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Warhammer Terrain Guide

2023-01-29T09:43:52Z

2601:1C0:4500:A540:0:0:0:8ACF: /* Buying Terrain */

==Terrain For Your Warhammer Tables==

Everyone always needs more terrain. That's just a fact of life playing Warhammer. Whether it's [[Warhammer_40,000]], [[Age of Sigmar]], or one of the [[Kill_Team|specialist]] [[Warcry|games]], you'll want to adorn your battlefield with terrain of some sort. Some amount of coverage is necessary for all games, and it's always more interesting to fight over something worth fighting for than an empty field. This article will be a general, non-comprehensive guide on ways to decorate your table with scenery to make for a more exciting battlefield.

=Your Game Surface=

The first step, of course, is choosing the table itself. Your choices here are mostly determined by where you play. If you're playing at your [[FLGS]], odds are there are already a few tables there along with some terrain, and you're just looking to spruce up your battles. If you play at home, or at a clubhouse with friends, you have more options for developing your battlefield.

The first choice to make is what sort of surface you'll play on. The simplest choice is the cardboard game boards Games Workshop has been producing as of late. Included with specialist games like Kill Team and Warcry, the terrain sets for each, and the Realm of Battle sets, these boards come printed with two aesthetically different looks on each side. Their main advantage is that their size, 22x30", matches up with the board size used in Kill Team and Warcry, as well as the new board sizes used in the 9th edition of Warhammer 40,000. The downside is that these boards are somewhat pricey and usually made in limited runs - so if one isn't available now, you might not be able to get it at all. The exceptions are the Moon Base Klaisus set for 40k and the Blasted Hallowheart set for AoS, which are consistently available and have four double sided boards each, plus a bit of terrain.

The next option is mousepad material mats. Available with a wide range of designs printed on them and in a wide range of sizes, these mats are easy to store rolled up and unfurl right away, so you can get started putting terrain on the board. This material is also quite forgiving if a model is dropped on it.

Another option is to use the "Realm of Battle" plastic game boards that were produced by Games Workshop in the late 2010's. In addition to the vanilla Realm of Battle board set (which was the only one to feature a bespoke carrying bag and connector pieces to hold the tiles together), there was also a 40k-themed set called "Sector Mechanicus" and an Age of Sigmar-themed set called "Shattered Dominion." Each of these sets is comprised of six 2' by 2' square tiles with unique details, allowing you to create a fully-sized 6' by 4' game board. Additional Realm of Battle tiles were produced in resin by [[Forge World]]; these depicted everything from fortresses to industrial centers to Necron tombs and more. In any event, all Realm of Battle gameboards are OOP as of early 2021, meaning you'll either have to go to places like Ebay to find them (at prices even ''higher'' than they were at retail) or be lucky enough to have a friend or FLGS that already has them. While a fully-painted Realm of Battle table is a beautiful centerpiece, they are rather inconvenient to transport, somewhat heavy, and quite expensive. For these reasons most players tend to prefer the convenience of the rubberized and/or cardboard surfaces mentioned earlier.

The last option involves making your own table (or table top, at least). The options here are nearly limitless, but obviously involve a bit more work. A good way to give some texture to a gaming surface, and one often used at FLGS, is to paint the table surface with house paint and a roller, toss some coarse grained sand on to provide grit, and apply another coat of paint. Colors of paint can quickly establish a terrain type, and you can make the board visually interesting by mixing different colors together - patches of dirt among grass, for example.

=Choosing Your Terrain=
The options for actually making terrain are split into two major categories - scratch building it and buying it.

==Scratch Building==
There are nearly infinite options for building terrain at home, and hundreds of guides available online. Some common methods and materials are using hot wire cutters and foam, cut up cardboard, scraps from old model kits, and the like. As there is so much advice available, we won't go into detail here. But simply searching "scratch building terrain" plus a couple keywords like "Snowy" will give you a host of ideas.

==Buying Terrain==

When it comes to buying terrain, your options are a bit more limited. Game companies, especially Games Workshop, regularly produce terrain just for miniatures games that help establish scale and aesthetic. In addition, other companies produce items that are eminently suitable as Warhammer terrain. A few quick highlights

-[[Mantic Games]] produces a line known as Terrain Crate. While intended more for TTRPGs, it can provide some nice features and details. As of this writing, the first wave is available on store shelves, and the second is expected to come out sometime in late 2020.

-[[Warlord Games]] produces a range of terrain for their own games that works well with Warhammer, thanks to the similar scale they use. There are plenty of options on their website, some made of plastic and others of laser cut wood. Special attention should go to their Ruined Farmhouse and Ruined Hamlet sets, which provide for a very nice burnt-down or collapsed home.

-Aquarium fixtures are very often good sources of terrain. Rocks, weird skull-shaped mountains, giant mushrooms, and a huge array of plastic plants are all excellent sources of non-proprietary terrain, and they're broadly available. The one downside is that, aside from multi-packs of plants and such, these terrain pieces can be as expensive or even pricier than GW terrain. Keep an eye out for good deals on Amazon and discounts at your local pet stores.

-There are plenty of minor companies out there that produce terrain kits, some old, some having just been born on kickstarter. Quality is variable, so do your research before you invest in a whole battlefield's worth.

-Various model companies produces items for model train and railroad layouts, and across the industry they have a wide range of high quality and useful products makes them especially useful when working on your terrain. Plus you might think about the adding an actual train as either terrain or even a small diorama. However your quickly run into an issue of scale: Model rail roads run there scale off a letter code which refers to the '''distances between the two rails'''. Which means you can have models of different official 'scales' running on the same track. For example an "O" scale model and an "O27" model are very different scales since "O27" is at a small scale to make the model overall shorter so it can better go around tighter radius corners. On the other end an "ON30" model runs on "HO" track but there scaled for narrow gauge engines and so are considered "O" in scaling making them look a lot bigger. To cut this story short, this author at least is of the opinion that you want to go for "S" gauge, ON is too small, and O might be slightly over sized for 40k when compared to existing terrain, (and keep an eye out for On30 narrow gauge this author has yet to get a wagon to do a size comparison). However "S" is a bit uncommon so O might be the best option, plus O tend to be done by Lionel and there three track system looks pretty fitting for 40k. However Even if you think that model train terrain pieces are often the wrong scale and too modern-looking for Warhammer, they're still a great source of flocks, water effects, molds for making rocks, and other similar tools. Also as an aside: if you want to add smoke, sound and light to a tank model, train companies already have all those ready almost off the shelf if your willing to put in some work.

===Buying from Games Workshop===
So, let's get it out of the way. Buying terrain from GW is rarely cheap. You can sometimes get a lot for your money if you're buying the big box sets they occasionally put out, but in general, if you're using GW terrain, expect to lay down a big chunk of cash for your table.

