the Hulkbuster Pattern. Unlike other patterns, the Leviathan was apparently designed in secret on Terra instead of Mars. It is also said to take just as much resources to manufacture as an Imperial Knight... And despite the fact that it looks like it has considerably more mass than a regular Castraferrum dread, it is still nowhere near the size of a Knight, so those resources must be unique/exotic materials or from remote systems. Or superior materials with a small successful creation rate. For example, we can technically make theoretical room-temperature superconductors now as one major possibility exists in Jovian planet atmospheres. However, only a teeeeensy bit could be made per fucktons of fucktons of materials spent trying to make any at all.'''Yeah... this is not even slightly correct...''' This could be the approach the Imperium uses for its finest such as Astartes whatever and warships.

The Leviathan is a specialist siege dreadnought, like an enhanced Ironclad variant, but like the Deredeo it comes with its own unique weapons not found anywhere else. By default, it begins with two [[Miscellaneous Weapons#Leviathan Siege Claw|Siege Claws]] with built-in [[meltagun]]s that have a 50% chance of causing d3 extra wounds on a successful To Wound roll. These can be replaced with [[Miscellaneous Weapons#Leviathan Siege Drill|Siege Drills]] for Armourbane, and it also has two torso-mounted [[Heavy Flamer|heavy flamer]] that can be swapped out for [[Volkite Caliver]]s if you REALLY need that blob of infantry dead. While it's a beast in assault since it gains 2 HoW attacks and +1 I on the charge, it's equally vicious if kitted out for shooting- its ranged options are a [[Leviathan Storm Cannon]] (S7 AP3, Heavy 6, and Sunder with a range of 24"), the [[Cyclonic Melta Lance]] (Range 18" S9 AP1 Heavy 3, Melta) or a [[Grav Flux Bombard]], which acts like 30K's Graviton Weapons in that affected targets need to roll either at or under their Strength at 2d6 or be wounded (if infantry) or roll 3d6 for armor penetration (for vehicles), taking DOUBLE the number of Hull Points it would normally take if it penetrates successfully- and either way, the Large Blast leaves behind difficult/dangerous terrain for the next turn. Either of those can be further supplemented with a one-use Phosphex Discharger so enemy blobs can make like Fallujah and eat a dose of Willie Pete, and can also take a pack of three [[Hunter-Killer Missile|hunter-killer missiles]] for a little bit of long-range [[Rhino]]-popping. Its Reinforced Atomantic Shielding gives it a 4++ invulnerable save against all sources, but also increases the radius and Strength of an Explodes! result on the vehicle damage table by D3 (like damn near everything [[Forge World|FW]] makes that has an invuln) so be careful there. It's potentially a blessing in disguise if you're charging into the midst of the enemy, but don't expect it to take down [[Titan]]s in its dying throes.

A few of these still serve in the 41st millennium, though they lose out on several of their options (volkite calivers and phosphex discharger). This also ties into its status as a Relic of the Armoury, as these things are so unreliably kill-crazy that they are only sent out on the Chapter Master's direct say-so. The reason why this is so is unknown, even the loyalists aren't exempt from their pilots devolving into unhinged madmen. Some suspect this is due to the still poorly understood technologies that went into the dread's creation. As for Chaos, they're typically seen as revered warriors, being alive since the Horus Heresy and are just as fucking nuts, if not more, like most Chaos dreadnoughts.

Loyalists have the prefix of "Relic" while Chaos Leviathan are "Hellforged". Besides how they look, they differ in the [[Original character, do not steal|names of the weapons]] they can take.

For [[Zone Mortalis]] it should probably be said that the Leviathan Dreadnought is possibly the most terrifying thing in the entire world to deal with in tight, narrow corridors. Its two Heavy Flamers gain Shred and Rending by default in Zone Mortalis, and its default Meltaguns mean it can just vaporize any other walkers it comes across. This thing becomes the pinnacle of destruction whenever playing with the Blip Rule, as your opponent won't even know where the fuck it is.

Since it comes at 260 points base, you could easily just bring three of these, an HQ, and two scout squads to snag objectives. Just let the Leviathans become mobile platforms of absolute destruction that cause everything that walks around the corner to experience critical existence failure within the span of a single assault phase.

===[[Redemptor Dreadnought|Redemptor Pattern]]===
[[File:RedDread.jpg|260px|right|thumb|New toys for ass-kicking.]]
The new walking death machine in the dreadnought line. This pattern was created by [[Belisarius Cawl]] as part of the [[Primaris Marines|Primaris Space Marines]] project since their size could make the potential entombing in regular dread patterns difficult (and not to play a little with dreadnought tech, create his own pattern [[Profit|and make you buy the new model]]).

These Redemptor Dreadnoughts are giant war machines that crush bone and splinter skulls as they bludgeon through enemy ranks. They are more cunningly wrought than the Dreadnoughts of traditional design, roughly equivalent to the aforementioned Leviathan pattern. Although it could be said that the Leviathan specializes in siege warfare whereas the Redemptor is more shock orientated in function, with extra guns replacing the atomantic shielding of the Leviathan.

These goliaths of battle are powered by hyper-dense reactors and sophisticated fibre bundles. They can accelerate from a thudding stomp to a loping, thunderous gait that shakes the ground, barrelling through hails of fire in glorious defiance. Such is the miraculous but dangerous design of the Redemptor’s neural links that its inhabitant, despite being entombed in the sarcophagus within the Dreadnought’s chest, can exercise control with surprising dexterity and speed.

As expected with all things Primaris, he's bigger, stronger and sturdier than most patterns, sharing many things with the Leviathan, including a ''major'' flaw of its own: it tends to kill its pilots rather quickly due to unknown reasons (possibly because said neural links are ''too'' well-designed, or maybe it's because the AdMech saw nothing wrong with making it work like their own [[Onager Dunecrawler]]; knowing the cogboys, we have to assume it's the latter) so it's yet unknown how the pattern will fare in the future, but if that flaw has become a noticeable trend in just the century or so of the Indomitus Crusade, then there's no way the Redemptor can be expected to preserve valued veterans for ''millennia'' like regular dreads can, which is kinda [[fail|half the point of a dreadnought in the first place]].

It comes with a choice of gatling cannon or plasma incinerator on the right arm, with a Redemptor fist and heavy flamer support weapon or gatling cannon on the left, 2 chest-mounted fragstorm grenade launchers or storm bolters and a carapace-mounted Icarus rocket pod for aerial denial.

===[[Telemon Heavy Dreadnought|Telemon Pattern]]===
[[File:Telemon-Heavy-Dreadnought2.jpg|260px|right|thumb|The biggest, baddest Dread around.]]
The third Adeptus Custodes-exclusive Dreadnought (because Emps saved all the best toys for the Golden Banana-men, which is just as well - could you imagine what might have happened if Horus had had these?!), and one so big it can be mistaken for a Knight. Fewer than a handful of Telemon Dreadnoughts are to be found within the ranks of the Legio Custodes, each intended to stand sentinel over its charges no matter the forces brought against it.

The honor of interment in one of the few existing Telemon sarcophagi is awarded to only the most celebrated warriors. Rare is the foe who can stand against the array of esoteric, hand-crafted weapons that grace its chassis or the ferocious will and warrior skill of the master Custodian interred within.

As they are reserved for the most elites in the Imperium. The Telemon's weaponry included in its armaments are the Telemon Caestus, which can be assembled with fist open or closed and has an in-built wrist-mounted Plasma weapon called the Proteus Plasma Projector. The ornate armor work includes an Aquila motif, and two fans are included, meaning the Caestus can be mounted on either of the left or right arm; and a choice of the Arachnus Storm Cannon or the Iliastus Accelerator Culverin (or a second Caestus, because why not?), with two separate elbow fans making it mountable on either arm of a Telemon Heavy Dreadnought. All of them are then topped with an oversized Cyclone Missile Launcher called the Spiculus Bolt Launcher. It is also possible to forgo the Caestus entirely for a second gun, but this is not recommended as your Telemon now has no melee weapon.

As previously mentioned, the Telemon Pattern Heavy Dreadnought towers over even a Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought, with a bulk <strike>comparable</strike> a good deal bigger than that of the Leviathan Pattern or the Primaris Redemptor pattern Dreadnoughts, but in an Artificer-wrought hull. The Telemon Heavy Dreadnought bears a striking resemblance to the [[Aquilon Terminator]] Armour worn by the elites of the Custodes but the size of a house.

===Other Patterns===
So far the Castraferrum, Contemptor, Deredeo, Leviathan, and Telemon are the only patterns of dreadnought that are available as models. ''(unless you count some of the chaos daemon-engines, but who knows what they started as?)''

Other types have been named though, and it is also said that some of these older pre-heresy patterns could have been piloted by non-astartes. So we can cross our fingers that more dreadnoughts may be coming eventually.
*'''Lucifer:''' Said to be the prototype for the Contemptor, but doesn't have the advanced systems, instead it supposedly has [[Power_Armour#Mark_III:_Iron_Armour|shitloads of frontal armour]]. And what Imperial retard decided to name it the '''''Lucifer'''''? I mean, Emps, c'mon! You ''really'' want to make it a [[Chaos|target]] that badly!?
*'''Furibundus''': The other old Rogue Trader pattern. It's also one of the most fugly but since Forge World is set on updating the old stuff they'll fix that or make it more [[Chaos_Dreadnought#Mhara_Gal_Dreadnoughts|Grotesque]]. If they ever [[Games_Workshop|get around to making it.]] According to Warhammer Community, it was a precursor to the Furioso Dreadnought. Appropriately enough for a close-combat Dread, the name roughly means 'frenzied' or 'maddened'.

==Meme==
[[File:Dreadserve.jpg|250px|right|thumb|Even in death, the mighty Astartes warrior still serves for the Emperor, as demonstrated by venerable brother Rogerius Federer.]]
"Even in death, I still serve" was a phrase scattered throughout Warhammer 40k, but it didn't become a [[meme]] until the original [[Dawn of War]] game, where it's one of the Dreadnought's more common quotes.

==The making of a Dreadnought==

1: Take 1 outstandingly badass [[Space Marine]]

2: Cut him in half (hopefully before he does the same to you)

3: Leave the dying body on the doorstep of some [[Adeptus Mechanicus]] guy

4: ???

5: [[Profit|PROFIT!!!]]

On a less lulzy note, the novel ''The Unforgiven'' gives us an insight as to what being put inside a Dreadnought is like, as well as a clear reason why the usual occupants are marines who've been chewed up and spat out by at least three separate Carnifexes. The process of implanting the neural connectors is so painful to a lucid brain that it can sometimes kill a Space Marine out of shock. Let me reiterate that this is a Space Marine, a Space Marine with the some of the best painkiller hormones in the galaxy, with mental conditioning and hypno-memetic psycho-reactive blocks to protect their minds from pain and torture, and the procedure is typically done with the [[Apothecary]] close at hand to monitor the pain threshold. It's still, somehow, even to a son of the Emperor, painful enough to almost kill them. Holy shit. If they survive, they can pretty much wrestle with the usual daemons and barbacue some Xenos while they are at it

==Gallery==
<gallery>
File:Brother koolaidius by blazbaros-d2z8e3j.png|After his internment into a Dreadnought, Brother Koolaidius has specialized in dynamic entry at any location, usually attending to battle brothers with refreshment needs.
File:Breadnought.jpg|Fear the motherfucking Breadnought.
File:Rapenought.jpg|Even in death, I still fuck your army.
File:Powerfisting.jpg|I have come to destroy your anus.
File:Angry_7.jpg|The Dreadnoughts of the Angry Marines are also known as the [[Belligerent Engine|Belligerent Engines]].
Image:1262002329676.jpg|Suck it.
Image:Custodian-Contemptor.jpg|I came to reap the souls of those [[Chaos Space Marines|Traitorous Scum...]][[Rape|if there was any...]]
File:Leviathan Dreadnought.jpg|What's with the Battle Bunnies thing anyw...[[Sisters of Battle|ooooh]]. That. No problem with it.
</gallery>

==See Also==
*[[Tankred]], the original memenought. He endures, for he is here for the bitches.
*[[Donovan]]
*[[Chaos Dreadnought]], the [[Chaos|evil]] (well, [[grimdark | more evil]]) version
*[[Grandpa Dreadnought]]
*[[Bjorn the Fell Handed]], of the [[Space Wolves]], and the oldest living [[Space Marine]] in the Imperium.
*[[Davian Thule]], of the [[Blood Ravens]], also known as Davian Cool. Famous for conquering Kronus, beating up Eliphas the Inheiritor, and getting nomed by a Tyranid Warrior
*[[Belligerent Engine]], a catch-all term for the Dreadnoughts of the [[Angry Marines]].
*[[Spared]], a short story about a Dreadnought and some [[Tau]].
*[[Entombed]], a not-so-short story about a Dreadnought.
{{40k-Imperial-Vehicles}}
{{Marines-Forces}}
{{Blood Angels}}
{{Dark Angels}}
{{Black-Templars}}
{{Deathwatch}}
{{Grey Knights}}
{{Space Wolves}}
{{Custodes}}
{{Thousand Sons}}
[[Category: Walkers]]

Dreadnought

2021-10-25T14:59:17Z

2600:1700:91C1:A4E0:6DB2:7B8A:C0F0:C2AF: /* Castraferrum Pattern */

[[File:Dow2r sm dreadnought ultra dlc.jpg|400px|thumbnail|right|Too wounded to live. Too precious to die.]]
{{Topquote|Only in death does duty end.|The [[God-Emperor of Mankind|Emperor of Mankind]]'s inscription on the sarcophagus of Sagittarus Malacque, first Dreadnought of the [[Adeptus Custodes]]}}
{{Topquote|No vengeance can compare to the vengeance of the dead.|A Dreadnought saying}}
{{Topquote|BREAKING NEWS: MAN LITERALLY TOO ANGRY TO DIE|Meme made by Noah Cogliette}}
{{Topquote|That the one who no longer wants to live for himself should now continue to live merely as a machine for the use of others is an extravagant demand.|Arthur Schopenhauer}}

[[Space Marines]] are phenomenally tough, but there's a limit even to their durability. A battle-brother may be so grievously wounded that no amount of cybernetics and cloned tissue can bring him back to fighting strength. In cases like these, an [[Apothecary]] has two choices: grant his brother the Emperor's Peace and extract his [[gene-seed]], or have him installed in a specialized life-support sarcophagus and attach that to an array of weapons and mobility systems, turning him into a '''Dreadnought'''.

The advantages to becoming a Dreadnought include the ability to support the battle-brothers as a walking siege engine, blasting vehicles and fortifications with heavy weapons and ripping open hard targets with hydraulic claws. Heavily-armored and no longer feeling pain, a Dreadnought can wade into swarms of light infantry with near-impunity, smashing, stomping, and shooting until nothing's left but greasy stains. The life-support systems in the sarcophagus allow the Dreadnought's occupant to live nearly forever, as demonstrated by [[Bjorn the Fell Handed]] of the [[Space Wolves]], who has lived in such a state since the mid-31st millennium. Therefore, Dreadnoughts tend to gather lifetimes of experience and are often called upon to [[Storythread|share that experience with newer battle-brothers]]. Having a Dreadnought on the field is both a force multiplier and a morale booster.