That said, GW terrain has a few major selling points to it. The first is aesthetic - naturally, terrain produced by the same company that makes Warhammer will fit perfectly with Warhammer. The second is quality. Despite what some say, GW terrain tends to be extremely high quality, extremely detailed, and in some cases, extremely customizable. The last and most important feature of GW terrain, however, is intercompatibility. Especially in the 40k line, the more GW terrain you buy, the more interactions you'll find with it.

GW kits are all standardized in a few key places - their walls and floors all work in intervals of 5", meaning a Sector Imperialis building and a Sector Mechanicus structure have the exact same height on each level. The plasma pipes they sell are also the exact same length, allowing them to serve as columns or to run exactly along a given floor segment with no excess, and nearly every 40k terrain piece has properly sized mounting points for the plasma pipes.

For another example, the Galvanic Servohaulers set contains a flatbed trailer that's designed to carry the large crane included in the set. However, that flatbed also has the exact grooves needed to carry a Munitorum Armored Container, or the Genestealer Cults' Tectonic Fragdrill piece. The Fragdrill even includes a small tow point designed to go on the back of a Goliath Truck and connect to the trailer, letting the truck tow around any of these three things.

More recent kits of course stray from that 5" floor height (since most infantry can barely move an inch after ascending or descending making climbing or descending multiple levels awkward), like the Battlezone: Manufactorum/Command Edition terrain floor interval is at 4" while remaining fully compatible with other imperial kits, the Warzone: Fronteris kit, which expands upon Moon Base Klaisus kits has a mix of 2", 3", and 5" terrain pieces, the former two of which can be combined to make a 5" building, also compatible with previous imperial kits, and the Ork terrain for Warzone: Octarius which reaches 3" in height with the two doubled up main structures allowing for a big rectangular building of scrap (4 instances of the same corner can also be combined into a building with a square footprint if you're into that).
Nothing of this is cheap of course, but if you're made of excess money, time, and space you can make a sweet interconnected landscape.

=Building Your Battlefield=

You probably already have a theme in mind for your battlefield. You might want to make a frozen cityscape, where spilled oil mixes with snow in the streets, or you might want to make an idyllic forest, ripe for burning down and blasting through. Once you've figured out a theme, you'll want to pick an appropriate play surface, and then collect or make terrain that matches your goals. Any terrain piece can work with almost any theme, and the most important thing that makes it work is a paint scheme.

==Painting Terrain==

Painting your terrain poses, in a lot of ways, less challenge than painting models. The details are often less finnicky, and you rarely have as many different colors or materials in such a small space, so the main challenge is picking an appropriate color scheme that matches your goal. In general, you want your terrain to work with the color scheme of your main board. Treat it like you would treat the color scheme on a single miniature - the board's surface will be your primary color, and your terrain pieces should have secondary colors that contrast well against it. For example, if you're building a snowy board, your primary color will be white with a blue tint, and you'll want to pick some extremely dark blue colors for scenery pieces such as rocks and buildings. These will immediately draw attention to the eye, but since they'll also be blueish, they will still register as "background". Remember, miniatures are the star of the show, so it's best to stick to relatively simple color decisions for your terrain pieces. Learn to use neutral colors such as greys and silvers, and they'll help your battlefield feel natural.

Another helpful source of inspiration for colors is photos of the terrain type you're building. Simple image searches for meadows, forests, or deserts can yield plenty of inspiration. Along with photos, art from various games can be great for inspiration.

Template:MedievalWeaponry

2023-01-28T10:13:50Z

2601:1C0:4500:A540:0:0:0:8ACF:

<center>
{|border=0 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=2 style="margin: 1em; border: 2px solid black;"
|-
! align=center colspan=2 | '''Medieval Weaponry'''
|-
| align=right | '''Melee<br>Weapons:''' || [[Battleaxe]] - [[Dagger]] - [[Lance]] - [[Mace]] - [[Club]] <br> [[Pole-arm]] - [[Spear]] - [[Sword]] - [[Warhammer]]
|-
| align=right | '''Ranged<br>Weapons:''' || [[Blowgun]] - [[Bows and Arrows]] - [[Cannon]] <br> [[Crossbow]] - [[Firearm]] - [[Rocket]] - [[Shuriken]] - [[Sling]] - [[Incendiary Weapons]]
|-
| align=right | '''Armor:''' || [[Armor]] - [[Fantasy Armor]] - [[Helmet]] - [[Pauldron]] - [[Shield]]
|}
</center>

[[Category:History]][[Category:Weapons]][[Category:Medieval Weaponry]]

Warhammer Terrain Guide

2023-01-27T19:46:20Z

2601:1C0:4500:A540:0:0:0:8ACF: /* Buying Terrain */

==Terrain For Your Warhammer Tables==

Everyone always needs more terrain. That's just a fact of life playing Warhammer. Whether it's [[Warhammer_40,000]], [[Age of Sigmar]], or one of the [[Kill_Team|specialist]] [[Warcry|games]], you'll want to adorn your battlefield with terrain of some sort. Some amount of coverage is necessary for all games, and it's always more interesting to fight over something worth fighting for than an empty field. This article will be a general, non-comprehensive guide on ways to decorate your table with scenery to make for a more exciting battlefield.

=Your Game Surface=

The first step, of course, is choosing the table itself. Your choices here are mostly determined by where you play. If you're playing at your [[FLGS]], odds are there are already a few tables there along with some terrain, and you're just looking to spruce up your battles. If you play at home, or at a clubhouse with friends, you have more options for developing your battlefield.

The first choice to make is what sort of surface you'll play on. The simplest choice is the cardboard game boards Games Workshop has been producing as of late. Included with specialist games like Kill Team and Warcry, the terrain sets for each, and the Realm of Battle sets, these boards come printed with two aesthetically different looks on each side. Their main advantage is that their size, 22x30", matches up with the board size used in Kill Team and Warcry, as well as the new board sizes used in the 9th edition of Warhammer 40,000. The downside is that these boards are somewhat pricey and usually made in limited runs - so if one isn't available now, you might not be able to get it at all. The exceptions are the Moon Base Klaisus set for 40k and the Blasted Hallowheart set for AoS, which are consistently available and have four double sided boards each, plus a bit of terrain.

The next option is mousepad material mats. Available with a wide range of designs printed on them and in a wide range of sizes, these mats are easy to store rolled up and unfurl right away, so you can get started putting terrain on the board. This material is also quite forgiving if a model is dropped on it.