All that power [[Grimdark|comes at a cost, of course]]. The near-dead battle-brother no longer has senses of his own, his eyes and ears wired to the sarcophagus's auspex arrays. He lives in a bath of cool fluid, numb and sleeping without dreaming, when his services as a warrior or historian are not needed. Should he be crippled on the battlefield, he can do nothing to save himself and must have faith in his brothers and the God Emperor that they will retrieve him. The act of just creating one is highly traumatic to the interee and creates [[Bjorn_the_Fell_Handed#Stormfangs|mental issues]] that living marines are not affected by. The best way of regulating this is by spending most of their time in suspended animation or full blown stasis till they are needed.

Tabletop wise, Dreads are an effective all-rounder and are fairly cheap to boot. They're good at any role they're tooled for, whether it's for blowing up tanks with twin-linked [[lascannon]]s or [[meltagun]]s or mowing down infantry with an [[Assault Cannon|assault cannon]] or [[Heavy Flamer|heavy flamer.]] They can also be formidable close combat units as they can be tooled with [[Power weapon#Dreadnought Power Fist|dreadnought-sized power fists,]] for example. You ''could'' also deep-strike them in [[Drop Pod]]s, ensuring hilarity when you get lucky and they end up where they precisely need to be. Sadly with 8th edition drop pods can't carry dreads anymore. However the '''out of production''' forgeworld dreadnought drop pod is still a thing. The only ones that you can still find are pricy, or chinese recasts. But there's nothing stopping you from [[Kitbash|modifying a standard pod]] [[Counts as|and using it as one.]]

Do note, however, that many enemies focus anti-armor weapons on them (especially if there isn't a [[Land Raider]] to [[DISTRACTION CARNIFEX|distract]] them). A footslogging Dread, without heavy use of cover, will be a burning hulk of points within two turns, relying on the deep striking Drop Pods to get them where they need to go.

==Dreadnought Variants==
There's a whole bunch of Dreadnought variants that do different things. There are also [[Wraithlord]]s, [[Deff Dred]]s, and [[Helbrute]]s, which used to be called Eldar Dreadnoughts, Ork Dreadnoughts, and Chaos Dreadnoughts, respectively.

===Castraferrum Pattern===
Is the name for the traditional "box" dreadnought that everyone is familiar with, comes in MkIV and MkV flavours (just so you know, MkIV are the ones with the helmet-head). Designed by the Mechanicus during the Great Crusade, specifically for its smaller size (to assist battle-brothers ''indoors''), while its reactor runs on pretty much any fuel and the chassis is completely customisable; hence, there are a terrific number of variations, though the Castraferrum is usually outfitted with a hydraulic claw with mounted bolter or flamer and a heavy ranged weapon.

* '''Hellfire Dreadnought:''' The most common variation of [[shooty]] dread, swaps out its close combat weapon for a [[Missile Launcher|missile launcher.]] (Not considered a separate pattern in the crunch because the "vanilla" dread statblock covers both punchy and Hellfire)
* '''Ironclad Dreadnought:''' Even more heavily armored melee dreadnoughts with a [[Miscellaneous Weapons#Seismic Hammer|Seismic Hammer]], [[Hunter-Killer Missile]]s, and a built-in [[Ironclad Assault Launcher]], designed to put giant holes in tanks and bunkers. It may also be equipped with a [[Hurricane Bolter]] if you need a big blob of light infantry killed fast.
* '''Siege Dreadnought:''' Specialized bunker-busting Dreadnoughts equipped with [[Miscellaneous Weapons#Assault/Siege Drill|Assault Drills]] and [[Inferno Cannon]]s. If they manage to come close enough to any building, no matter how fortified, they would wreck it and burn the shit out of anyone inside.
* '''Venerable Dreadnoughts:''' Simply put, they're really old Dreadnoughts that have been locked up for a long time and as such are better at fighting due to experience. Also tend to get sleepy and lose their keys.
* '''Chaplain Dreadnoughts:''' Some Chapters have Venerable Dreadnoughts that used to be [[Chaplain]]s. [[awesome|This basically means they have all those special effects that Chaplains do in a Dreadnought body]]. What makes a Chaplain so special enough to be put into a Dreadnought besides those buffs, we have no idea. As [[Chapter Master]]s or [[Brother-Captain|Captains]] to lend their experience to the chapter HQ or [[Techmarine|Masters of the Forge]] would make much more sense. One may guess that they are stuffed into the larger more advanced variants below.
<gallery>
File:Hellfire Dread.jpg|Hellfire Dreadnought
File:99120101076_SpaceMarineIroncladDreadnoughtNEW02.jpg|Ironclad Dreadnought
File:Siege_Dreadnought.jpg|Siege Dreadnought
File:99120101083_VenerableDreadnoughtNEW01.jpg|Venerable Dreadnought
File:DreadnoughtChaplain01.jpg|Chaplain Dreadnought
</gallery>

====Chapter Specific Dreads====
* '''[[Furioso Dreadnought]]:''' Heavily armored [[Blood Angels]] dreadnoughts with ''two'' close combat weapons designed to [[RIP AND TEAR]] lots of troops in brutal close combat! Sometimes they even put a blood-crazed maniac from the [[Death Company]] inside, which turns a Furioso into an unholy, uncontrollable, and unstoppable [[rape]] machine.
**'''[[Librarian Dreadnought|Furioso Librarian Dreadnoughts]]:''' Blood Angels can also lock [[psykers]] up in Dreadnoughts, creating <strike>un</strike>holy amalgamations called Furioso [[Librarians]]. In addition to the badassery above, they replace one of their fists with a [[Force Weapons|force weapon]] and can kill you with mind bullets. Furioso Librarians were once capable of flying (DAMN YOU [[Matt Ward|WAAAAARRRRDDDD]]), but no longer while they are between codices. As of 8th Codex, they indeed fly again.
* '''[[Mortis Dreadnought]]:''' A variant supposedly exclusive to the [[Dark Angels]] that sports two copies of the same ranged weapon, for maximum [[dakka]]. This was apparently due to the Dark Angels' talent for writing things down (for entirely practical reasons, like [[Fallen Angels|keeping track]] [[Dwarf|of grudges]], rather than writing down [[Codex Astartes|some bible for space marines]] or [[Lorgar|the repressed/begrudging teeming masses]]) as all Legions had access to this pattern, but only the Angels remembered how to make a leftie dreadnought ranged weapon that wasn't a missile launcher.
** ''' [[Deathwing Venerable Dreadnought|Deathwing Dreadnoughts]]:''' The Dark Angels venerable dreads are all members of the inner circle and so reserve special hatred for <s>[[The Fallen]]</s> FILTHY CHAOS SCUM.
* '''[[Doomglaive Dreadnought|Doomglaive Dreadnoughts]]:''' A specialist dreadnoughts used by the [[Grey Knights]], comes with a nemesis force weapon and a psycannon as standard. Can attempt cleave attacks in close combat and try to hit additional dudes.
* '''[[Space Wolves Venerable Dreadnought]]:''' Not exactly unique in design compared to other Venerables, but the veteran [[Space Wolves|Wolves]] interred in them are so viking that they want to keep on vikinging even after death, meaning that the [[Techmarine|Iron Wolves]] of the chapter figured out how to give them a Blizzard Shield and a fucking huge Frost Axe. They lack ranged weapons but, you know, [[Awesome|Dreadnought-sized double-headed axe]]!
*'''[[Wulfen Dreadnought]]:''' Sometimes, a Space Wolf entombed in a Dreadnought succumbs to the Curse of the Wulfen, becoming a snarling metal beast whose violent temper makes him poorly suited for normal Dreadnought weaponry. Instead, the Iron Priests give him a great axe and a Great Wolf Claw and point him in the general direction of the enemy. The best-known of these is MURDERFANG, who has to be frozen solid with [[Helfrost Weaponry|Helfrost weaponry]] in between battles to prevent him from killing his battle-brothers.

<gallery>
image:FuriosoDreadnought.jpg|<center>Furioso</center>
image:FuriosoLibrarian.jpg|<center>Furioso Librarian</center>
image:MortisDreadMini.jpg|<center>Mortis</center>
image:DeathwingDreadnought.jpg|<center>Deathwing</center>
image:DoomglaiveDreadnought.jpg|<center>Doomglaive</center>
File:99120101116_SWVenerableDread01.jpg|<center>Space Wolves</center>
image:WulfenDreadnought.jpg|<center>Wulfen</center>
</gallery>

===Contemptor Pattern===
[[File:Grey Knights Contemptor Dreadnought.jpg|350px|thumbnail|right|Yes, this is a Contemptor of the Grey Knights. And [[Forgeworld|no, they don't have them]]. Why the fuck did they not use these instead of the goofy [[Dreadknight]]? (Because the [[Matt Ward|Ward]], that's why.)]]
Really old Dreadnoughts from before the [[Horus Heresy]] that are bigger and stronger than "modern" Dreads. A few Chapters still have them and deploy them to the field. They look more humanoid and Anime-like, and people get puzzled as why the Grey Knights do not use these instead of the goofier [[Dreadknight]], but the reasons they ''don't'' use them are exactly the same as why they started using the Castraferrum pattern instead; plus, Contemptors are becoming rarer and rarer in 40k, because the Adeptus Mechanicus keeps forgetting how to build things competently.

They have a bunch of mysterious cybernetic/AI stuff, which probably means that you should keep these away from the [[Adeptus Mechanicus]], since they like stripping them out for parts to use on their [[Legio Cybernetica|robots]]. Unlike regular Dreads, they have access to Cyclone Missile Launchers, Heavy Conversion Beamers, Chainfists, Graviton Guns, Plasma Blasters, and the Kheres-Pattern Assault Cannon. They also have an advanced Atomantic Reactor which no one knows how to make anymore, that is coupled to a field generator that gives them an invulnerable save at the expense of making a Vehicle Explodes result more dangerous.

A plastic one of these came as part of [[Betrayal at Calth]], and the sheer terribleness of the model made every 30k player cry.

You've got to ask why [[Bjorn the Fell Handed|Bjorn]] isn't one of these, he's certainly old and important enough. Contemptors were never as popular among the Space Wolves as they preferred the reliability of the Castraferrum pattern, and they also had a negative reputation for excess savagery during the early days of the Legion which stained the reputations of those interred within them. Its negative reputation became a self-fulfilling cycle when the Legion [[Iron Priest|Iron Priests]] began selectively interring marines who already had dark deeds under their names.

*'''[[Contemptor-Mortis Dreadnoughts]]:''' A modified Contemptor Dreadnought most often used by the [[Dark Angels]] that puts out a massive amount of [[dakka]]... so massive, in fact, that modern autocannon Dreads live in jealousy. Also, they have targeting arrays to fire at flyers.
*'''[[Contemptor-Furioso Dreadnoughts]]:''' While any Contemptor can be kitted out with two close combat weapons only the [[Blood Angels]] do this exclusively, since they don't have access to "regular" Contemptors in the rules, which also means they don't get access to the cool relic weapons.
**'''[[Contemptor-Incaendius Dreadnought]]:''' A specialized Contemptor built in special Mechanicum enclaves on Baal, unique to the Blood Angels as a result of a pact with the Forge World Anvillus. It has a pair of improved Dreadnought Lightning Claws and A MOTHERFRACKING JUMP-PACK. You heard that. A Dreadnought with an actual Jump-Pack like Assault Marines (and ironically more down-to-earth when compared to their Librarian Dreads).
*'''Contemptor-Cortus Dreadnoughts:''' A more easily produced Contemptor, made from less sophisticated materials and spare parts cannibalised from other dreadnoughts, resulting in less armour, less effective shielding, and a worse user interface. However, they are faster and more cost effective than the standard Contemptors, and can overcharge their reactors for even more speed at a risk to themselves.
*'''[[Contemptor-Osiron Dreadnought|Contemptor-Osiron Dreadnoughts]]:''' The Osiron Class Dreadnought was a type of Contemptor used by the [[Thousand Sons]]. These dreadnoughts were created by [[Magnus]] himself, and consisted of a mortally wounded psyker Space Marine laced with a psychometric barrier for his brain. Therefore they were considered as Humanity's first psychic Dreadnought.
*'''[[Venerable Contemptor Dreadnought|Venerable Contemptor Dreadnoughts]]:''' A Contemptor Dreadnought that is part of the [[Adeptus Custodes]] and is thus automatically given the title of ''''Venerable'''' cause they're just that badass. Essentially a golden Contemptor Dreadnought that is armed with a standard issue Autocannons, Power Fists and Multi-Melta. For just 30 more points you get the Aegis (Which grants a 5+ invulnerable save), and Deep Strike abilities, plus the aforementioned venerable. Considered as a cheaper alternative to the Custodes' walkers (Yes, the Contemptor Dreadnought is considered as the equivalent of a worn down rented car for the Golden Bananas. [[Cheese|This should tell you how OP they are]]).
*'''[[Contemptor-Galatus Dreadnought]]s:''' Used exclusively by the [[Adeptus Custodes]], these Dreads were badass. How badass? Besides being more advanced overall, they came with an extra shield for solid defense, and a giant fucking sword with a built-in [[heavy flamer]]. Truly a marvel worthy of the Emperor's bodyguards. Want to turn Terminators into piles of ruined flesh with one swipe? This is the weapon of choice. Want to roast a mob of angry Hormagaunts just by pointing your sword at them? This is also the weapon of choice. Accept no substitutes.
*'''[[Contemptor-Galatus Dreadnought#Contemptor-Achillus Dreadnought|Contemptor-Achillus Dreadnought]]s:''' Yet ''another'' variant of a [[Adeptus Custodes]] exclusive dreadnought. The Contemtor-Achillus swaps the giant sword and shield with a ECKS BAWKS HUEG FUCK OFF Power Spear called the Dreadspear with an inbuilt Corvae Las-Pulser and two hand-mounted Storm Bolters. If you want to skewer the [[Anal Circumference|rear ends]] of [[Land Raider|Land Raiders]], this is the walker for you.

<gallery>
image:Soh-contemptor-mortis3.jpg|<center>Contemptor-Mortis</center>
image:Contemptor-Furioso 2.jpg|<center>Contemptor-Furioso</center>
image:ContemptorIncaendius.jpg|<center>Contemptor-Incaendius</center>
File:Contemptor-Cortus.jpg|<center>Contemptor-Cortus</center>
File:OsironPattern.jpg|<center>Contemptor-Osiron</center>
File:Contemptor_Venerable_Dreadnought.jpg|<center>Venerable Contemptor</center>
image:ContemptorGalatus.jpg|<center>Contemptor-Galatus</center>
image:ContemptorAchillus.jpg|<center>Contemptor-Achillus</center>
</gallery>

===Deredeo Pattern===
[[File:Deredeo Dreadnought.jpg|300px|thumbnail|right|Bet on Deredeo when you need more [[Dakka|DAKKA]] but got no Mortis.]]
The <s>Dorito</s> Deredeo is a dedicated heavy weapons platform, rather than a general purpose chassis like the Castraferrum or the Contemptor. To this end it gets access to specialized wargear which cannot be found anywhere else, like a tank busting version of an autocannon or a unique plasma battery.

Developed alongside the Castraferrum Pattern and Lucifer Pattern, the Deredeo Pattern was designed as a heavy assault platform. Rather than being a general assault unit like others of its kind, the Deredeo Pattern Dreadnought is a dedicated heavy weapons platform, intended to combine superior firepower with the flexibility and durability of a Dreadnought chassis. It was initially deployed in limited numbers to each of the Legions due to difficulties in its manufacture, its durability and firepower saw demand for the Deredeo pattern increase after the outbreak of the Horus Heresy.

The model is a reworking of one of the three 1st edition Dreadnought patterns (with the other two being the Furibundus and Contemptor) from [[Forge World|FW]]'s workshop. It is equipped with an [[Anvilus Autocannon Battery]] (which are S7 Sunder Autocannons for tank busting), torso-mounted [[Heavy Bolter|heavy bolters]]/[[Heavy Flamer|flamers,]] and the [[Aiolos Missile Launcher]] (<s>which always hits the side armour of enemy tanks, doesn't require line of sight to fire,</s> can be aimed at a different target from the autocannons, and is Pinning as well). Like the Contemptor Mortis, it has Atomantic Shielding and a Helical Targeting Array to take down fliers. It can also be equipped with Armoured Ceramite in the off-chance it ever gets into melta range. Alternately, it can switch out the autocannons for a twin-linked [[Hellfire Plasma Carronade]] that lets it fire off either 4 S7 AP2 shots or a single S7 AP2 Large Blast (with Gets Hot! on the latter mode, not that it matters much since it's still twin-linked), or an [[Arachnus Heavy Lascannon Battery]], which isn't twin-linked but does fire 2 S10 AP2 shots, and if its shots score a penetrating hit on a vehicle the shot has a 50% chance of having it count as TWO penetrating hits instead of one! In Horus Heresy games it can also replace the missile launcher with an Atomantic Pavaise that improves its invulnerable save and lets anyone within 3" of it use the save too, at the expense of a larger explosion radius if it ever goes down. Since this can improve existing invulnerable saves by +1 for units which already have them, it's an ideal complement to [[Terminators]] with good ranged weapons (e.g. Tyrant Siege Terminators or anyone with an Assault Cannon).

They will soon be receiving two new options: a set of four [[Boreas Air Defence Missile]]s, which are one use but hit hard (S8 AP2 Heavy 1) and cancel Jink saves, and the [[Volkite Falconet Battery|Volkite Falconet]], which spits out a considerable number of Deflagrate-inducing shots (Heavy 6 S7 AP2) and causes infantry that survive getting wounded by it to only fire snap shots.
{{clear}}

===Leviathan Pattern===
{{anchor|Leviathan Pattern}}
[[File:Leviathan_Dread.png|300px|thumbnail|right|Having a [[Neckbeard|fatter body]] does not negate you from tearing shit up. ]]
AKA, the Hulkbuster Pattern. Unlike other patterns, the Leviathan was apparently designed in secret on Terra instead of Mars. It is also said to take just as much resources to manufacture as an Imperial Knight... And despite the fact that it looks like it has considerably more mass than a regular Castraferrum dread, it is still nowhere near the size of a Knight, so those resources must be unique/exotic materials or from remote systems. Or superior materials with a small successful creation rate. For example, we can technically make theoretical room-temperature superconductors now as one major possibility exists in Jovian planet atmospheres. However, only a teeeeensy bit could be made per fucktons of fucktons of materials spent trying to make any at all.'''Yeah... this is not even slightly correct...''' This could be the approach the Imperium uses for its finest such as Astartes whatever and warships.

The Leviathan is a specialist siege dreadnought, like an enhanced Ironclad variant, but like the Deredeo it comes with its own unique weapons not found anywhere else. By default, it begins with two [[Miscellaneous Weapons#Leviathan Siege Claw|Siege Claws]] with built-in [[meltagun]]s that have a 50% chance of causing d3 extra wounds on a successful To Wound roll. These can be replaced with [[Miscellaneous Weapons#Leviathan Siege Drill|Siege Drills]] for Armourbane, and it also has two torso-mounted [[Heavy Flamer|heavy flamer]] that can be swapped out for [[Volkite Caliver]]s if you REALLY need that blob of infantry dead. While it's a beast in assault since it gains 2 HoW attacks and +1 I on the charge, it's equally vicious if kitted out for shooting- its ranged options are a [[Leviathan Storm Cannon]] (S7 AP3, Heavy 6, and Sunder with a range of 24"), the [[Cyclonic Melta Lance]] (Range 18" S9 AP1 Heavy 3, Melta) or a [[Grav Flux Bombard]], which acts like 30K's Graviton Weapons in that affected targets need to roll either at or under their Strength at 2d6 or be wounded (if infantry) or roll 3d6 for armor penetration (for vehicles), taking DOUBLE the number of Hull Points it would normally take if it penetrates successfully- and either way, the Large Blast leaves behind difficult/dangerous terrain for the next turn. Either of those can be further supplemented with a one-use Phosphex Discharger so enemy blobs can make like Fallujah and eat a dose of Willie Pete, and can also take a pack of three [[Hunter-Killer Missile|hunter-killer missiles]] for a little bit of long-range [[Rhino]]-popping. Its Reinforced Atomantic Shielding gives it a 4++ invulnerable save against all sources, but also increases the radius and Strength of an Explodes! result on the vehicle damage table by D3 (like damn near everything [[Forge World|FW]] makes that has an invuln) so be careful there. It's potentially a blessing in disguise if you're charging into the midst of the enemy, but don't expect it to take down [[Titan]]s in its dying throes.

A few of these still serve in the 41st millennium, though they lose out on several of their options (volkite calivers and phosphex discharger). This also ties into its status as a Relic of the Armoury, as these things are so unreliably kill-crazy that they are only sent out on the Chapter Master's direct say-so. The reason why this is so is unknown, even the loyalists aren't exempt from their pilots devolving into unhinged madmen. Some suspect this is due to the still poorly understood technologies that went into the dread's creation. As for Chaos, they're typically seen as revered warriors, being alive since the Horus Heresy and are just as fucking nuts, if not more, like most Chaos dreadnoughts.

Loyalists have the prefix of "Relic" while Chaos Leviathan are "Hellforged". Besides how they look, they differ in the [[Original character, do not steal|names of the weapons]] they can take.

For [[Zone Mortalis]] it should probably be said that the Leviathan Dreadnought is possibly the most terrifying thing in the entire world to deal with in tight, narrow corridors. Its two Heavy Flamers gain Shred and Rending by default in Zone Mortalis, and its default Meltaguns mean it can just vaporize any other walkers it comes across. This thing becomes the pinnacle of destruction whenever playing with the Blip Rule, as your opponent won't even know where the fuck it is.

Since it comes at 260 points base, you could easily just bring three of these, an HQ, and two scout squads to snag objectives. Just let the Leviathans become mobile platforms of absolute destruction that cause everything that walks around the corner to experience critical existence failure within the span of a single assault phase.

===[[Redemptor Dreadnought|Redemptor Pattern]]===
[[File:RedDread.jpg|260px|right|thumb|New toys for ass-kicking.]]
The new walking death machine in the dreadnought line. This pattern was created by [[Belisarius Cawl]] as part of the [[Primaris Marines|Primaris Space Marines]] project since their size could make the potential entombing in regular dread patterns difficult (and not to play a little with dreadnought tech, create his own pattern [[Profit|and make you buy the new model]]).

These Redemptor Dreadnoughts are giant war machines that crush bone and splinter skulls as they bludgeon through enemy ranks. They are more cunningly wrought than the Dreadnoughts of traditional design, roughly equivalent to the aforementioned Leviathan pattern. Although it could be said that the Leviathan specializes in siege warfare whereas the Redemptor is more shock orientated in function, with extra guns replacing the atomantic shielding of the Leviathan.

These goliaths of battle are powered by hyper-dense reactors and sophisticated fibre bundles. They can accelerate from a thudding stomp to a loping, thunderous gait that shakes the ground, barrelling through hails of fire in glorious defiance. Such is the miraculous but dangerous design of the Redemptor’s neural links that its inhabitant, despite being entombed in the sarcophagus within the Dreadnought’s chest, can exercise control with surprising dexterity and speed.

As expected with all things Primaris, he's bigger, stronger and sturdier than most patterns, sharing many things with the Leviathan, including a ''major'' flaw of its own: it tends to kill its pilots rather quickly due to unknown reasons (possibly because said neural links are ''too'' well-designed, or maybe it's because the AdMech saw nothing wrong with making it work like their own [[Onager Dunecrawler]]; knowing the cogboys, we have to assume it's the latter) so it's yet unknown how the pattern will fare in the future, but if that flaw has become a noticeable trend in just the century or so of the Indomitus Crusade, then there's no way the Redemptor can be expected to preserve valued veterans for ''millennia'' like regular dreads can, which is kinda [[fail|half the point of a dreadnought in the first place]].

It comes with a choice of gatling cannon or plasma incinerator on the right arm, with a Redemptor fist and heavy flamer support weapon or gatling cannon on the left, 2 chest-mounted fragstorm grenade launchers or storm bolters and a carapace-mounted Icarus rocket pod for aerial denial.

===[[Telemon Heavy Dreadnought|Telemon Pattern]]===
[[File:Telemon-Heavy-Dreadnought2.jpg|260px|right|thumb|The biggest, baddest Dread around.]]
The third Adeptus Custodes-exclusive Dreadnought (because Emps saved all the best toys for the Golden Banana-men, which is just as well - could you imagine what might have happened if Horus had had these?!), and one so big it can be mistaken for a Knight. Fewer than a handful of Telemon Dreadnoughts are to be found within the ranks of the Legio Custodes, each intended to stand sentinel over its charges no matter the forces brought against it.

The honor of interment in one of the few existing Telemon sarcophagi is awarded to only the most celebrated warriors. Rare is the foe who can stand against the array of esoteric, hand-crafted weapons that grace its chassis or the ferocious will and warrior skill of the master Custodian interred within.

As they are reserved for the most elites in the Imperium. The Telemon's weaponry included in its armaments are the Telemon Caestus, which can be assembled with fist open or closed and has an in-built wrist-mounted Plasma weapon called the Proteus Plasma Projector. The ornate armor work includes an Aquila motif, and two fans are included, meaning the Caestus can be mounted on either of the left or right arm; and a choice of the Arachnus Storm Cannon or the Iliastus Accelerator Culverin (or a second Caestus, because why not?), with two separate elbow fans making it mountable on either arm of a Telemon Heavy Dreadnought. All of them are then topped with an oversized Cyclone Missile Launcher called the Spiculus Bolt Launcher. It is also possible to forgo the Caestus entirely for a second gun, but this is not recommended as your Telemon now has no melee weapon.

As previously mentioned, the Telemon Pattern Heavy Dreadnought towers over even a Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought, with a bulk <strike>comparable</strike> a good deal bigger than that of the Leviathan Pattern or the Primaris Redemptor pattern Dreadnoughts, but in an Artificer-wrought hull. The Telemon Heavy Dreadnought bears a striking resemblance to the [[Aquilon Terminator]] Armour worn by the elites of the Custodes but the size of a house.

===Other Patterns===
So far the Castraferrum, Contemptor, Deredeo, Leviathan, and Telemon are the only patterns of dreadnought that are available as models. ''(unless you count some of the chaos daemon-engines, but who knows what they started as?)''

Other types have been named though, and it is also said that some of these older pre-heresy patterns could have been piloted by non-astartes. So we can cross our fingers that more dreadnoughts may be coming eventually.
*'''Lucifer:''' Said to be the prototype for the Contemptor, but doesn't have the advanced systems, instead it supposedly has [[Power_Armour#Mark_III:_Iron_Armour|shitloads of frontal armour]]. And what Imperial retard decided to name it the '''''Lucifer'''''? I mean, Emps, c'mon! You ''really'' want to make it a [[Chaos|target]] that badly!?
*'''Furibundus''': The other old Rogue Trader pattern. It's also one of the most fugly but since Forge World is set on updating the old stuff they'll fix that or make it more [[Chaos_Dreadnought#Mhara_Gal_Dreadnoughts|Grotesque]]. If they ever [[Games_Workshop|get around to making it.]] According to Warhammer Community, it was a precursor to the Furioso Dreadnought. Appropriately enough for a close-combat Dread, the name roughly means 'frenzied' or 'maddened'.

==Meme==
[[File:Dreadserve.jpg|250px|right|thumb|Even in death, the mighty Astartes warrior still serves for the Emperor, as demonstrated by venerable brother Rogerius Federer.]]
"Even in death, I still serve" was a phrase scattered throughout Warhammer 40k, but it didn't become a [[meme]] until the original [[Dawn of War]] game, where it's one of the Dreadnought's more common quotes.

==The making of a Dreadnought==

1: Take 1 outstandingly badass [[Space Marine]]

2: Cut him in half (hopefully before he does the same to you)

3: Leave the dying body on the doorstep of some [[Adeptus Mechanicus]] guy

4: ???

5: [[Profit|PROFIT!!!]]

On a less lulzy note, the novel ''The Unforgiven'' gives us an insight as to what being put inside a Dreadnought is like, as well as a clear reason why the usual occupants are marines who've been chewed up and spat out by at least three separate Carnifexes. The process of implanting the neural connectors is so painful to a lucid brain that it can sometimes kill a Space Marine out of shock. Let me reiterate that this is a Space Marine, a Space Marine with the some of the best painkiller hormones in the galaxy, with mental conditioning and hypno-memetic psycho-reactive blocks to protect their minds from pain and torture, and the procedure is typically done with the [[Apothecary]] close at hand to monitor the pain threshold. It's still, somehow, even to a son of the Emperor, painful enough to almost kill them. Holy shit. If they survive, they can pretty much wrestle with the usual daemons and barbacue some Xenos while they are at it

==Gallery==
<gallery>
File:Brother koolaidius by blazbaros-d2z8e3j.png|After his internment into a Dreadnought, Brother Koolaidius has specialized in dynamic entry at any location, usually attending to battle brothers with refreshment needs.
File:Breadnought.jpg|Fear the motherfucking Breadnought.
File:Rapenought.jpg|Even in death, I still fuck your army.
File:Powerfisting.jpg|I have come to destroy your anus.
File:Angry_7.jpg|The Dreadnoughts of the Angry Marines are also known as the [[Belligerent Engine|Belligerent Engines]].
Image:1262002329676.jpg|Suck it.
Image:Custodian-Contemptor.jpg|I came to reap the souls of those [[Chaos Space Marines|Traitorous Scum...]][[Rape|if there was any...]]
File:Leviathan Dreadnought.jpg|What's with the Battle Bunnies thing anyw...[[Sisters of Battle|ooooh]]. That. No problem with it.
</gallery>

==See Also==
*[[Tankred]], the original memenought. He endures, for he is here for the bitches.
*[[Donovan]]
*[[Chaos Dreadnought]], the [[Chaos|evil]] (well, [[grimdark | more evil]]) version
*[[Grandpa Dreadnought]]
*[[Bjorn the Fell Handed]], of the [[Space Wolves]], and the oldest living [[Space Marine]] in the Imperium.
*[[Davian Thule]], of the [[Blood Ravens]], also known as Davian Cool. Famous for conquering Kronus, beating up Eliphas the Inheiritor, and getting nomed by a Tyranid Warrior
*[[Belligerent Engine]], a catch-all term for the Dreadnoughts of the [[Angry Marines]].
*[[Spared]], a short story about a Dreadnought and some [[Tau]].
*[[Entombed]], a not-so-short story about a Dreadnought.
{{40k-Imperial-Vehicles}}
{{Marines-Forces}}
{{Blood Angels}}
{{Dark Angels}}
{{Black-Templars}}
{{Deathwatch}}
{{Grey Knights}}
{{Space Wolves}}
{{Custodes}}
{{Thousand Sons}}
[[Category: Walkers]]

Dreadnought

2021-10-25T14:56:00Z

2600:1700:91C1:A4E0:6DB2:7B8A:C0F0:C2AF: /* Castraferrum Pattern */

[[File:Dow2r sm dreadnought ultra dlc.jpg|400px|thumbnail|right|Too wounded to live. Too precious to die.]]
{{Topquote|Only in death does duty end.|The [[God-Emperor of Mankind|Emperor of Mankind]]'s inscription on the sarcophagus of Sagittarus Malacque, first Dreadnought of the [[Adeptus Custodes]]}}
{{Topquote|No vengeance can compare to the vengeance of the dead.|A Dreadnought saying}}
{{Topquote|BREAKING NEWS: MAN LITERALLY TOO ANGRY TO DIE|Meme made by Noah Cogliette}}
{{Topquote|That the one who no longer wants to live for himself should now continue to live merely as a machine for the use of others is an extravagant demand.|Arthur Schopenhauer}}

[[Space Marines]] are phenomenally tough, but there's a limit even to their durability. A battle-brother may be so grievously wounded that no amount of cybernetics and cloned tissue can bring him back to fighting strength. In cases like these, an [[Apothecary]] has two choices: grant his brother the Emperor's Peace and extract his [[gene-seed]], or have him installed in a specialized life-support sarcophagus and attach that to an array of weapons and mobility systems, turning him into a '''Dreadnought'''.