Another option is to use the "Realm of Battle" plastic game boards that were produced by Games Workshop in the late 2010's. In addition to the vanilla Realm of Battle board set (which was the only one to feature a bespoke carrying bag and connector pieces to hold the tiles together), there was also a 40k-themed set called "Sector Mechanicus" and an Age of Sigmar-themed set called "Shattered Dominion." Each of these sets is comprised of six 2' by 2' square tiles with unique details, allowing you to create a fully-sized 6' by 4' game board. Additional Realm of Battle tiles were produced in resin by [[Forge World]]; these depicted everything from fortresses to industrial centers to Necron tombs and more. In any event, all Realm of Battle gameboards are OOP as of early 2021, meaning you'll either have to go to places like Ebay to find them (at prices even ''higher'' than they were at retail) or be lucky enough to have a friend or FLGS that already has them. While a fully-painted Realm of Battle table is a beautiful centerpiece, they are rather inconvenient to transport, somewhat heavy, and quite expensive. For these reasons most players tend to prefer the convenience of the rubberized and/or cardboard surfaces mentioned earlier.

The last option involves making your own table (or table top, at least). The options here are nearly limitless, but obviously involve a bit more work. A good way to give some texture to a gaming surface, and one often used at FLGS, is to paint the table surface with house paint and a roller, toss some coarse grained sand on to provide grit, and apply another coat of paint. Colors of paint can quickly establish a terrain type, and you can make the board visually interesting by mixing different colors together - patches of dirt among grass, for example.

=Choosing Your Terrain=
The options for actually making terrain are split into two major categories - scratch building it and buying it.

==Scratch Building==
There are nearly infinite options for building terrain at home, and hundreds of guides available online. Some common methods and materials are using hot wire cutters and foam, cut up cardboard, scraps from old model kits, and the like. As there is so much advice available, we won't go into detail here. But simply searching "scratch building terrain" plus a couple keywords like "Snowy" will give you a host of ideas.

==Buying Terrain==

When it comes to buying terrain, your options are a bit more limited. Game companies, especially Games Workshop, regularly produce terrain just for miniatures games that help establish scale and aesthetic. In addition, other companies produce items that are eminently suitable as Warhammer terrain. A few quick highlights

-[[Mantic Games]] produces a line known as Terrain Crate. While intended more for TTRPGs, it can provide some nice features and details. As of this writing, the first wave is available on store shelves, and the second is expected to come out sometime in late 2020.

-[[Warlord Games]] produces a range of terrain for their own games that works well with Warhammer, thanks to the similar scale they use. There are plenty of options on their website, some made of plastic and others of laser cut wood. Special attention should go to their Ruined Farmhouse and Ruined Hamlet sets, which provide for a very nice burnt-down or collapsed home.

-Aquarium fixtures are very often good sources of terrain. Rocks, weird skull-shaped mountains, giant mushrooms, and a huge array of plastic plants are all excellent sources of non-proprietary terrain, and they're broadly available. The one downside is that, aside from multi-packs of plants and such, these terrain pieces can be as expensive or even pricier than GW terrain. Keep an eye out for good deals on Amazon and discounts at your local pet stores.

-There are plenty of minor companies out there that produce terrain kits, some old, some having just been born on kickstarter. Quality is variable, so do your research before you invest in a whole battlefield's worth.

-Various model companies produces items for model train and railroad layouts, and across the industry they have a wide range of high quality and useful products makes them especially useful when working on your terrain. Plus you might think about the adding an actual train as either terrain or even a small diorama. However your quickly run into an issue of scale: Model rail roads run there scale off a letter code which refers to the '''distances between the two rails'''. Which means you can have models of different official 'scales' running on the same track. For example an "O" scale model and an "O27" model are very different scales since "O27" is at a small scale to make the model overall shorter so it can better go around tighter radius corners. On the other end an "ON30" model runs on "ON" track but there scaled for narrow gauge engines and so look a lot bigger. To cut this story short, this author at least is of the opinion that you want to go for "S" gauge, ON is too small, and O is slightly over sized for 40k, (and keep an eye out for On30 narrow gauge this author has yet to get a wagon to do a size comparison). However "S" is a bit uncommon so O might be the best option, plus O tend to be done by Lionel and there three track system looks pretty fitting for 40k. However Even if you think that model train terrain pieces are often the wrong scale and too modern-looking for Warhammer, they're still a great source of flocks, water effects, molds for making rocks, and other similar tools. Also as an aside: if you want to add smoke, sound and light to a tank model, train companies already have all those ready almost off the shelf if your willing to put in some work.

===Buying from Games Workshop===
So, let's get it out of the way. Buying terrain from GW is rarely cheap. You can sometimes get a lot for your money if you're buying the big box sets they occasionally put out, but in general, if you're using GW terrain, expect to lay down a big chunk of cash for your table.

That said, GW terrain has a few major selling points to it. The first is aesthetic - naturally, terrain produced by the same company that makes Warhammer will fit perfectly with Warhammer. The second is quality. Despite what some say, GW terrain tends to be extremely high quality, extremely detailed, and in some cases, extremely customizable. The last and most important feature of GW terrain, however, is intercompatibility. Especially in the 40k line, the more GW terrain you buy, the more interactions you'll find with it.

GW kits are all standardized in a few key places - their walls and floors all work in intervals of 5", meaning a Sector Imperialis building and a Sector Mechanicus structure have the exact same height on each level. The plasma pipes they sell are also the exact same length, allowing them to serve as columns or to run exactly along a given floor segment with no excess, and nearly every 40k terrain piece has properly sized mounting points for the plasma pipes.

For another example, the Galvanic Servohaulers set contains a flatbed trailer that's designed to carry the large crane included in the set. However, that flatbed also has the exact grooves needed to carry a Munitorum Armored Container, or the Genestealer Cults' Tectonic Fragdrill piece. The Fragdrill even includes a small tow point designed to go on the back of a Goliath Truck and connect to the trailer, letting the truck tow around any of these three things.

More recent kits of course stray from that 5" floor height (since most infantry can barely move an inch after ascending or descending making climbing or descending multiple levels awkward), like the Battlezone: Manufactorum/Command Edition terrain floor interval is at 4" while remaining fully compatible with other imperial kits, the Warzone: Fronteris kit, which expands upon Moon Base Klaisus kits has a mix of 2", 3", and 5" terrain pieces, the former two of which can be combined to make a 5" building, also compatible with previous imperial kits, and the Ork terrain for Warzone: Octarius which reaches 3" in height with the two doubled up main structures allowing for a big rectangular building of scrap (4 instances of the same corner can also be combined into a building with a square footprint if you're into that).
Nothing of this is cheap of course, but if you're made of excess money, time, and space you can make a sweet interconnected landscape.

=Building Your Battlefield=

You probably already have a theme in mind for your battlefield. You might want to make a frozen cityscape, where spilled oil mixes with snow in the streets, or you might want to make an idyllic forest, ripe for burning down and blasting through. Once you've figured out a theme, you'll want to pick an appropriate play surface, and then collect or make terrain that matches your goals. Any terrain piece can work with almost any theme, and the most important thing that makes it work is a paint scheme.

==Painting Terrain==

Painting your terrain poses, in a lot of ways, less challenge than painting models. The details are often less finnicky, and you rarely have as many different colors or materials in such a small space, so the main challenge is picking an appropriate color scheme that matches your goal. In general, you want your terrain to work with the color scheme of your main board. Treat it like you would treat the color scheme on a single miniature - the board's surface will be your primary color, and your terrain pieces should have secondary colors that contrast well against it. For example, if you're building a snowy board, your primary color will be white with a blue tint, and you'll want to pick some extremely dark blue colors for scenery pieces such as rocks and buildings. These will immediately draw attention to the eye, but since they'll also be blueish, they will still register as "background". Remember, miniatures are the star of the show, so it's best to stick to relatively simple color decisions for your terrain pieces. Learn to use neutral colors such as greys and silvers, and they'll help your battlefield feel natural.

Another helpful source of inspiration for colors is photos of the terrain type you're building. Simple image searches for meadows, forests, or deserts can yield plenty of inspiration. Along with photos, art from various games can be great for inspiration.

Planegea

2023-01-27T07:48:30Z

2601:1C0:4500:A540:0:0:0:8ACF: /* The Black Taboos */

{{dnd-stub}}
{{NeedsImages}}

'''Planegea''' is an upcoming third-party setting for [[Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition]] that seeks to explore a very unique question: "what would your typical D&D world look like during the [[Stone Age]]?"

==Setting Conceits==
===No Tech, High Magic===
Planegea isn't "Historical Fantasy, Hard Mode", it's "Primeval D&D" and "Caveman Pulp". This is a world of Primordial Fantasy, and the corebook actually suggests that DMs contemplate the term "stonepunk", in the vein of [[steampunk]], when it comes to designing terrain features and factions. Planegea is a world where you might find floating islands, cities built on the backs of mammoths, temples hanging from the boughs of giant trees, a tribe that flies using gliders of skin and wood giving lift by strange glowing crystals. Don't be "realistic" to the point of just making it all about the mud, the blood, the hunger and the thirst. In other words it's D&D if instead of Reading lord of the rings, Gygax had been reading Conan the Barbarian.

===The Black Taboos===
Planegea isn't just a primordial fantasy world, there are forces actively keeping it in that state. All know that there are certain acts which a person MUST NOT DO, lest they bring the wrath of the dread Hounds of the Blind Heaven down on their heads. These forbidden behaviors, which will summon one of these eldritch entities to hunt and slay the transgressor, are collectively known as the Black Taboos, and consist of four commandments:

Writing is Death: Whilst pictures and patterns are permitted, the use of abstract symbology to communicate draws the Hounds raging from the Blind Heaven to devour whoever attempted to write.

No number higher than 9: Planegeans are only allowed to count individual numbers as high as 9; anything after that is "many". Attempting to use higher numbers will draw the Hounds. (we wish to also quickly note that chimps can count higher then 9)

Do not use wheels: Attempting to stick a wheel on an axle will draw the Hounds. (pottery wheels seem to be ok though)

Do not use money: Planegea runs on the barter economy, ''period''. Attempting to create or use abstract fiscal currency will draw the Hounds.

On a meta level these exist to keep your player's firmly in the right technology level and mind set. Even without meta gaming a player would find it hard to not just invent things. Take the Money Taboo for example, it's natural a player get annoyed with the idea of bartering everything and start hunting down some thing they know is culturally valued and so can be used as a barter item but is easy to carry, such as cowrie shells (bet you thought I was going to say gold? Nope Cowrie shells were among the first and longest lasting form of money even more then gold) since there pretty, can be used as decoration, and so have intrinsic worth and thus can be traded for other items without running into the taboo. . .Except as soon as you say 'this sword is worth <s>200 </s> enough cowrie shells to be equal the number of legs on two centipedes ', (which is it self another way to cheese the 'no number bigger then 9' taboo) congrats you actually have invented money and the hounds are coming for you. That thought process is how money was invented and it can be extremely hard to not even accidentally go through the steps to reinvent that or any of the other items. Hence why the GM needs a metaphorical stick to swing at players to remind them to not meta game even more then in standard fantasy settings.

===Nascent Pantheons===
Planegea is an age of proto-gods, when the first spirits are forming and beginning to take command over aspects of reality. There are no great universal gods with dominion over entire aspects of reality - Planegean gods are animals, plants, or elemental beings that have learned to tap into the primordial energies of the world and begin exerting their authority. They are physically bound to a sacred place, a Hallow, and attempt to lure mortals into providing them with worship, offerings, and act as their agents as part of their ongoing struggles to survive, grow, and conquer.

===Clanfires and Hallows===
The traditional D&D mainstay of the Tavern is replaced by the Clanfire; the central ever-burning fire that is the heart of clan life. All but the wickedest maintain a tradition: if you leave your weapons in the gloom before the firelight circle, you may approach the Clanfire and be welcome. Here is where you can rest, find information, and trade.

But if you need magic? Then you need to seek a god's Hallow, and offer worship or services in exchange for what you desire.

===The Three Themes===
In the corebook's own words, these are the three themes that define Planegea:

'''Kinetic Action.''' In Planegea, you don’t stand still and hit things. Battles are fought on the backs of mammoths, on racing ice floes, on trees bent before a magical gale. The battlefield is never constant here—fires fill the air with smoke, hungry scavengers gather at the edge of combat, and enemies leap through the air, bodies and blades twisting as they throw themselves at you without regard for life and limb. Planegea is built for over-the-top action, where combat is never just a combat, but a story in itself and an explosion of dangerous, chaotic energy.

'''Primordial Horror.''' Sometimes there isn’t a name for the thing that slithers by your skin in the shadows. Sometimes you can’t control the voice you hear whispering your name at night, scratching at your tent flap, begging to be let in. In Planegea, mortals have barely any control over the world around them. You are surrounded on all sides by the unknowable, the unstoppable, and that which means you harm. The fundamental horror of Something Out There in the Dark is ever-present here, requiring great courage—or a little darkness of your own—to confront it.

'''Mystic Awe.''' Wonder isn’t about what you see… it’s about what you feel. It’s about coming to the edge of the infinite and discovering how small you have always been. It’s about the beauty of losing yourself in something greater. Planegea is a world of countless gods, of immaculate natural wonders, and of stars that spin above and whisper stories to the mortals below. In Planegea, you can fall into astonishment, seeing the world with fresh eyes, beholding everything as if for the very first time. And as you do so, all is made new again, and stories you thought you knew become strange and wonderful once more, like painted deer on a cave wall in flickering firelight.