The advantages to becoming a Dreadnought include the ability to support the battle-brothers as a walking siege engine, blasting vehicles and fortifications with heavy weapons and ripping open hard targets with hydraulic claws. Heavily-armored and no longer feeling pain, a Dreadnought can wade into swarms of light infantry with near-impunity, smashing, stomping, and shooting until nothing's left but greasy stains. The life-support systems in the sarcophagus allow the Dreadnought's occupant to live nearly forever, as demonstrated by [[Bjorn the Fell Handed]] of the [[Space Wolves]], who has lived in such a state since the mid-31st millennium. Therefore, Dreadnoughts tend to gather lifetimes of experience and are often called upon to [[Storythread|share that experience with newer battle-brothers]]. Having a Dreadnought on the field is both a force multiplier and a morale booster.

All that power [[Grimdark|comes at a cost, of course]]. The near-dead battle-brother no longer has senses of his own, his eyes and ears wired to the sarcophagus's auspex arrays. He lives in a bath of cool fluid, numb and sleeping without dreaming, when his services as a warrior or historian are not needed. Should he be crippled on the battlefield, he can do nothing to save himself and must have faith in his brothers and the God Emperor that they will retrieve him. The act of just creating one is highly traumatic to the interee and creates [[Bjorn_the_Fell_Handed#Stormfangs|mental issues]] that living marines are not affected by. The best way of regulating this is by spending most of their time in suspended animation or full blown stasis till they are needed.

Tabletop wise, Dreads are an effective all-rounder and are fairly cheap to boot. They're good at any role they're tooled for, whether it's for blowing up tanks with twin-linked [[lascannon]]s or [[meltagun]]s or mowing down infantry with an [[Assault Cannon|assault cannon]] or [[Heavy Flamer|heavy flamer.]] They can also be formidable close combat units as they can be tooled with [[Power weapon#Dreadnought Power Fist|dreadnought-sized power fists,]] for example. You ''could'' also deep-strike them in [[Drop Pod]]s, ensuring hilarity when you get lucky and they end up where they precisely need to be. Sadly with 8th edition drop pods can't carry dreads anymore. However the '''out of production''' forgeworld dreadnought drop pod is still a thing. The only ones that you can still find are pricy, or chinese recasts. But there's nothing stopping you from [[Kitbash|modifying a standard pod]] [[Counts as|and using it as one.]]

Do note, however, that many enemies focus anti-armor weapons on them (especially if there isn't a [[Land Raider]] to [[DISTRACTION CARNIFEX|distract]] them). A footslogging Dread, without heavy use of cover, will be a burning hulk of points within two turns, relying on the deep striking Drop Pods to get them where they need to go.

==Dreadnought Variants==
There's a whole bunch of Dreadnought variants that do different things. There are also [[Wraithlord]]s, [[Deff Dred]]s, and [[Helbrute]]s, which used to be called Eldar Dreadnoughts, Ork Dreadnoughts, and Chaos Dreadnoughts, respectively.

===Castraferrum Pattern===
Is the name for the traditional "box" dreadnought that everyone is familiar with, comes in MkIV and MkV flavours (just so you know, MkIV are the ones with the helmet-head). Designed by the Mechanicus during the Great Crusade, specifically for its smaller size (to assist battle-brothers ''indoors''), while its reactor runs on pretty much any fuel and the chassis is completely customisable; hence, there are a terrific number of variations, though the Castraferrum is usually outfitted with a hydraulic claw with mounted bolter or flamer and a heavy ranged weapon.

* '''Hellfire Dreadnought:''' The most common variation of [[shooty]] dread, swaps out its close combat weapon for a [[Missile Launcher|missile launcher.]] (Not considered a separate pattern in the crunch because the "vanilla" dread statblock covers both punchy and Hellfire)
* '''Ironclad Dreadnought:''' Even more heavily armored melee dreadnoughts with a [[Miscellaneous Weapons#Seismic Hammer|Seismic Hammer]], [[Hunter-Killer Missile]]s, and a built-in [[Ironclad Assault Launcher]], designed to put giant holes in tanks and bunkers. It may also be equipped with a [[Hurricane Bolter]] if you need a big blob of light infantry killed fast.
* '''Siege Dreadnought:''' Specialized bunker-busting Dreadnoughts equipped with [[Miscellaneous Weapons#Assault/Siege Drill|Assault Drills]] and [[Inferno Cannon]]s. If they manage to come close enough to any building, no matter how fortified, they would wreck it and burn the shit out of anyone inside.
* '''Venerable Dreadnoughts:''' Simply put, they're really old Dreadnoughts that have been locked up for a long time and as such are better at fighting due to experience. Also tend to get sleepy and lose their keys.
* '''Chaplain Dreadnoughts:''' Some Chapters have Venerable Dreadnoughts that used to be [[Chaplain]]s. [[awesome|This basically means they have all those special effects that Chaplains do in a Dreadnought body]]. What makes a Chaplain so special enough to be put into a Dreadnought besides those buffs, we have no idea. As [[Chapter Master]]s or [[Captain]]s to lend their experience to the or [[Masters of the Forge|Tech Marine]] would make much more sense. One may guess that they are stuffed into the larger more advanced variants below.
<gallery>
File:Hellfire Dread.jpg|Hellfire Dreadnought
File:99120101076_SpaceMarineIroncladDreadnoughtNEW02.jpg|Ironclad Dreadnought
File:Siege_Dreadnought.jpg|Siege Dreadnought
File:99120101083_VenerableDreadnoughtNEW01.jpg|Venerable Dreadnought
File:DreadnoughtChaplain01.jpg|Chaplain Dreadnought
</gallery>

====Chapter Specific Dreads====
* '''[[Furioso Dreadnought]]:''' Heavily armored [[Blood Angels]] dreadnoughts with ''two'' close combat weapons designed to [[RIP AND TEAR]] lots of troops in brutal close combat! Sometimes they even put a blood-crazed maniac from the [[Death Company]] inside, which turns a Furioso into an unholy, uncontrollable, and unstoppable [[rape]] machine.
**'''[[Librarian Dreadnought|Furioso Librarian Dreadnoughts]]:''' Blood Angels can also lock [[psykers]] up in Dreadnoughts, creating <strike>un</strike>holy amalgamations called Furioso [[Librarians]]. In addition to the badassery above, they replace one of their fists with a [[Force Weapons|force weapon]] and can kill you with mind bullets. Furioso Librarians were once capable of flying (DAMN YOU [[Matt Ward|WAAAAARRRRDDDD]]), but no longer while they are between codices. As of 8th Codex, they indeed fly again.
* '''[[Mortis Dreadnought]]:''' A variant supposedly exclusive to the [[Dark Angels]] that sports two copies of the same ranged weapon, for maximum [[dakka]]. This was apparently due to the Dark Angels' talent for writing things down (for entirely practical reasons, like [[Fallen Angels|keeping track]] [[Dwarf|of grudges]], rather than writing down [[Codex Astartes|some bible for space marines]] or [[Lorgar|the repressed/begrudging teeming masses]]) as all Legions had access to this pattern, but only the Angels remembered how to make a leftie dreadnought ranged weapon that wasn't a missile launcher.
** ''' [[Deathwing Venerable Dreadnought|Deathwing Dreadnoughts]]:''' The Dark Angels venerable dreads are all members of the inner circle and so reserve special hatred for <s>[[The Fallen]]</s> FILTHY CHAOS SCUM.
* '''[[Doomglaive Dreadnought|Doomglaive Dreadnoughts]]:''' A specialist dreadnoughts used by the [[Grey Knights]], comes with a nemesis force weapon and a psycannon as standard. Can attempt cleave attacks in close combat and try to hit additional dudes.
* '''[[Space Wolves Venerable Dreadnought]]:''' Not exactly unique in design compared to other Venerables, but the veteran [[Space Wolves|Wolves]] interred in them are so viking that they want to keep on vikinging even after death, meaning that the [[Techmarine|Iron Wolves]] of the chapter figured out how to give them a Blizzard Shield and a fucking huge Frost Axe. They lack ranged weapons but, you know, [[Awesome|Dreadnought-sized double-headed axe]]!
*'''[[Wulfen Dreadnought]]:''' Sometimes, a Space Wolf entombed in a Dreadnought succumbs to the Curse of the Wulfen, becoming a snarling metal beast whose violent temper makes him poorly suited for normal Dreadnought weaponry. Instead, the Iron Priests give him a great axe and a Great Wolf Claw and point him in the general direction of the enemy. The best-known of these is MURDERFANG, who has to be frozen solid with [[Helfrost Weaponry|Helfrost weaponry]] in between battles to prevent him from killing his battle-brothers.

<gallery>
image:FuriosoDreadnought.jpg|<center>Furioso</center>
image:FuriosoLibrarian.jpg|<center>Furioso Librarian</center>
image:MortisDreadMini.jpg|<center>Mortis</center>
image:DeathwingDreadnought.jpg|<center>Deathwing</center>
image:DoomglaiveDreadnought.jpg|<center>Doomglaive</center>
File:99120101116_SWVenerableDread01.jpg|<center>Space Wolves</center>
image:WulfenDreadnought.jpg|<center>Wulfen</center>
</gallery>

===Contemptor Pattern===
[[File:Grey Knights Contemptor Dreadnought.jpg|350px|thumbnail|right|Yes, this is a Contemptor of the Grey Knights. And [[Forgeworld|no, they don't have them]]. Why the fuck did they not use these instead of the goofy [[Dreadknight]]? (Because the [[Matt Ward|Ward]], that's why.)]]
Really old Dreadnoughts from before the [[Horus Heresy]] that are bigger and stronger than "modern" Dreads. A few Chapters still have them and deploy them to the field. They look more humanoid and Anime-like, and people get puzzled as why the Grey Knights do not use these instead of the goofier [[Dreadknight]], but the reasons they ''don't'' use them are exactly the same as why they started using the Castraferrum pattern instead; plus, Contemptors are becoming rarer and rarer in 40k, because the Adeptus Mechanicus keeps forgetting how to build things competently.

They have a bunch of mysterious cybernetic/AI stuff, which probably means that you should keep these away from the [[Adeptus Mechanicus]], since they like stripping them out for parts to use on their [[Legio Cybernetica|robots]]. Unlike regular Dreads, they have access to Cyclone Missile Launchers, Heavy Conversion Beamers, Chainfists, Graviton Guns, Plasma Blasters, and the Kheres-Pattern Assault Cannon. They also have an advanced Atomantic Reactor which no one knows how to make anymore, that is coupled to a field generator that gives them an invulnerable save at the expense of making a Vehicle Explodes result more dangerous.

A plastic one of these came as part of [[Betrayal at Calth]], and the sheer terribleness of the model made every 30k player cry.

You've got to ask why [[Bjorn the Fell Handed|Bjorn]] isn't one of these, he's certainly old and important enough. Contemptors were never as popular among the Space Wolves as they preferred the reliability of the Castraferrum pattern, and they also had a negative reputation for excess savagery during the early days of the Legion which stained the reputations of those interred within them. Its negative reputation became a self-fulfilling cycle when the Legion [[Iron Priest|Iron Priests]] began selectively interring marines who already had dark deeds under their names.

*'''[[Contemptor-Mortis Dreadnoughts]]:''' A modified Contemptor Dreadnought most often used by the [[Dark Angels]] that puts out a massive amount of [[dakka]]... so massive, in fact, that modern autocannon Dreads live in jealousy. Also, they have targeting arrays to fire at flyers.
*'''[[Contemptor-Furioso Dreadnoughts]]:''' While any Contemptor can be kitted out with two close combat weapons only the [[Blood Angels]] do this exclusively, since they don't have access to "regular" Contemptors in the rules, which also means they don't get access to the cool relic weapons.
**'''[[Contemptor-Incaendius Dreadnought]]:''' A specialized Contemptor built in special Mechanicum enclaves on Baal, unique to the Blood Angels as a result of a pact with the Forge World Anvillus. It has a pair of improved Dreadnought Lightning Claws and A MOTHERFRACKING JUMP-PACK. You heard that. A Dreadnought with an actual Jump-Pack like Assault Marines (and ironically more down-to-earth when compared to their Librarian Dreads).
*'''Contemptor-Cortus Dreadnoughts:''' A more easily produced Contemptor, made from less sophisticated materials and spare parts cannibalised from other dreadnoughts, resulting in less armour, less effective shielding, and a worse user interface. However, they are faster and more cost effective than the standard Contemptors, and can overcharge their reactors for even more speed at a risk to themselves.
*'''[[Contemptor-Osiron Dreadnought|Contemptor-Osiron Dreadnoughts]]:''' The Osiron Class Dreadnought was a type of Contemptor used by the [[Thousand Sons]]. These dreadnoughts were created by [[Magnus]] himself, and consisted of a mortally wounded psyker Space Marine laced with a psychometric barrier for his brain. Therefore they were considered as Humanity's first psychic Dreadnought.
*'''[[Venerable Contemptor Dreadnought|Venerable Contemptor Dreadnoughts]]:''' A Contemptor Dreadnought that is part of the [[Adeptus Custodes]] and is thus automatically given the title of ''''Venerable'''' cause they're just that badass. Essentially a golden Contemptor Dreadnought that is armed with a standard issue Autocannons, Power Fists and Multi-Melta. For just 30 more points you get the Aegis (Which grants a 5+ invulnerable save), and Deep Strike abilities, plus the aforementioned venerable. Considered as a cheaper alternative to the Custodes' walkers (Yes, the Contemptor Dreadnought is considered as the equivalent of a worn down rented car for the Golden Bananas. [[Cheese|This should tell you how OP they are]]).
*'''[[Contemptor-Galatus Dreadnought]]s:''' Used exclusively by the [[Adeptus Custodes]], these Dreads were badass. How badass? Besides being more advanced overall, they came with an extra shield for solid defense, and a giant fucking sword with a built-in [[heavy flamer]]. Truly a marvel worthy of the Emperor's bodyguards. Want to turn Terminators into piles of ruined flesh with one swipe? This is the weapon of choice. Want to roast a mob of angry Hormagaunts just by pointing your sword at them? This is also the weapon of choice. Accept no substitutes.
*'''[[Contemptor-Galatus Dreadnought#Contemptor-Achillus Dreadnought|Contemptor-Achillus Dreadnought]]s:''' Yet ''another'' variant of a [[Adeptus Custodes]] exclusive dreadnought. The Contemtor-Achillus swaps the giant sword and shield with a ECKS BAWKS HUEG FUCK OFF Power Spear called the Dreadspear with an inbuilt Corvae Las-Pulser and two hand-mounted Storm Bolters. If you want to skewer the [[Anal Circumference|rear ends]] of [[Land Raider|Land Raiders]], this is the walker for you.

<gallery>
image:Soh-contemptor-mortis3.jpg|<center>Contemptor-Mortis</center>
image:Contemptor-Furioso 2.jpg|<center>Contemptor-Furioso</center>
image:ContemptorIncaendius.jpg|<center>Contemptor-Incaendius</center>
File:Contemptor-Cortus.jpg|<center>Contemptor-Cortus</center>
File:OsironPattern.jpg|<center>Contemptor-Osiron</center>
File:Contemptor_Venerable_Dreadnought.jpg|<center>Venerable Contemptor</center>
image:ContemptorGalatus.jpg|<center>Contemptor-Galatus</center>
image:ContemptorAchillus.jpg|<center>Contemptor-Achillus</center>
</gallery>

===Deredeo Pattern===
[[File:Deredeo Dreadnought.jpg|300px|thumbnail|right|Bet on Deredeo when you need more [[Dakka|DAKKA]] but got no Mortis.]]
The <s>Dorito</s> Deredeo is a dedicated heavy weapons platform, rather than a general purpose chassis like the Castraferrum or the Contemptor. To this end it gets access to specialized wargear which cannot be found anywhere else, like a tank busting version of an autocannon or a unique plasma battery.

Developed alongside the Castraferrum Pattern and Lucifer Pattern, the Deredeo Pattern was designed as a heavy assault platform. Rather than being a general assault unit like others of its kind, the Deredeo Pattern Dreadnought is a dedicated heavy weapons platform, intended to combine superior firepower with the flexibility and durability of a Dreadnought chassis. It was initially deployed in limited numbers to each of the Legions due to difficulties in its manufacture, its durability and firepower saw demand for the Deredeo pattern increase after the outbreak of the Horus Heresy.

The model is a reworking of one of the three 1st edition Dreadnought patterns (with the other two being the Furibundus and Contemptor) from [[Forge World|FW]]'s workshop. It is equipped with an [[Anvilus Autocannon Battery]] (which are S7 Sunder Autocannons for tank busting), torso-mounted [[Heavy Bolter|heavy bolters]]/[[Heavy Flamer|flamers,]] and the [[Aiolos Missile Launcher]] (<s>which always hits the side armour of enemy tanks, doesn't require line of sight to fire,</s> can be aimed at a different target from the autocannons, and is Pinning as well). Like the Contemptor Mortis, it has Atomantic Shielding and a Helical Targeting Array to take down fliers. It can also be equipped with Armoured Ceramite in the off-chance it ever gets into melta range. Alternately, it can switch out the autocannons for a twin-linked [[Hellfire Plasma Carronade]] that lets it fire off either 4 S7 AP2 shots or a single S7 AP2 Large Blast (with Gets Hot! on the latter mode, not that it matters much since it's still twin-linked), or an [[Arachnus Heavy Lascannon Battery]], which isn't twin-linked but does fire 2 S10 AP2 shots, and if its shots score a penetrating hit on a vehicle the shot has a 50% chance of having it count as TWO penetrating hits instead of one! In Horus Heresy games it can also replace the missile launcher with an Atomantic Pavaise that improves its invulnerable save and lets anyone within 3" of it use the save too, at the expense of a larger explosion radius if it ever goes down. Since this can improve existing invulnerable saves by +1 for units which already have them, it's an ideal complement to [[Terminators]] with good ranged weapons (e.g. Tyrant Siege Terminators or anyone with an Assault Cannon).

They will soon be receiving two new options: a set of four [[Boreas Air Defence Missile]]s, which are one use but hit hard (S8 AP2 Heavy 1) and cancel Jink saves, and the [[Volkite Falconet Battery|Volkite Falconet]], which spits out a considerable number of Deflagrate-inducing shots (Heavy 6 S7 AP2) and causes infantry that survive getting wounded by it to only fire snap shots.
{{clear}}

===Leviathan Pattern===
{{anchor|Leviathan Pattern}}
[[File:Leviathan_Dread.png|300px|thumbnail|right|Having a [[Neckbeard|fatter body]] does not negate you from tearing shit up. ]]
AKA, the Hulkbuster Pattern. Unlike other patterns, the Leviathan was apparently designed in secret on Terra instead of Mars. It is also said to take just as much resources to manufacture as an Imperial Knight... And despite the fact that it looks like it has considerably more mass than a regular Castraferrum dread, it is still nowhere near the size of a Knight, so those resources must be unique/exotic materials or from remote systems. Or superior materials with a small successful creation rate. For example, we can technically make theoretical room-temperature superconductors now as one major possibility exists in Jovian planet atmospheres. However, only a teeeeensy bit could be made per fucktons of fucktons of materials spent trying to make any at all.'''Yeah... this is not even slightly correct...''' This could be the approach the Imperium uses for its finest such as Astartes whatever and warships.

The Leviathan is a specialist siege dreadnought, like an enhanced Ironclad variant, but like the Deredeo it comes with its own unique weapons not found anywhere else. By default, it begins with two [[Miscellaneous Weapons#Leviathan Siege Claw|Siege Claws]] with built-in [[meltagun]]s that have a 50% chance of causing d3 extra wounds on a successful To Wound roll. These can be replaced with [[Miscellaneous Weapons#Leviathan Siege Drill|Siege Drills]] for Armourbane, and it also has two torso-mounted [[Heavy Flamer|heavy flamer]] that can be swapped out for [[Volkite Caliver]]s if you REALLY need that blob of infantry dead. While it's a beast in assault since it gains 2 HoW attacks and +1 I on the charge, it's equally vicious if kitted out for shooting- its ranged options are a [[Leviathan Storm Cannon]] (S7 AP3, Heavy 6, and Sunder with a range of 24"), the [[Cyclonic Melta Lance]] (Range 18" S9 AP1 Heavy 3, Melta) or a [[Grav Flux Bombard]], which acts like 30K's Graviton Weapons in that affected targets need to roll either at or under their Strength at 2d6 or be wounded (if infantry) or roll 3d6 for armor penetration (for vehicles), taking DOUBLE the number of Hull Points it would normally take if it penetrates successfully- and either way, the Large Blast leaves behind difficult/dangerous terrain for the next turn. Either of those can be further supplemented with a one-use Phosphex Discharger so enemy blobs can make like Fallujah and eat a dose of Willie Pete, and can also take a pack of three [[Hunter-Killer Missile|hunter-killer missiles]] for a little bit of long-range [[Rhino]]-popping. Its Reinforced Atomantic Shielding gives it a 4++ invulnerable save against all sources, but also increases the radius and Strength of an Explodes! result on the vehicle damage table by D3 (like damn near everything [[Forge World|FW]] makes that has an invuln) so be careful there. It's potentially a blessing in disguise if you're charging into the midst of the enemy, but don't expect it to take down [[Titan]]s in its dying throes.

A few of these still serve in the 41st millennium, though they lose out on several of their options (volkite calivers and phosphex discharger). This also ties into its status as a Relic of the Armoury, as these things are so unreliably kill-crazy that they are only sent out on the Chapter Master's direct say-so. The reason why this is so is unknown, even the loyalists aren't exempt from their pilots devolving into unhinged madmen. Some suspect this is due to the still poorly understood technologies that went into the dread's creation. As for Chaos, they're typically seen as revered warriors, being alive since the Horus Heresy and are just as fucking nuts, if not more, like most Chaos dreadnoughts.

Loyalists have the prefix of "Relic" while Chaos Leviathan are "Hellforged". Besides how they look, they differ in the [[Original character, do not steal|names of the weapons]] they can take.

For [[Zone Mortalis]] it should probably be said that the Leviathan Dreadnought is possibly the most terrifying thing in the entire world to deal with in tight, narrow corridors. Its two Heavy Flamers gain Shred and Rending by default in Zone Mortalis, and its default Meltaguns mean it can just vaporize any other walkers it comes across. This thing becomes the pinnacle of destruction whenever playing with the Blip Rule, as your opponent won't even know where the fuck it is.

Since it comes at 260 points base, you could easily just bring three of these, an HQ, and two scout squads to snag objectives. Just let the Leviathans become mobile platforms of absolute destruction that cause everything that walks around the corner to experience critical existence failure within the span of a single assault phase.

===[[Redemptor Dreadnought|Redemptor Pattern]]===
[[File:RedDread.jpg|260px|right|thumb|New toys for ass-kicking.]]
The new walking death machine in the dreadnought line. This pattern was created by [[Belisarius Cawl]] as part of the [[Primaris Marines|Primaris Space Marines]] project since their size could make the potential entombing in regular dread patterns difficult (and not to play a little with dreadnought tech, create his own pattern [[Profit|and make you buy the new model]]).

These Redemptor Dreadnoughts are giant war machines that crush bone and splinter skulls as they bludgeon through enemy ranks. They are more cunningly wrought than the Dreadnoughts of traditional design, roughly equivalent to the aforementioned Leviathan pattern. Although it could be said that the Leviathan specializes in siege warfare whereas the Redemptor is more shock orientated in function, with extra guns replacing the atomantic shielding of the Leviathan.

These goliaths of battle are powered by hyper-dense reactors and sophisticated fibre bundles. They can accelerate from a thudding stomp to a loping, thunderous gait that shakes the ground, barrelling through hails of fire in glorious defiance. Such is the miraculous but dangerous design of the Redemptor’s neural links that its inhabitant, despite being entombed in the sarcophagus within the Dreadnought’s chest, can exercise control with surprising dexterity and speed.

As expected with all things Primaris, he's bigger, stronger and sturdier than most patterns, sharing many things with the Leviathan, including a ''major'' flaw of its own: it tends to kill its pilots rather quickly due to unknown reasons (possibly because said neural links are ''too'' well-designed, or maybe it's because the AdMech saw nothing wrong with making it work like their own [[Onager Dunecrawler]]; knowing the cogboys, we have to assume it's the latter) so it's yet unknown how the pattern will fare in the future, but if that flaw has become a noticeable trend in just the century or so of the Indomitus Crusade, then there's no way the Redemptor can be expected to preserve valued veterans for ''millennia'' like regular dreads can, which is kinda [[fail|half the point of a dreadnought in the first place]].

It comes with a choice of gatling cannon or plasma incinerator on the right arm, with a Redemptor fist and heavy flamer support weapon or gatling cannon on the left, 2 chest-mounted fragstorm grenade launchers or storm bolters and a carapace-mounted Icarus rocket pod for aerial denial.

===[[Telemon Heavy Dreadnought|Telemon Pattern]]===
[[File:Telemon-Heavy-Dreadnought2.jpg|260px|right|thumb|The biggest, baddest Dread around.]]
The third Adeptus Custodes-exclusive Dreadnought (because Emps saved all the best toys for the Golden Banana-men, which is just as well - could you imagine what might have happened if Horus had had these?!), and one so big it can be mistaken for a Knight. Fewer than a handful of Telemon Dreadnoughts are to be found within the ranks of the Legio Custodes, each intended to stand sentinel over its charges no matter the forces brought against it.

The honor of interment in one of the few existing Telemon sarcophagi is awarded to only the most celebrated warriors. Rare is the foe who can stand against the array of esoteric, hand-crafted weapons that grace its chassis or the ferocious will and warrior skill of the master Custodian interred within.

As they are reserved for the most elites in the Imperium. The Telemon's weaponry included in its armaments are the Telemon Caestus, which can be assembled with fist open or closed and has an in-built wrist-mounted Plasma weapon called the Proteus Plasma Projector. The ornate armor work includes an Aquila motif, and two fans are included, meaning the Caestus can be mounted on either of the left or right arm; and a choice of the Arachnus Storm Cannon or the Iliastus Accelerator Culverin (or a second Caestus, because why not?), with two separate elbow fans making it mountable on either arm of a Telemon Heavy Dreadnought. All of them are then topped with an oversized Cyclone Missile Launcher called the Spiculus Bolt Launcher. It is also possible to forgo the Caestus entirely for a second gun, but this is not recommended as your Telemon now has no melee weapon.

As previously mentioned, the Telemon Pattern Heavy Dreadnought towers over even a Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought, with a bulk <strike>comparable</strike> a good deal bigger than that of the Leviathan Pattern or the Primaris Redemptor pattern Dreadnoughts, but in an Artificer-wrought hull. The Telemon Heavy Dreadnought bears a striking resemblance to the [[Aquilon Terminator]] Armour worn by the elites of the Custodes but the size of a house.

===Other Patterns===
So far the Castraferrum, Contemptor, Deredeo, Leviathan, and Telemon are the only patterns of dreadnought that are available as models. ''(unless you count some of the chaos daemon-engines, but who knows what they started as?)''

Other types have been named though, and it is also said that some of these older pre-heresy patterns could have been piloted by non-astartes. So we can cross our fingers that more dreadnoughts may be coming eventually.
*'''Lucifer:''' Said to be the prototype for the Contemptor, but doesn't have the advanced systems, instead it supposedly has [[Power_Armour#Mark_III:_Iron_Armour|shitloads of frontal armour]]. And what Imperial retard decided to name it the '''''Lucifer'''''? I mean, Emps, c'mon! You ''really'' want to make it a [[Chaos|target]] that badly!?
*'''Furibundus''': The other old Rogue Trader pattern. It's also one of the most fugly but since Forge World is set on updating the old stuff they'll fix that or make it more [[Chaos_Dreadnought#Mhara_Gal_Dreadnoughts|Grotesque]]. If they ever [[Games_Workshop|get around to making it.]] According to Warhammer Community, it was a precursor to the Furioso Dreadnought. Appropriately enough for a close-combat Dread, the name roughly means 'frenzied' or 'maddened'.

==Meme==
[[File:Dreadserve.jpg|250px|right|thumb|Even in death, the mighty Astartes warrior still serves for the Emperor, as demonstrated by venerable brother Rogerius Federer.]]
"Even in death, I still serve" was a phrase scattered throughout Warhammer 40k, but it didn't become a [[meme]] until the original [[Dawn of War]] game, where it's one of the Dreadnought's more common quotes.

==The making of a Dreadnought==

1: Take 1 outstandingly badass [[Space Marine]]

2: Cut him in half (hopefully before he does the same to you)

3: Leave the dying body on the doorstep of some [[Adeptus Mechanicus]] guy

4: ???

5: [[Profit|PROFIT!!!]]