==Kinships of Planegea==
The races - or "kinships" as they are called in Planegea - largely consist of primordial versions of the classic 5e PHB races, as well as a handful of new ones. But, the Planegea corebook itself reminds readers that it only represents a small sample, and that there is plenty of room on Planegea for other, weirder races, calling out [[beastfolk]] and [[golem]]-like creatures as examples. The one thing to remember is that this is a young world, and all the races are new and relatively half-formed.

'''[[Dwarf|Dwarves]]''' on Planegea are creatures of living stone which only recently tore themselves from the womb of the earth. Half flesh and half mineral, whilst the youngest generations are growing more fleshy as they are born rather than carved from the earth, all dwarves are known to be stubborn and hardy. The greatest builders and stone-shapers of Planegea, they are known to be friends of the [[giant]]s, who admire their construction skills... perhaps too friendly for their own good. "Hewn Dwarves", those carved from the stone, use Hill Dwarf stats, whilst "Born Dwarves" can use any of the other dwarf subraces.

'''[[Elf|Elves]]''' are denizens of the realm of Nod, the dreaming [[plane]], a place that sits somewhere between being the [[Plane of Dreams]] and the [[Plane of Faerie]]. Living dreams (or nightmares) brought to life in humanoid shape, elves show their mystical nature through the translucency of their flesh and the unearthly colors of their bodies. Whilst any elfish subrace can be found in Planegea, the most common and the most solid-looking are the "Exiles of Nod", who use High Elf stats.

'''[[Halfling]]s''' on Planegea largely consist of the "Quietkin" (Lightfoots); silence-obsessed masterful hunters who view all the world as both enemy and prey. Those who reject the teachings of the quietkin become the Walkaways, and might be represented by any other halfling subrace.

'''[[Human]]s''' are, of course, every where, and the constant influx with all manner of racial cultures and blood makes their versatility second to none. Planegean humans are particularly noted for their ability to domesticate beasts, and so they can take the optional racial trait "Beast Tamer", which lets them apply double their Proficiency bonus to Animal handling checks made against wild animals.

'''[[Dragonborn]]''' are the youngest race to appear in the Great Valley, as the known world of Planegea is called. They claim to be the direct descendants of the Worldheart Dragon, who broods on Blood Mountain, and to have sailed up the Unfalls on rafts made from the trees of the Venom Abyss to bring the Worldheart's will to Planegea. These primordial dragonborn only have [[Chromatic Dragon]] ancestry, as the [[Metallic Dragon]]s don't exist on Planegea.

'''Godmarked''' are less a race and more a scattering of families, tribes or lone individuals who encountered a god and were physically transformed as a sign of either its blessing or curse. Mechanically, they use the [[tiefling]] stats.

'''[[Gnome]]s''' are loathed by all the other kinships of Planegea as a race of sneaky, dishonorable scavengers who rely on trickery, subterfuge and deceit to get ahead. With their willingnes to pick over kills, scavenge from trash piles and steal whatever they believe will help them, these cunning tinkerers prioritize survival over honor or shame. The mainstay of these "Scavenger Gnomes" use slightly tweaked Rock Gnome stats, but those gnomes lucky enough to be adopted into other tribes may express talents comparable to different subraces.

'''[[Half-Elf|Half-Elves]]''' are commonly known as Twilight Children or Dawn Children. An often physically uneasy mix of human and elven traits, half-elves are equally likely to be raiders and entertainers, and for this reason are held at bay by the other clans. The instability of their lineage means that certain unique half-elves are "Blood Dancers", able to shapeshift from their birth form into a purely human form and a purely elven form, which are all but impossible to connect (this trait replaces Skill Versatility).

'''[[Orc]]s''' are doing incredibly well in the world of Planegea; whereas their counterparts on more civilized worlds are regarded as at best savage brutes and at worst little more than humanoid vermin, the orcs of Planegea are revered and respected, regarded as beautiful and blessed. They are the nobility of this savage world, few in number but great in ambition, skill, strength and courage. They are a spiritual people torn by the rising prominence of the hunters and warriors... and their future may not be so bright. A growing blight on orcish nobility are the clans of "Monsterblood Orcs", or "The Doomed", who have devoured beings they should not have and who are being twisted into rage-fueled beasts. Planegean orcs use the [[Half-Orc]] stats, whilst monsterbloods use [[orc]] stats.

As for the four new kinships of Planegea? They consist of the '''[[Dreas]]''', trees sprung to life as humanoid beings; '''[[Half-Ooze]]s''', a fusion of a parasitic slime and the corpse of its humanoid kill; the '''[[Saurian]]s''', the obligatory [[dinosaur]] [[beastfolk]]; and '''[[Starling]]s''', sapient stars fallen to Earth.

==Classes of Planegea==
So, you're probably wondering: how does Planegea fit the usual motley crew of [[adventurer]]s into its Primordial Fantasy setting? Well, a lot more easily than you'd expect.

Let's get the easy ones out of the way first: [[Barbarian]]s, [[Fighter]]s and [[Ranger]]s are all well represented and resepcted. Barbarians tend to be either highly respected warriors, or else outcasts whose clanmates only keep them around so they can be shoved in the direction of the enemy, depending on how good they are at telling friend from foe whilst raging. Fighters are the hunters and warriors upon whose backs rests the survival of their people. And rangers are the masters of surviving in the ever-hungry wilderness, revered for their skills and respected as leaders in the dangerous lands they call home.

[[Rogue]]s are known as '''Scavengers''' on Planegea, and are reviled for their willingness to prey on the weak and vulnerable, no matter what - or ''who'' - they are.

Surprisingly, [[Monk]]s exist on Planegea too; trhey are known as '''Ascetics''', and they are a nascent class of warrior-saints, slowly building up the principles of using self-discipline and self-abnegation to unlock superhuman feats of physical prowess.

[[Bard]]s are known as '''Chanters''', and both respected and distrusted, for they are deeply involved in the preservation of the clans throgh their mastery of the libraries of oral lore that preserve all there is to know about one's people.

[[Cleric]]s, known as '''Shamans''', are the direct mouthpiece of a god, and represent its will, as well as brokering to it on behalf of their clan. Shamans tend to be homebodies, because in this early era of the world, a god's inflence and ability to grant its pawn magic are strictly limited.

[[Paladin]]s, known to Planegeans as '''Guardians''', come from a variety of backgrounds. Some are raised from an early age to be the champions and protectors of the clan's shaman, others have directly bargained with deities for power in exchange for service. And some simply swore an oath to an ideal with such fervor that it unlocked power within them, power to make their oath reality.

Ironically, [[Warlock]]s are actually greatly respected in Planegea, for they fill a role similar to that of the Shamans - it's just that warlocks act as go-betweens for much darker and more alien powers than the gods in their Hallows.