On a less lulzy note, the novel ''The Unforgiven'' gives us an insight as to what being put inside a Dreadnought is like, as well as a clear reason why the usual occupants are marines who've been chewed up and spat out by at least three separate Carnifexes. The process of implanting the neural connectors is so painful to a lucid brain that it can sometimes kill a Space Marine out of shock. Let me reiterate that this is a Space Marine, a Space Marine with the some of the best painkiller hormones in the galaxy, with mental conditioning and hypno-memetic psycho-reactive blocks to protect their minds from pain and torture, and the procedure is typically done with the [[Apothecary]] close at hand to monitor the pain threshold. It's still, somehow, even to a son of the Emperor, painful enough to almost kill them. Holy shit. If they survive, they can pretty much wrestle with the usual daemons and barbacue some Xenos while they are at it

==Gallery==
<gallery>
File:Brother koolaidius by blazbaros-d2z8e3j.png|After his internment into a Dreadnought, Brother Koolaidius has specialized in dynamic entry at any location, usually attending to battle brothers with refreshment needs.
File:Breadnought.jpg|Fear the motherfucking Breadnought.
File:Rapenought.jpg|Even in death, I still fuck your army.
File:Powerfisting.jpg|I have come to destroy your anus.
File:Angry_7.jpg|The Dreadnoughts of the Angry Marines are also known as the [[Belligerent Engine|Belligerent Engines]].
Image:1262002329676.jpg|Suck it.
Image:Custodian-Contemptor.jpg|I came to reap the souls of those [[Chaos Space Marines|Traitorous Scum...]][[Rape|if there was any...]]
File:Leviathan Dreadnought.jpg|What's with the Battle Bunnies thing anyw...[[Sisters of Battle|ooooh]]. That. No problem with it.
</gallery>

==See Also==
*[[Tankred]], the original memenought. He endures, for he is here for the bitches.
*[[Donovan]]
*[[Chaos Dreadnought]], the [[Chaos|evil]] (well, [[grimdark | more evil]]) version
*[[Grandpa Dreadnought]]
*[[Bjorn the Fell Handed]], of the [[Space Wolves]], and the oldest living [[Space Marine]] in the Imperium.
*[[Davian Thule]], of the [[Blood Ravens]], also known as Davian Cool. Famous for conquering Kronus, beating up Eliphas the Inheiritor, and getting nomed by a Tyranid Warrior
*[[Belligerent Engine]], a catch-all term for the Dreadnoughts of the [[Angry Marines]].
*[[Spared]], a short story about a Dreadnought and some [[Tau]].
*[[Entombed]], a not-so-short story about a Dreadnought.
{{40k-Imperial-Vehicles}}
{{Marines-Forces}}
{{Blood Angels}}
{{Dark Angels}}
{{Black-Templars}}
{{Deathwatch}}
{{Grey Knights}}
{{Space Wolves}}
{{Custodes}}
{{Thousand Sons}}
[[Category: Walkers]]

Dreadnought

2021-10-25T14:40:34Z

2600:1700:91C1:A4E0:6DB2:7B8A:C0F0:C2AF: /* Castraferrum Pattern */

[[File:Dow2r sm dreadnought ultra dlc.jpg|400px|thumbnail|right|Too wounded to live. Too precious to die.]]
{{Topquote|Only in death does duty end.|The [[God-Emperor of Mankind|Emperor of Mankind]]'s inscription on the sarcophagus of Sagittarus Malacque, first Dreadnought of the [[Adeptus Custodes]]}}
{{Topquote|No vengeance can compare to the vengeance of the dead.|A Dreadnought saying}}
{{Topquote|BREAKING NEWS: MAN LITERALLY TOO ANGRY TO DIE|Meme made by Noah Cogliette}}
{{Topquote|That the one who no longer wants to live for himself should now continue to live merely as a machine for the use of others is an extravagant demand.|Arthur Schopenhauer}}

[[Space Marines]] are phenomenally tough, but there's a limit even to their durability. A battle-brother may be so grievously wounded that no amount of cybernetics and cloned tissue can bring him back to fighting strength. In cases like these, an [[Apothecary]] has two choices: grant his brother the Emperor's Peace and extract his [[gene-seed]], or have him installed in a specialized life-support sarcophagus and attach that to an array of weapons and mobility systems, turning him into a '''Dreadnought'''.

The advantages to becoming a Dreadnought include the ability to support the battle-brothers as a walking siege engine, blasting vehicles and fortifications with heavy weapons and ripping open hard targets with hydraulic claws. Heavily-armored and no longer feeling pain, a Dreadnought can wade into swarms of light infantry with near-impunity, smashing, stomping, and shooting until nothing's left but greasy stains. The life-support systems in the sarcophagus allow the Dreadnought's occupant to live nearly forever, as demonstrated by [[Bjorn the Fell Handed]] of the [[Space Wolves]], who has lived in such a state since the mid-31st millennium. Therefore, Dreadnoughts tend to gather lifetimes of experience and are often called upon to [[Storythread|share that experience with newer battle-brothers]]. Having a Dreadnought on the field is both a force multiplier and a morale booster.

All that power [[Grimdark|comes at a cost, of course]]. The near-dead battle-brother no longer has senses of his own, his eyes and ears wired to the sarcophagus's auspex arrays. He lives in a bath of cool fluid, numb and sleeping without dreaming, when his services as a warrior or historian are not needed. Should he be crippled on the battlefield, he can do nothing to save himself and must have faith in his brothers and the God Emperor that they will retrieve him. The act of just creating one is highly traumatic to the interee and creates [[Bjorn_the_Fell_Handed#Stormfangs|mental issues]] that living marines are not affected by. The best way of regulating this is by spending most of their time in suspended animation or full blown stasis till they are needed.

Tabletop wise, Dreads are an effective all-rounder and are fairly cheap to boot. They're good at any role they're tooled for, whether it's for blowing up tanks with twin-linked [[lascannon]]s or [[meltagun]]s or mowing down infantry with an [[Assault Cannon|assault cannon]] or [[Heavy Flamer|heavy flamer.]] They can also be formidable close combat units as they can be tooled with [[Power weapon#Dreadnought Power Fist|dreadnought-sized power fists,]] for example. You ''could'' also deep-strike them in [[Drop Pod]]s, ensuring hilarity when you get lucky and they end up where they precisely need to be. Sadly with 8th edition drop pods can't carry dreads anymore. However the '''out of production''' forgeworld dreadnought drop pod is still a thing. The only ones that you can still find are pricy, or chinese recasts. But there's nothing stopping you from [[Kitbash|modifying a standard pod]] [[Counts as|and using it as one.]]

Do note, however, that many enemies focus anti-armor weapons on them (especially if there isn't a [[Land Raider]] to [[DISTRACTION CARNIFEX|distract]] them). A footslogging Dread, without heavy use of cover, will be a burning hulk of points within two turns, relying on the deep striking Drop Pods to get them where they need to go.

==Dreadnought Variants==
There's a whole bunch of Dreadnought variants that do different things. There are also [[Wraithlord]]s, [[Deff Dred]]s, and [[Helbrute]]s, which used to be called Eldar Dreadnoughts, Ork Dreadnoughts, and Chaos Dreadnoughts, respectively.

===Castraferrum Pattern===
Is the name for the traditional "box" dreadnought that everyone is familiar with, comes in MkIV and MkV flavours (just so you know, MkIV are the ones with the helmet-head). Designed by the Mechanicus during the Great Crusade, specifically for its smaller size (to assist battle-brothers ''indoors''), while its reactor runs on pretty much any fuel and the chassis is completely customisable; hence, there are a terrific number of variations, though the Castraferrum is usually outfitted with a hydraulic claw with mounted bolter or flamer and a heavy ranged weapon.

* '''Hellfire Dreadnought:''' The most common variation of [[shooty]] dread, swaps out its close combat weapon for a [[Missile Launcher|missile launcher.]] (Not considered a separate pattern in the crunch because the "vanilla" dread statblock covers both punchy and Hellfire)
* '''Ironclad Dreadnought:''' Even more heavily armored melee dreadnoughts with a [[Miscellaneous Weapons#Seismic Hammer|Seismic Hammer]], [[Hunter-Killer Missile]]s, and a built-in [[Ironclad Assault Launcher]], designed to put giant holes in tanks and bunkers. It may also be equipped with a [[Hurricane Bolter]] if you need a big blob of light infantry killed fast.
* '''Siege Dreadnought:''' Specialized bunker-busting Dreadnoughts equipped with [[Miscellaneous Weapons#Assault/Siege Drill|Assault Drills]] and [[Inferno Cannon]]s. If they manage to come close enough to any building, no matter how fortified, they would wreck it and burn the shit out of anyone inside.
* '''Venerable Dreadnoughts:''' Simply put, they're really old Dreadnoughts that have been locked up for a long time and as such are better at fighting due to experience. Also tend to get sleepy and lose their keys.
* '''Chaplain Dreadnoughts:''' Some Chapters have Venerable Dreadnoughts that used to be [[Chaplain]]s. [[awesome|This basically means they have all those special effects that Chaplains do in a Dreadnought body]]. What makes a Chaplain so special enough to be put into a Dreadnought besides those buffs, we have no idea. As [[Chapters Master]]s or Captains to lend their experience to the or [[Masters of the Forge|Tech Marine]] would make much more sense. One may guess that they are stuffed into the larger more advanced variants below.
<gallery>
File:Hellfire Dread.jpg|Hellfire Dreadnought
File:99120101076_SpaceMarineIroncladDreadnoughtNEW02.jpg|Ironclad Dreadnought
File:Siege_Dreadnought.jpg|Siege Dreadnought
File:99120101083_VenerableDreadnoughtNEW01.jpg|Venerable Dreadnought
File:DreadnoughtChaplain01.jpg|Chaplain Dreadnought
</gallery>

====Chapter Specific Dreads====
* '''[[Furioso Dreadnought]]:''' Heavily armored [[Blood Angels]] dreadnoughts with ''two'' close combat weapons designed to [[RIP AND TEAR]] lots of troops in brutal close combat! Sometimes they even put a blood-crazed maniac from the [[Death Company]] inside, which turns a Furioso into an unholy, uncontrollable, and unstoppable [[rape]] machine.
**'''[[Librarian Dreadnought|Furioso Librarian Dreadnoughts]]:''' Blood Angels can also lock [[psykers]] up in Dreadnoughts, creating <strike>un</strike>holy amalgamations called Furioso [[Librarians]]. In addition to the badassery above, they replace one of their fists with a [[Force Weapons|force weapon]] and can kill you with mind bullets. Furioso Librarians were once capable of flying (DAMN YOU [[Matt Ward|WAAAAARRRRDDDD]]), but no longer while they are between codices. As of 8th Codex, they indeed fly again.
* '''[[Mortis Dreadnought]]:''' A variant supposedly exclusive to the [[Dark Angels]] that sports two copies of the same ranged weapon, for maximum [[dakka]]. This was apparently due to the Dark Angels' talent for writing things down (for entirely practical reasons, like [[Fallen Angels|keeping track]] [[Dwarf|of grudges]], rather than writing down [[Codex Astartes|some bible for space marines]] or [[Lorgar|the repressed/begrudging teeming masses]]) as all Legions had access to this pattern, but only the Angels remembered how to make a leftie dreadnought ranged weapon that wasn't a missile launcher.
** ''' [[Deathwing Venerable Dreadnought|Deathwing Dreadnoughts]]:''' The Dark Angels venerable dreads are all members of the inner circle and so reserve special hatred for <s>[[The Fallen]]</s> FILTHY CHAOS SCUM.
* '''[[Doomglaive Dreadnought|Doomglaive Dreadnoughts]]:''' A specialist dreadnoughts used by the [[Grey Knights]], comes with a nemesis force weapon and a psycannon as standard. Can attempt cleave attacks in close combat and try to hit additional dudes.
* '''[[Space Wolves Venerable Dreadnought]]:''' Not exactly unique in design compared to other Venerables, but the veteran [[Space Wolves|Wolves]] interred in them are so viking that they want to keep on vikinging even after death, meaning that the [[Techmarine|Iron Wolves]] of the chapter figured out how to give them a Blizzard Shield and a fucking huge Frost Axe. They lack ranged weapons but, you know, [[Awesome|Dreadnought-sized double-headed axe]]!
*'''[[Wulfen Dreadnought]]:''' Sometimes, a Space Wolf entombed in a Dreadnought succumbs to the Curse of the Wulfen, becoming a snarling metal beast whose violent temper makes him poorly suited for normal Dreadnought weaponry. Instead, the Iron Priests give him a great axe and a Great Wolf Claw and point him in the general direction of the enemy. The best-known of these is MURDERFANG, who has to be frozen solid with [[Helfrost Weaponry|Helfrost weaponry]] in between battles to prevent him from killing his battle-brothers.

<gallery>
image:FuriosoDreadnought.jpg|<center>Furioso</center>
image:FuriosoLibrarian.jpg|<center>Furioso Librarian</center>
image:MortisDreadMini.jpg|<center>Mortis</center>
image:DeathwingDreadnought.jpg|<center>Deathwing</center>
image:DoomglaiveDreadnought.jpg|<center>Doomglaive</center>
File:99120101116_SWVenerableDread01.jpg|<center>Space Wolves</center>
image:WulfenDreadnought.jpg|<center>Wulfen</center>
</gallery>

===Contemptor Pattern===
[[File:Grey Knights Contemptor Dreadnought.jpg|350px|thumbnail|right|Yes, this is a Contemptor of the Grey Knights. And [[Forgeworld|no, they don't have them]]. Why the fuck did they not use these instead of the goofy [[Dreadknight]]? (Because the [[Matt Ward|Ward]], that's why.)]]
Really old Dreadnoughts from before the [[Horus Heresy]] that are bigger and stronger than "modern" Dreads. A few Chapters still have them and deploy them to the field. They look more humanoid and Anime-like, and people get puzzled as why the Grey Knights do not use these instead of the goofier [[Dreadknight]], but the reasons they ''don't'' use them are exactly the same as why they started using the Castraferrum pattern instead; plus, Contemptors are becoming rarer and rarer in 40k, because the Adeptus Mechanicus keeps forgetting how to build things competently.

They have a bunch of mysterious cybernetic/AI stuff, which probably means that you should keep these away from the [[Adeptus Mechanicus]], since they like stripping them out for parts to use on their [[Legio Cybernetica|robots]]. Unlike regular Dreads, they have access to Cyclone Missile Launchers, Heavy Conversion Beamers, Chainfists, Graviton Guns, Plasma Blasters, and the Kheres-Pattern Assault Cannon. They also have an advanced Atomantic Reactor which no one knows how to make anymore, that is coupled to a field generator that gives them an invulnerable save at the expense of making a Vehicle Explodes result more dangerous.

A plastic one of these came as part of [[Betrayal at Calth]], and the sheer terribleness of the model made every 30k player cry.

You've got to ask why [[Bjorn the Fell Handed|Bjorn]] isn't one of these, he's certainly old and important enough. Contemptors were never as popular among the Space Wolves as they preferred the reliability of the Castraferrum pattern, and they also had a negative reputation for excess savagery during the early days of the Legion which stained the reputations of those interred within them. Its negative reputation became a self-fulfilling cycle when the Legion [[Iron Priest|Iron Priests]] began selectively interring marines who already had dark deeds under their names.