Strangely, [[Druid]]s are hated and feared on Planegea; their divine magic is powered by tapping directly into the ambient primal magic of the world itself, the same fuel that can grow a spirit into a fll-fledged deity, and this makes the gods paranoid and wrathful. Druids are known as '''God-Leeches''', and whilst they serve a vital role in limiting the divine power of fiends and evil deities, they must keep their true natures a secret.

As for arcane magic... [[Sorcerer (Dungeons & Dragons)|Sorcerers]] make up the vast majority of mages in Planegea, though of those most only wield the most basic powers of their mystical bloodlines. But [[Wizard]]s, known as '''Spellskins''', aren't unheard of either. Though they constantly flirt with drawing the attention of the Hounds of the Blind Heaven, Spellskins continually seek to refine and improve their arcane art. Each Spellskin maintains a secret lair, typically a cave, where they construct elaborate pictures that trap magic into permanent shape, creating spells. By using special tattoos to resonate with each spell-picture, a spellskin can draw upon that spell-picture's power from afar and shape it into practical effects.

===New Subclasses===
The Planegea corebook offers the following new subclasses:
* '''Way of Abnegation''', the iconic Planegea Ascetic (Monk), who excels at resisting and deflecting suffering.
* '''Path of the Farstriker''', a Barbarian specialized in the use of throwing weapons combined with instinctive air [[elementalism]].
* '''Dream Sorcery''', a Sorcerer with an intuitive connection to the realm of Nod, imbuing them with the powers of visions, dreams and nightmares.
* '''The Dark Forest''', a patron for warlocks representing the ominous and fearsome intelligence at the heart of the deeep, dark woods.

[[Category:Dungeons & Dragons Campaign Settings]]

Incendiary Weapons

2023-01-25T08:58:25Z

2601:1C0:4500:A540:0:0:0:8ACF: /* Modern Use */

A '''Flamethrower''' is a device which projects a jet of fire. While the Flamethrowers have other applications such as defoliation the most well known is as a weapon. Flamethrowers can be very destructive against wooden structures and flood rooms with a lethal inferno. Even so, one of the biggest factors about flamethrowers is psychological. People have a well established aversion to being consumed by fire, both by instinct and because being burned to death is a horrible way to go. Therefore, the mere ''threat'' of being burned alive (such as by merely drenching the intended target in unlit fuel) is enough to send people running.

==Historic Use==
The basic mechanisms of a Flamethrower are pretty simple. All you need is a cistern for fuel, a pump, a nozzle and a pilot light. It's not hard to figure out so long as you have the technology for pumps and access to some kind of Oil. As such there are various interment examples of there use throughout history. The earliest example this editor could find would be in the battle of Delium in 424 BC where the attacking Boeotian's tried to some some kind of flamethrower against the Athenians defenders.

The first perhaps wide spread use of flame throwers though goes to the Byzantines and there "Greek Fire". Greek Fire is some times considered 'the first secret weapon' and alongside roman concrete is one of the earliest trope setters for 'unknown lost technology' that 40k takes and run's with. In any case Greek Fire was a very effective weapon and although land based uses are recorded, as you can imagine in an era of wooden ships (with the cistern and pump being heavy) it was a dangerous weapon on water. As stated we still don't know quite what greek fire was, though we have a few ideas. It alongside most early (and modern) flame throwers were likely used some sort of petroleum derived compound, but if you do a quick eye ball of Byzantines territory in the time Greek Fire was supposedly introduced, not a lot of natural oil fields were left especially easy to get stuff so jury is still out. Other have suspected some kind of quicklime based solution as well.

Meanwhile in Asia the forces of the Song Dynasty also built flamethrowers, multiple types in fact. It's genneral understood (read stolen from wiki) that the Chinese of this time period were were given tributes of petroleum from Vietnam. Called "měng huǒ yóu" in Chinese which translates to "fierce-fire oil" which gave the Chinese fire weapons there heat. One such flamethrower is recorded in the "Wujing Zongyao", a military guide written around 1040-1044.

And of course any discussion of pre modern incendiary would be incomplete without mentioning: Naptha. Naphtha is just a type of petroleum known since ancient times. Nowadays it's pretty broadly used as a name for crude oil or even more refined items like kerosene. But while Napatha is bit boring since it's 'just' patroleum, it's still a name that shows up in both history and fantasy so it's worth going over quickly what it is: just read 'crude oil' and you won't be too far wrong.

Even so, it was in the 20th century in which Flamethrowers really came into their own as man portable units. It started with the Germans who worked out that they could be used to clear out trenches and soon enough everyone was using them. In WW2 these were supplemented by Flame Tanks.

==Modern Use==

At present, flamethrowers in a military context are. . .well not used.

Originally they were mainly used against bunkers, pillboxes, and other fortified positions, since they're throwing flaming liquid, and that liquid can pass around corners, through narrow passages, and over barriers, all things you'd find in fortifications. Additionally the flames would also cause oxygen issues in tight enclosed areas like caves and bunkers again.

Of course there are two issue with flame throwers. One is that to use them you need to carry the source of fuel around with you meaning you have to basicly strap a small bomb with of fuel to your self. And two: and since nobody likes burning to death or seeing there friends burn to death, '''EVERYBODY HATES YOU!'''. Being a flame thrower operator is like painting a big 'shoot me' sign on your self and even surrendering is likely to have them kill you anyway if they catch you.

More practically, aside from various nations agree that being burnt alive is terrible and banning the thing, there not very useful. Noadays if you were to find a bunker you don't send some guys into clear it by hand, you call in buddies to drop some artillery or air support or even drone strikes on the position. Since the hayday of the flame thrower these weapons have gotten much, much more accurate.

There are also valid civilian uses, most notably for starting control fires<ref>Smaller fires intended to stop or prevent larger ones from spreading</ref> and melting snow and ice, which is why some variants are actually sold to the general public (and only regulated as fire hazards). Such commercial flamethrowers typically do not have the range of military ones; a WW2 M2 flamethrower has an effective range of about 20 meters, well in excess of any civilian application.

==Flamethrowers in Fantasy==
Flamethrowers are in a sweet spot. On the one hand, they are showy mechanical weapons. On the other hand they are simple enough that you could make one with medieval things like wooden barrels, leather pipes and simple iron and brass mechanisms and an alchemist to make the fuel. If you want the occasional bit of more "modern" weaponry alongside swordsmen and archers, flamethrowers are pretty good for that.

In [[Discworld]] flamethrowers show up on occasion including the Klatchian Fire Engine in ''Men At Arms'' and the Deep Down Dwarfs have some in ''Thud!'' These weapons are illegal in Anhk Morpork.