*'''[[Contemptor-Mortis Dreadnoughts]]:''' A modified Contemptor Dreadnought most often used by the [[Dark Angels]] that puts out a massive amount of [[dakka]]... so massive, in fact, that modern autocannon Dreads live in jealousy. Also, they have targeting arrays to fire at flyers.
*'''[[Contemptor-Furioso Dreadnoughts]]:''' While any Contemptor can be kitted out with two close combat weapons only the [[Blood Angels]] do this exclusively, since they don't have access to "regular" Contemptors in the rules, which also means they don't get access to the cool relic weapons.
**'''[[Contemptor-Incaendius Dreadnought]]:''' A specialized Contemptor built in special Mechanicum enclaves on Baal, unique to the Blood Angels as a result of a pact with the Forge World Anvillus. It has a pair of improved Dreadnought Lightning Claws and A MOTHERFRACKING JUMP-PACK. You heard that. A Dreadnought with an actual Jump-Pack like Assault Marines (and ironically more down-to-earth when compared to their Librarian Dreads).
*'''Contemptor-Cortus Dreadnoughts:''' A more easily produced Contemptor, made from less sophisticated materials and spare parts cannibalised from other dreadnoughts, resulting in less armour, less effective shielding, and a worse user interface. However, they are faster and more cost effective than the standard Contemptors, and can overcharge their reactors for even more speed at a risk to themselves.
*'''[[Contemptor-Osiron Dreadnought|Contemptor-Osiron Dreadnoughts]]:''' The Osiron Class Dreadnought was a type of Contemptor used by the [[Thousand Sons]]. These dreadnoughts were created by [[Magnus]] himself, and consisted of a mortally wounded psyker Space Marine laced with a psychometric barrier for his brain. Therefore they were considered as Humanity's first psychic Dreadnought.
*'''[[Venerable Contemptor Dreadnought|Venerable Contemptor Dreadnoughts]]:''' A Contemptor Dreadnought that is part of the [[Adeptus Custodes]] and is thus automatically given the title of ''''Venerable'''' cause they're just that badass. Essentially a golden Contemptor Dreadnought that is armed with a standard issue Autocannons, Power Fists and Multi-Melta. For just 30 more points you get the Aegis (Which grants a 5+ invulnerable save), and Deep Strike abilities, plus the aforementioned venerable. Considered as a cheaper alternative to the Custodes' walkers (Yes, the Contemptor Dreadnought is considered as the equivalent of a worn down rented car for the Golden Bananas. [[Cheese|This should tell you how OP they are]]).
*'''[[Contemptor-Galatus Dreadnought]]s:''' Used exclusively by the [[Adeptus Custodes]], these Dreads were badass. How badass? Besides being more advanced overall, they came with an extra shield for solid defense, and a giant fucking sword with a built-in [[heavy flamer]]. Truly a marvel worthy of the Emperor's bodyguards. Want to turn Terminators into piles of ruined flesh with one swipe? This is the weapon of choice. Want to roast a mob of angry Hormagaunts just by pointing your sword at them? This is also the weapon of choice. Accept no substitutes.
*'''[[Contemptor-Galatus Dreadnought#Contemptor-Achillus Dreadnought|Contemptor-Achillus Dreadnought]]s:''' Yet ''another'' variant of a [[Adeptus Custodes]] exclusive dreadnought. The Contemtor-Achillus swaps the giant sword and shield with a ECKS BAWKS HUEG FUCK OFF Power Spear called the Dreadspear with an inbuilt Corvae Las-Pulser and two hand-mounted Storm Bolters. If you want to skewer the [[Anal Circumference|rear ends]] of [[Land Raider|Land Raiders]], this is the walker for you.

<gallery>
image:Soh-contemptor-mortis3.jpg|<center>Contemptor-Mortis</center>
image:Contemptor-Furioso 2.jpg|<center>Contemptor-Furioso</center>
image:ContemptorIncaendius.jpg|<center>Contemptor-Incaendius</center>
File:Contemptor-Cortus.jpg|<center>Contemptor-Cortus</center>
File:OsironPattern.jpg|<center>Contemptor-Osiron</center>
File:Contemptor_Venerable_Dreadnought.jpg|<center>Venerable Contemptor</center>
image:ContemptorGalatus.jpg|<center>Contemptor-Galatus</center>
image:ContemptorAchillus.jpg|<center>Contemptor-Achillus</center>
</gallery>

===Deredeo Pattern===
[[File:Deredeo Dreadnought.jpg|300px|thumbnail|right|Bet on Deredeo when you need more [[Dakka|DAKKA]] but got no Mortis.]]
The <s>Dorito</s> Deredeo is a dedicated heavy weapons platform, rather than a general purpose chassis like the Castraferrum or the Contemptor. To this end it gets access to specialized wargear which cannot be found anywhere else, like a tank busting version of an autocannon or a unique plasma battery.

Developed alongside the Castraferrum Pattern and Lucifer Pattern, the Deredeo Pattern was designed as a heavy assault platform. Rather than being a general assault unit like others of its kind, the Deredeo Pattern Dreadnought is a dedicated heavy weapons platform, intended to combine superior firepower with the flexibility and durability of a Dreadnought chassis. It was initially deployed in limited numbers to each of the Legions due to difficulties in its manufacture, its durability and firepower saw demand for the Deredeo pattern increase after the outbreak of the Horus Heresy.

The model is a reworking of one of the three 1st edition Dreadnought patterns (with the other two being the Furibundus and Contemptor) from [[Forge World|FW]]'s workshop. It is equipped with an [[Anvilus Autocannon Battery]] (which are S7 Sunder Autocannons for tank busting), torso-mounted [[Heavy Bolter|heavy bolters]]/[[Heavy Flamer|flamers,]] and the [[Aiolos Missile Launcher]] (<s>which always hits the side armour of enemy tanks, doesn't require line of sight to fire,</s> can be aimed at a different target from the autocannons, and is Pinning as well). Like the Contemptor Mortis, it has Atomantic Shielding and a Helical Targeting Array to take down fliers. It can also be equipped with Armoured Ceramite in the off-chance it ever gets into melta range. Alternately, it can switch out the autocannons for a twin-linked [[Hellfire Plasma Carronade]] that lets it fire off either 4 S7 AP2 shots or a single S7 AP2 Large Blast (with Gets Hot! on the latter mode, not that it matters much since it's still twin-linked), or an [[Arachnus Heavy Lascannon Battery]], which isn't twin-linked but does fire 2 S10 AP2 shots, and if its shots score a penetrating hit on a vehicle the shot has a 50% chance of having it count as TWO penetrating hits instead of one! In Horus Heresy games it can also replace the missile launcher with an Atomantic Pavaise that improves its invulnerable save and lets anyone within 3" of it use the save too, at the expense of a larger explosion radius if it ever goes down. Since this can improve existing invulnerable saves by +1 for units which already have them, it's an ideal complement to [[Terminators]] with good ranged weapons (e.g. Tyrant Siege Terminators or anyone with an Assault Cannon).

They will soon be receiving two new options: a set of four [[Boreas Air Defence Missile]]s, which are one use but hit hard (S8 AP2 Heavy 1) and cancel Jink saves, and the [[Volkite Falconet Battery|Volkite Falconet]], which spits out a considerable number of Deflagrate-inducing shots (Heavy 6 S7 AP2) and causes infantry that survive getting wounded by it to only fire snap shots.
{{clear}}

===Leviathan Pattern===
{{anchor|Leviathan Pattern}}
[[File:Leviathan_Dread.png|300px|thumbnail|right|Having a [[Neckbeard|fatter body]] does not negate you from tearing shit up. ]]
AKA, the Hulkbuster Pattern. Unlike other patterns, the Leviathan was apparently designed in secret on Terra instead of Mars. It is also said to take just as much resources to manufacture as an Imperial Knight... And despite the fact that it looks like it has considerably more mass than a regular Castraferrum dread, it is still nowhere near the size of a Knight, so those resources must be unique/exotic materials or from remote systems. Or superior materials with a small successful creation rate. For example, we can technically make theoretical room-temperature superconductors now as one major possibility exists in Jovian planet atmospheres. However, only a teeeeensy bit could be made per fucktons of fucktons of materials spent trying to make any at all.'''Yeah... this is not even slightly correct...''' This could be the approach the Imperium uses for its finest such as Astartes whatever and warships.

The Leviathan is a specialist siege dreadnought, like an enhanced Ironclad variant, but like the Deredeo it comes with its own unique weapons not found anywhere else. By default, it begins with two [[Miscellaneous Weapons#Leviathan Siege Claw|Siege Claws]] with built-in [[meltagun]]s that have a 50% chance of causing d3 extra wounds on a successful To Wound roll. These can be replaced with [[Miscellaneous Weapons#Leviathan Siege Drill|Siege Drills]] for Armourbane, and it also has two torso-mounted [[Heavy Flamer|heavy flamer]] that can be swapped out for [[Volkite Caliver]]s if you REALLY need that blob of infantry dead. While it's a beast in assault since it gains 2 HoW attacks and +1 I on the charge, it's equally vicious if kitted out for shooting- its ranged options are a [[Leviathan Storm Cannon]] (S7 AP3, Heavy 6, and Sunder with a range of 24"), the [[Cyclonic Melta Lance]] (Range 18" S9 AP1 Heavy 3, Melta) or a [[Grav Flux Bombard]], which acts like 30K's Graviton Weapons in that affected targets need to roll either at or under their Strength at 2d6 or be wounded (if infantry) or roll 3d6 for armor penetration (for vehicles), taking DOUBLE the number of Hull Points it would normally take if it penetrates successfully- and either way, the Large Blast leaves behind difficult/dangerous terrain for the next turn. Either of those can be further supplemented with a one-use Phosphex Discharger so enemy blobs can make like Fallujah and eat a dose of Willie Pete, and can also take a pack of three [[Hunter-Killer Missile|hunter-killer missiles]] for a little bit of long-range [[Rhino]]-popping. Its Reinforced Atomantic Shielding gives it a 4++ invulnerable save against all sources, but also increases the radius and Strength of an Explodes! result on the vehicle damage table by D3 (like damn near everything [[Forge World|FW]] makes that has an invuln) so be careful there. It's potentially a blessing in disguise if you're charging into the midst of the enemy, but don't expect it to take down [[Titan]]s in its dying throes.

A few of these still serve in the 41st millennium, though they lose out on several of their options (volkite calivers and phosphex discharger). This also ties into its status as a Relic of the Armoury, as these things are so unreliably kill-crazy that they are only sent out on the Chapter Master's direct say-so. The reason why this is so is unknown, even the loyalists aren't exempt from their pilots devolving into unhinged madmen. Some suspect this is due to the still poorly understood technologies that went into the dread's creation. As for Chaos, they're typically seen as revered warriors, being alive since the Horus Heresy and are just as fucking nuts, if not more, like most Chaos dreadnoughts.

Loyalists have the prefix of "Relic" while Chaos Leviathan are "Hellforged". Besides how they look, they differ in the [[Original character, do not steal|names of the weapons]] they can take.

For [[Zone Mortalis]] it should probably be said that the Leviathan Dreadnought is possibly the most terrifying thing in the entire world to deal with in tight, narrow corridors. Its two Heavy Flamers gain Shred and Rending by default in Zone Mortalis, and its default Meltaguns mean it can just vaporize any other walkers it comes across. This thing becomes the pinnacle of destruction whenever playing with the Blip Rule, as your opponent won't even know where the fuck it is.

Since it comes at 260 points base, you could easily just bring three of these, an HQ, and two scout squads to snag objectives. Just let the Leviathans become mobile platforms of absolute destruction that cause everything that walks around the corner to experience critical existence failure within the span of a single assault phase.

===[[Redemptor Dreadnought|Redemptor Pattern]]===
[[File:RedDread.jpg|260px|right|thumb|New toys for ass-kicking.]]
The new walking death machine in the dreadnought line. This pattern was created by [[Belisarius Cawl]] as part of the [[Primaris Marines|Primaris Space Marines]] project since their size could make the potential entombing in regular dread patterns difficult (and not to play a little with dreadnought tech, create his own pattern [[Profit|and make you buy the new model]]).

These Redemptor Dreadnoughts are giant war machines that crush bone and splinter skulls as they bludgeon through enemy ranks. They are more cunningly wrought than the Dreadnoughts of traditional design, roughly equivalent to the aforementioned Leviathan pattern. Although it could be said that the Leviathan specializes in siege warfare whereas the Redemptor is more shock orientated in function, with extra guns replacing the atomantic shielding of the Leviathan.

These goliaths of battle are powered by hyper-dense reactors and sophisticated fibre bundles. They can accelerate from a thudding stomp to a loping, thunderous gait that shakes the ground, barrelling through hails of fire in glorious defiance. Such is the miraculous but dangerous design of the Redemptor’s neural links that its inhabitant, despite being entombed in the sarcophagus within the Dreadnought’s chest, can exercise control with surprising dexterity and speed.

As expected with all things Primaris, he's bigger, stronger and sturdier than most patterns, sharing many things with the Leviathan, including a ''major'' flaw of its own: it tends to kill its pilots rather quickly due to unknown reasons (possibly because said neural links are ''too'' well-designed, or maybe it's because the AdMech saw nothing wrong with making it work like their own [[Onager Dunecrawler]]; knowing the cogboys, we have to assume it's the latter) so it's yet unknown how the pattern will fare in the future, but if that flaw has become a noticeable trend in just the century or so of the Indomitus Crusade, then there's no way the Redemptor can be expected to preserve valued veterans for ''millennia'' like regular dreads can, which is kinda [[fail|half the point of a dreadnought in the first place]].

It comes with a choice of gatling cannon or plasma incinerator on the right arm, with a Redemptor fist and heavy flamer support weapon or gatling cannon on the left, 2 chest-mounted fragstorm grenade launchers or storm bolters and a carapace-mounted Icarus rocket pod for aerial denial.

===[[Telemon Heavy Dreadnought|Telemon Pattern]]===
[[File:Telemon-Heavy-Dreadnought2.jpg|260px|right|thumb|The biggest, baddest Dread around.]]
The third Adeptus Custodes-exclusive Dreadnought (because Emps saved all the best toys for the Golden Banana-men, which is just as well - could you imagine what might have happened if Horus had had these?!), and one so big it can be mistaken for a Knight. Fewer than a handful of Telemon Dreadnoughts are to be found within the ranks of the Legio Custodes, each intended to stand sentinel over its charges no matter the forces brought against it.

The honor of interment in one of the few existing Telemon sarcophagi is awarded to only the most celebrated warriors. Rare is the foe who can stand against the array of esoteric, hand-crafted weapons that grace its chassis or the ferocious will and warrior skill of the master Custodian interred within.

As they are reserved for the most elites in the Imperium. The Telemon's weaponry included in its armaments are the Telemon Caestus, which can be assembled with fist open or closed and has an in-built wrist-mounted Plasma weapon called the Proteus Plasma Projector. The ornate armor work includes an Aquila motif, and two fans are included, meaning the Caestus can be mounted on either of the left or right arm; and a choice of the Arachnus Storm Cannon or the Iliastus Accelerator Culverin (or a second Caestus, because why not?), with two separate elbow fans making it mountable on either arm of a Telemon Heavy Dreadnought. All of them are then topped with an oversized Cyclone Missile Launcher called the Spiculus Bolt Launcher. It is also possible to forgo the Caestus entirely for a second gun, but this is not recommended as your Telemon now has no melee weapon.

As previously mentioned, the Telemon Pattern Heavy Dreadnought towers over even a Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought, with a bulk <strike>comparable</strike> a good deal bigger than that of the Leviathan Pattern or the Primaris Redemptor pattern Dreadnoughts, but in an Artificer-wrought hull. The Telemon Heavy Dreadnought bears a striking resemblance to the [[Aquilon Terminator]] Armour worn by the elites of the Custodes but the size of a house.

===Other Patterns===
So far the Castraferrum, Contemptor, Deredeo, Leviathan, and Telemon are the only patterns of dreadnought that are available as models. ''(unless you count some of the chaos daemon-engines, but who knows what they started as?)''

Other types have been named though, and it is also said that some of these older pre-heresy patterns could have been piloted by non-astartes. So we can cross our fingers that more dreadnoughts may be coming eventually.
*'''Lucifer:''' Said to be the prototype for the Contemptor, but doesn't have the advanced systems, instead it supposedly has [[Power_Armour#Mark_III:_Iron_Armour|shitloads of frontal armour]]. And what Imperial retard decided to name it the '''''Lucifer'''''? I mean, Emps, c'mon! You ''really'' want to make it a [[Chaos|target]] that badly!?
*'''Furibundus''': The other old Rogue Trader pattern. It's also one of the most fugly but since Forge World is set on updating the old stuff they'll fix that or make it more [[Chaos_Dreadnought#Mhara_Gal_Dreadnoughts|Grotesque]]. If they ever [[Games_Workshop|get around to making it.]] According to Warhammer Community, it was a precursor to the Furioso Dreadnought. Appropriately enough for a close-combat Dread, the name roughly means 'frenzied' or 'maddened'.

==Meme==
[[File:Dreadserve.jpg|250px|right|thumb|Even in death, the mighty Astartes warrior still serves for the Emperor, as demonstrated by venerable brother Rogerius Federer.]]
"Even in death, I still serve" was a phrase scattered throughout Warhammer 40k, but it didn't become a [[meme]] until the original [[Dawn of War]] game, where it's one of the Dreadnought's more common quotes.

==The making of a Dreadnought==

1: Take 1 outstandingly badass [[Space Marine]]

2: Cut him in half (hopefully before he does the same to you)

3: Leave the dying body on the doorstep of some [[Adeptus Mechanicus]] guy

4: ???

5: [[Profit|PROFIT!!!]]

On a less lulzy note, the novel ''The Unforgiven'' gives us an insight as to what being put inside a Dreadnought is like, as well as a clear reason why the usual occupants are marines who've been chewed up and spat out by at least three separate Carnifexes. The process of implanting the neural connectors is so painful to a lucid brain that it can sometimes kill a Space Marine out of shock. Let me reiterate that this is a Space Marine, a Space Marine with the some of the best painkiller hormones in the galaxy, with mental conditioning and hypno-memetic psycho-reactive blocks to protect their minds from pain and torture, and the procedure is typically done with the [[Apothecary]] close at hand to monitor the pain threshold. It's still, somehow, even to a son of the Emperor, painful enough to almost kill them. Holy shit. If they survive, they can pretty much wrestle with the usual daemons and barbacue some Xenos while they are at it

==Gallery==
<gallery>
File:Brother koolaidius by blazbaros-d2z8e3j.png|After his internment into a Dreadnought, Brother Koolaidius has specialized in dynamic entry at any location, usually attending to battle brothers with refreshment needs.
File:Breadnought.jpg|Fear the motherfucking Breadnought.
File:Rapenought.jpg|Even in death, I still fuck your army.
File:Powerfisting.jpg|I have come to destroy your anus.
File:Angry_7.jpg|The Dreadnoughts of the Angry Marines are also known as the [[Belligerent Engine|Belligerent Engines]].
Image:1262002329676.jpg|Suck it.
Image:Custodian-Contemptor.jpg|I came to reap the souls of those [[Chaos Space Marines|Traitorous Scum...]][[Rape|if there was any...]]
File:Leviathan Dreadnought.jpg|What's with the Battle Bunnies thing anyw...[[Sisters of Battle|ooooh]]. That. No problem with it.
</gallery>

==See Also==
*[[Tankred]], the original memenought. He endures, for he is here for the bitches.
*[[Donovan]]
*[[Chaos Dreadnought]], the [[Chaos|evil]] (well, [[grimdark | more evil]]) version
*[[Grandpa Dreadnought]]
*[[Bjorn the Fell Handed]], of the [[Space Wolves]], and the oldest living [[Space Marine]] in the Imperium.
*[[Davian Thule]], of the [[Blood Ravens]], also known as Davian Cool. Famous for conquering Kronus, beating up Eliphas the Inheiritor, and getting nomed by a Tyranid Warrior
*[[Belligerent Engine]], a catch-all term for the Dreadnoughts of the [[Angry Marines]].
*[[Spared]], a short story about a Dreadnought and some [[Tau]].
*[[Entombed]], a not-so-short story about a Dreadnought.
{{40k-Imperial-Vehicles}}
{{Marines-Forces}}
{{Blood Angels}}
{{Dark Angels}}
{{Black-Templars}}
{{Deathwatch}}
{{Grey Knights}}
{{Space Wolves}}
{{Custodes}}
{{Thousand Sons}}
[[Category: Walkers]]

FV510 Warrior

2021-10-25T13:07:58Z

2600:1700:91C1:A4E0:6DB2:7B8A:C0F0:C2AF: /* IRL */

[[File:WARRIOR.jpg|300px|right|thumb|Warrior without its skirts]]
[[File:WARRIORARMOR.jpg|300px|right|thumb|Customization for your mission parameters!]]

While the rest of the world was working on their own equivalent to the BMP, the Brits were busy with The Troubles. Funding was focused on the development of small arms, infantry and special operation forces doctrine, leaving projects like the challenger and FV510 in the dust.

Eventually, the Brits would release the FV510 Warrior to the world in 1988. Like other British vehicles, this was a heavy vehicle with the mobility of a crumpet, the armour of an egg carton, and enough firepower to level a small village before morning tea.

==In Team Yankee==
[[File:WARRIORCARD1.jpg|300px|left|thumb|]]

[[File:WARRIORCARD@=2.jpg|300px|left|thumb|]]

The FV510 Warrior is an infantry fighting vehicle designed to engage and destroy enemy IFVs with its 30mm autocannon while having enough armour to survive a peppering of autocannon fire.

British players may note the similarities to the Scimitar: this is a small-ish vehicle that can threaten almost anything on the field besides tanks. Essentially, you're trading the ability to spearhead and scout for some armour, transport capacity and filling out troop slots. Spearhead is key to the threat range of the Scimitar; allowing a platoon of Scimitars to immediately threaten your enemy's artillery and command units. This means your Warriors would usually be used on the defensive, given that most players would use spearheads to entrench infantry on the flanks.

As with other IFVs, the Warrior can take a Milan mount if you wish to turn a stationary, nigh-indestructible missile team into a fragile moving metal box of tank explodey goodness.

The uparmored warrior is a knife fighter, and boasting an assault value of 3+ it will quickly rack up kills in assault with applique armor covering it against most light anti-tank weapons. Get in there and get grinding!

==IRL==
IRL the warrior was created as an armoured transport to keep speed with British Tank units and provide armour and fire support. Armed with the 30mm RARDEN autocannon and L7 general purpose machineguns, warriors have become the standard IFV of heavy infantry and mechanised regiments such as elements of the Rifles, Mercians and Foot Guards.
Warriors would see service in West Germany, Desert Storm (where famously one was hit by a US airstrike killing its whole crew it happened to have driven off course slightly into an active killzone), Afghanistan and Iraq, still remaining as the main UK IFV.

The Warrior was supposed to be upgraded with a 40mm cannon(the same cannon on on the General Dynamics Ajax) but the program ran late and over budget. In what was called the Warrior Capability Sustainment Programme. As usual for the load of [[fail]] that is Lockheed Martin. You'd think the Brits would have learned their lessons after the slow process of the F-35 and it seems at least the House of Commons Defence Select Committee has at the very least. The FV510 will instead be replaced by the German designed Boxer A3 in the middle 2020s.

[[File:DlmP6q279XOjRLvlfF3nYkh3Jn8x1es4xh9vOrTsWy0.jpg|300px|right|thumb|It's like an FV432 with confidence issues.]]

[[File:Warriors .jpg|thumb]]

{{British Forces in Team Yankee}}

[[Category:Vehicles]]

Bradley Fighting Vehicle

2021-10-25T12:57:10Z

2600:1700:91C1:A4E0:6DB2:7B8A:C0F0:C2AF: /* IRL */

[[File:TUBX19-03.jpg|right|thumb|300px|Base model]]
[[File:TUBX19-07.jpg|right|thumb|300px|uparmored]]

{{Topquote|A troop transport that can't carry troops, a reconnaissance vehicle that's too conspicuous to do reconnaissance..." "And a quasi-tank that has less armor than a snowblower, but has enough ammo to take out half of DC.|The Pentagon Wars}}

The quintessential Infantry Fighting Vehicle. If you watched the movie ''Pentagon Wars'' starring Cary Elwes or played any sort of FPS or a wargame set during the modern era, you would already know what it is. The Bradley Fighting Vehicle was created in response to the Soviet Union's BMPs. It is obviously named after Second World War US General Omar Bradley.

==In Team Yankee==
[[File:TUBX19-25.jpg|300px|left|thumb|]]
[[File:TUBX19-24.jpg|300px|left|thumb|]]

The Bradley, like any good God-fearing American, is defined by it's impressive arsenal, particularly the TOW-2. As the most powerful missile mounted on an IFV in the game, the TOW-2 is capable of penetrating almost any tank from the front (curse those Germans and their insane armor values!), making hilariously short work of 3rd gen tanks like the Leopard 2, Merkava, and T-64 while also being capable of keeping gen 3.5 tanks like the Challenger and T-80 honest. On top of that, the Bradley is one of a select few vehicles that mounts a RoF 3/3 autocannon in the game, with the fully stabilized, AT8, fp 5+ M242 Bushmaster chaingun. A relatively easy gun to overlook compared to the God-tier missile, the moving RoF and stabilizer on the M242 make it a great weapon for liberating the shit out off the lightly armored BMPs and other support vehicles in your opponents army once you've cleaned out their MBTs, though the 5+ firepower can be relatively frustrating.

This would all be great, if it wasn't for one major issue: the armor. The Bradley, also like any God-fearing American, is fat and thin-skinned. Other vehicles get away with this by being relatively insignificant, but not the Bradley. No, the Bradley is fully capable of threatening everything in your opponents force, and if your enemy is keen to that, your Bradleys will have a bad time. Armor 3/2/1 will protect you from enemy MGs and some of the lighter autocannons (pen 6 and below, don't go too crazy), but any tank, missile, or even heavy autocannon will go right through you ''("Do you want me to put a sign on it in fifty languages saying I'm a troop transport not a tank?")''. Uparmoring helps, bringing you up to 5/4/1 with 13 against all the rockets the infantry in this decade field, but it still struggles against most heavier autocannons and on top of that makes you eligible for deep reserves, forcing you to play a more offensive role. This problem is exacerbated by the moving RoF 0 of the Bradley's missile, forcing you to sit in sight of the enemy for a sec before you can actually shoot.

This is where the last of the Bradley's strengths come in. The mobility is decent, with a 10" move and all, but it has a 2+ cross. This lets the Bradley abuse cover to block enemy lines of sight and get in good firing positions.

A heavy arsenal and good cross country mobility contrasted with weak armor define the Bradley as a phenomenal ambush unit, exploitation vehicle, and backline support unit. Sneak around the flanks to your opponents artillery for a cheeky surprise. Leave them in ambush and pop them at just the right moment, shoving 12 autocannon or 4 AT23 missile shots down your opponents throat when he least expects it. If you don't have the option to put them in ambush, leaving them in woods or cover, gone to ground until the time is right often has a similar effect. If you get the first shot with these things, they'll do great. You let the enemy get the initiative, and you've lost.

In terms of difference between the M2 and M3, the M3 has 1 more Assault, and drops passengers for Spearhead and Scout.

{{clear}}

==IRL==
[[File:Maxresdefault (1).jpg|300px|right|thumb|[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snnFrwzTDJs| Ba! Ba! BAAAAAAAAA!]]]]

As mentioned before the Bradley was a subject of the Pentagon Wars, two works of fiction presenting itself as a factual documentation of the Bradley's development but being anything but. Both the book created by Colonel James Burton and the movie are completely wrong with the role Burton played in the program and how we has portrayed, and swaths of events are completely bullshit. In reality, Burton's claims of [[What|the trials being rigged were both fueled by his misunderstandings to what the Bradley was capable of as a vehicle in its category,]] [[Fail|And also by his failure to see why using a HEAT-round ballistic test on a IFV that was already known to not have the capability to withstand such rounds is a waste of time]]. Burton believed that the Bradley was going to be an APC much like the M113 and that people just kept adding more cannons and missiles on to it. Not only is this retarded, it seems to undermine that from the very start of the program in 1965, the Bradley was meant to be and IFV in response to the soviets BMP1.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmuVYVREGgE Here's a video from Spookston wish also shows some sources of his research on the subject in the description.]

To be entirely fair to the Military-Industrial Complex, the Pentagon changed its mind about the program requirements and aspects of vehicle design over and over for fifteen years. They wanted it wheeled. No, tracked. No, wheeled again. They wanted a turret with an autocannon. No, a lightweight recoilless rifle. No, a missile launcher. No, we want an autocannon AND a missile launcher. And on and on. It is a small miracle that the program ever settled on a design checklist at all so that the manufacturers could finalize designs. [[derp|Pentagon procurement policy has been like that more or less since Cold War.]]

Fortunately, the Bradley would eventually become a reasonably successful vehicle (depending on who you ask). In real life the Bradley was finally adopted in 1981, four years before Team Yankee takes place.

Redesigned just in time for the Gulf War after Iraq invaded Kuwait, the Bradley is currently armed with a M242 Chaingun, TOW missiles, and a M240 Machine Gun. The TOW missiles, of course, are the vehicle's biggest threat. During Operation Desert Storm Bradleys killed more Iraqi Soviet Tanks and armored vehicles than the M1 Abrams. Most losses came from friendly fire incidents, as IFF systems weren't a thing until the early 2000's. The Bradley remains a flexible vehicle that can back up or substitute for the Abrams in both anti tank and urban warfare. However, due to the changing face of warfare with the proliferation of Anti-Tank missiles and Improvised Explosive Devices, it didn't do so well during the Iraq War of 2003-2011: during that period the US Army lost around 150 vehicles with around 700 damaged. Partially due to this the Army began to use the MRAPS after 2007, while Bradleys expecting to fight in urban conditions are often upgraded with the Urban Survival Kit.

The Armored Multi-Purpose Vehicle is a updated version of the Bradley that will replace the [[M113_Armored_Personnel_Carrier|M113]], causing mindless fanboys like Mike Sparks to have autistic rage. The AMPV is a bit larger than a Bradley, though, with at least seventy percent of the vehicle being new, making the vehicle more of a cousin to the Bradley than a sibling. AMPVs can be fitted with a variety of weapons including a 30mm remote turret and Javelin Missiles, so now pretty much anything that can be put on top of a Stryker can also also be used by the AMPV.

The Bradley itself (not the AMPV) will be replaced with another IFV in the future; potential candidates include the ASCOD GDLS, the Griffin, or any other IFV selection for the Next Generation Combat Vehicle program, [[Fail|but any new vehicle probably won't be adopted until at least 2035.]] Due to the Pentagon's concurrency bullshit. At a pace this slow, America may as well start buying weapon systems directly from their European allies (BAE bought out United Defense making the European Union the largest arms supplier to the US).

Most Bradleys will be upgraded with a 50mm autocannon before their final retirement. So we are going to assume that the NGCV will use the same weapon as its main gun. Effectively turning them into Light Tanks.

If you're wondering what the IRL difference between the M2 and M3 are, the latter is a ''Cavalry'' Fighting Vehicle, rather than an infantry one. Essentially this means that it carries a small scout section in exchange for better storage of ammunition and other recce related upgrades, allowing it to act as a cavalry style recon unit. And no, sadly Cavalry Fighting Vehicle does not imply it carries horses; what do you expect from a troop transport that can't carry a full squad?

{{US Forces in Team Yankee}}