In [[Warhammer Fantasy]], the Dwarfs have specialized soldiers called Irondrake armed with Flamethrowers. Similarly the [[Skaven]] make use of Warpfire Throwers.

Flamethrowers have been used as Dungeon Traps.

==Flamethrowers in Science Fiction==

== See Also ==
*[[Flamer]]
{{Stub}}
[[Category:Weapons]]
{{MedievalWeaponry}}

Tank

2023-01-25T00:10:26Z

2601:1C0:4500:A540:0:0:0:8ACF: /* Classes of Proper Tanks */

''Were you looking for the MMO character role that gets applied to tabletop games? If so, we have that under [[Combat roles]].''

{{Topquote|Remember Comrades, we are tank!
<br>''They take out treads, we are artillery!''
<br>''They take out main gun, we are pillbox!''
<br>''They take out machine gun, we are bunker!''
<br>''They take out armor, we are heroes!''
|A popular internet copypasta about a tank's various roles in a nutshell}}

{{Topquote|''It got in the way... and it died.''|Company of Heroes 2}}

[[image:Char_FT-17.jpg|thumb|300px|right|A French Renault FT-17 Tank, the first tank to have the rough layout that would be the norm for tanks (Crew in the front, top mounted 360 degree turret for main gun, engine in back)]]

A '''tank''' is a tracked, armored combat vehicle. The term is often limited to vehicles intended for direct combat, (e.g. as opposed to self-propelled artillery, which stay to the rear) or armored personnel carriers and infantry fighting vehicles, which are on the front line but are primarily tasked with carrying soldiers as opposed to fighting directly, and may not necessarily be tracked. Their invention revolutionized warfare in the 20th century, and any wargame set in or after that time period, or in alternate universes with similar or more advanced technology levels, will have plenty of attention devoted to them -- or to whatever made them obsolete or of secondary importance to militaries (e.g. [[BattleTech]]).

The idea of an armored fighting vehicle dates back at least to [[wikipedia:Leonardo's fighting vehicle|Leonardo da Vinci]] and was explored by [[H. G. Wells]] and a few theorists, but the modern tank was proposed shortly before World War I, and was then spurred to production by the war itself. When the war on the Western Front got bogged down in trenches, the British Royal Navy, who had already had some success with mobile armoured car groups, had the idea to use tracked, armored vehicles with guns to break the stalemate. The name "tank" became attached to the vehicle as a codename to disguise the purpose of the large metal bodies being built. After the first tanks rolled onto the battlefield, other countries called them "battle wagons", "armors", "assault vehicles", and other more descriptive names, but the Anglosphere was stuck with calling them "tanks". (Interestingly, the original British Tank, which looked like a tractor with a metal box on top of it was called "Little Willy".)

==Common Features of the Tank==

Tanks were built with pretty much any set of features you could imagine, but over time, the militaries of the world settled on several common key features:

# One single main gun, carefully chosen so it is both powerful enough to knock out other tanks with armor-piercing shots and still able to use high-explosive shells to deal with 'soft' targets.
# A turret to house the main gun, to allow the tank to shoot at targets without having to pivot the entire vehicle.
# Good protection against most battlefield weapons, with a heavily-armoured front face to defeat anti-tank weapons.
# An engine with a lot of torque and horsepower to give it both decent acceleration and top speed. The ability to run on multiple types of fuel is a big plus.
# Tracks with independent long-travel suspension for each roadwheel, to improve mobility.
# A radio of some kind. If that sounds odd, realize that a tank in the middle of battle will have shit situational awareness, even many modern tanks, so having some kind of coordination and forewarning is absolutely a crucial part of tank warfare. (One of the factors that let German tanks run circles around the French in WW2, despite being otherwise inferior to French designs, was that German tanks had radios, while the French ones didn't)
# As of the early 2020s, some kind of thermal imager. While not all militaries have them, these things are "must-haves" for a functional tank: A thermal imager allows you to fight at night, spot enemies, and have greater situational awareness, to the point of making an otherwise bad tank actually useful, and the absence of one turning an otherwise good tank into a dead tank walking.

Basically, tanks boil down to three main features: firepower, defense, and mobility. Trying to specialize in one or two attributes tended to come at the expense of second or third attributes. The heavier your guns and/or armour, the slower the tank will be, for instance, while a vehicle made for mobility has to sacrifice either protection or the size of its guns. Nowadays, tanks designers try to maximize all three attributes by being cleverer about achieving their goals, with their main limitations being weight and profile. Additionally, a fourth factor to consider in design are support systems: while not necessarily integral to the design of a tank, they are nonetheless essential in allowing it to work as one, as evidenced by the radio.

===Offense===

As mentioned in the summary above, one of the if not ''the'' defining attribute of the modern tank is its main gun. A modern (i.e. third gen and up) main battle tank must be able to engage any threat it encounters on the battlefield (and occasionally flying above it), hence the gun itself is a carefully weighed compromise between raw firepower, versatility and overall mass. Nowadays most tanks sport a gun with a calibre between 100mm and 125mm. Said gun must be capable of firing a wide range of different projectile types: at the bare minimum, it should have ammunition specialized for dealing with hard targets such as opposing tanks, or soft targets such as infantry.

Historically though, this was not always the case. The very first tanks, like the british Mk.IV and the german A7V didn't really have a primary armament but were bristling with guns and machineguns. Initially, side-mounted sponsons were adopted for carrying armament because they could aim downwards into trenches. Obviously, as soon as trenches fell out of favour, so too did sponsons. Additionally, as an enemy tank will never be in said trench, [[Land Raider|mounting an anti-tank weapon in the sponson is utterly retarded.]]

The first one to figure out the 'definitive' solution as described above were the French with their Renault FT-17 (pictured above), the very first to adopt a turret for the main armament of the tank. While the FT-17 was plagued by a host of teething problems it's overall design was so efficient and cost-effective that ''absolutely everyone'' jumped upon the bandwagon at the end of WWI, and (almost all) the rest is history. Indeed, at one point all nations toyed with the idea of multi-turreted tanks or ''land battleship'' concept, [[Baneblade|whereby a tank would have multiple turrets each with their own weapon]]. The idea was that the tank could attack in all directions at once, but in practice this led to horribly oversized monstrosities that were less efficient than simply building more tanks with the same armament, and a smallest bomb from a rickety airplane dropped in terminal velocity would obliterate it and ruin weeks of factory man hours and materials. The madness then died down and coalesced into two main lines of though right before WW2: The Americans, British and French limited the amount of guns to two on their heavier tanks, one bigger casemate-mounted howitzer to deal with infantry/pillboxes and one smaller turreted AT gun (see also Char B1, the early Churchills and the M3 Lee). The Germans on their side decided 'fuck it!' and just went for specialized tanks sporting either a small-bore long-barreled AT gun or a broad-bore short-barelled howitzer, and then just had both type collaborate on the battlefield (see early Pz.III and Pz.IV). And this went swimmingly for them, at least until the Russians finally entered the dance in 1941 and deployed the revolutionary T-34, whose 76mm gun demonstrated it was possible to have a tank gun both capable of tackling armour ''and'' blowing stuff up with explosive shells, setting the precedent that stands up to this day.

Once at that point, the overall design was definitively set and guns just got bigger and better from thereon. Starting with the Soviet T-62, they started to go from rifled to smoothbore guns. If you are in any way familiar with the development of gunpowder weapons, this may seem like a baffling decision, but there is a good reason. Anti-tank shot went from a simple lump of steel to sub-calibre munitions like APCR and APDS, as detailed on the [[cannon]] page. These essentially try to be better at penetrating by focusing more energy on a smaller area. A later development was APFSDS, the famous "Silver Bullet" or arrow-like penetrators which turned Saddam's tanks into ooey gooey explody Swiss cheesey. Likewise, they also started using HEAT shells, which are designed to use the power of a focused explosion to bore their way through armour; at one point, they were so effective that tanks were designed specifically around their use. Both of these munitions types actually ''suffered'' from the rotational forces imparted by a rifled barrel. For APCR, APDS, and APFSDS, rifling does not stabilize subcalibre rounds nearly as well; likewise, the shaped charge jet from HEAT shells doesn't hold together as well if it's spinning itself apart. Getting rid of the rifling solved a huge number of other problems: it made it easier to fire missiles out of the guns, and also meant that you could fire higher velocity projectiles without having to reline the bore more frequently. The main exception was HESH, which was essentially a shell full of plastic explosive that flattens itself against targets; upon detonation, it creates a shockwave that is transmitted through the material, causing it to break and shatter if concrete, or to spall off into deadly shrapnel if steel. The spin imparted by rifled barrels helps the explosive pat out more evenly, hence why it is still commonly used by the Brits in their tanks.

During the 1960s, there was an attempt to replace the gun with a missile or gun-missile system which... didn't quite pan out. The main problem is that to accommodate guidance systems, fuel, and all that jazz, missiles are a lot larger than an equivalent tank shell, which strictly limits the amount of ammunition that can be carried. Furthermore, limitations associated with the technology at the time (heavy and fragile hardware, minimum firing ranges) precluded their use on tanks. Future vehicles may carry railguns instead, pending the development of a sufficiently capable, lightweight power system and barrels that don't become slagged after like five shots or so.

<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%">
On a sidenote:
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
That said, while tanks began to coalesce around the turreted concept many remained turretless and as [[Wikipedia:Sturmgeschütz_III|the German StuG]] proves, were successful weapons in their own right. The lack of a turret does have some advantages thanks to how it lowers overall profile and allow for a larger gun to be mounted than could otherwise be the case. That said, a turret-less tank is only really useful if you don't have the money to make a turreted tank, don't have a bigger tank for your bigger gun, ''and'' will only be fighting on the defensive. The latter is the reason why the only guys ever serious about turretless tanks after WWII were the Swedes with their Stridsvagen 103, and the Germans, with their [[Jaguar Jagdpanzer|Kanonenjagdpanzer 90]]. Even today, many SPG's are still built turretless, however those 'support vehicles' aren't considered proper tanks as they lack both the armor and the tactical flexibilty to act as one.
</div>
</div>

In addition to the main gun, you also have the following secondary weapons:

*'''Machine guns:''' They've been around since the beginning, in some cases serving as primary weapons, and they're still around as secondary weapons on most armoured vehicles. They can be mounted pretty much anywhere: on the front of the hull, in its own turret on the hull, in the commander's cupola, on the side of the hull, on the back of the turret, beside the cannon (coaxial), or on top of the turret next to the hatch. The latter two are preferred for modern tanks: the coaxial can easily be used by the loader or gunner without having to change stations, and the top-mounted gun can be aimed pretty much anywhere around the tank, including at aircraft. Either medium/general purpose machine guns or heavy machine guns are preferred for firepower and rate of fire sustainment usually as one GPMG on coaxial and a heavy on pintle (with some taking a GPMG pintle), though it's not unheard of for some crews to slap on a couple extra mgs of any variety including light machine guns/squad automatic weapons. The French take a coaxial HMG and both a GPMG and a HMG on the pintles, while America has two GPMGs (one coaxial one pintle) and two HMGs (both pintle) because Murica.
** '''Crew Weapons''' technically count as well as it's not unheard of for some crews to take potshots with SMGs or Rifles they are issued from the hatches or from purpose built fireports.

* '''Autocannons:''' The next step up from machine guns. Like machine guns, they've also served on primary weapons on more than a few tanks. After the Second World War however, they've tended to be relegated to the status of secondary armament, with potential use against light armoured vehicles and helicopters. Despite their obvious firepower advantages, most tanks don't have them, on account of being rather cumbersome and requiring a separate ammunition supply. The only places where you could feasibly mount them are coaxially alongside the main gun like the French [[AMX-30]]; otherwise, you'd have to create a separate compartment somewhere on the turret or hull, as was done with the experimental MBT-70, which had a retractable cupola for it.

* '''Grenade launchers:''' While tank cannons may fire high explosive shells of greater potency, an automatic grenade launcher has similar flexibility to a machine gun in urban environments, only with more firepower. Another form of grenade launcher is the smoke projector that many tanks incorporate as a defensive measure, but that's for later discussion.

* '''Mortar:''' Like the grenade launcher, a mortar on a tank can be handy for fire support. The Aussies took a page from the Germans' "mad genius" book and mounted a [[awesome|7-rounds 178mm spigot mortar]] on the back of a Matilda II tank, the idea being to give their infantry support tanks some serious close-range firepower for those cases something needed to be softened before an assault. That said, it didn't really take off: there were much more efficient ways of providing fire support separate from a tank, and the only reason it was worth bothering with was because many early-war British tanks of that period (like the Matilda) had extremely poor or even non-existent high-explosive shell capability. Nowadays, the only tank to feature a mortar is the [[Merkava]], which largely serves as a utility weapon for firing special munitions such as smoke or illumination rounds.

* '''Rockets:''' During the Second World War, a lot of countries experimented with mounting rockets on tanks, ranging from the various German ''Nebelwerfer'' attachments or the Calliope mounted on the American M4 Sherman. Like with the example of the Matilda II above, the point was to provide fire support in anticipation of an assault, or otherwise simply reuse obsolete tanks. They fell by the wayside for similar reasons, or were re-invented as dedicated artillery vehicles (like for instance the [[TOS-1 Buratino]]).

* '''Guided missiles:''' While attempts to use guided missiles as primary armament in tanks have largely failed to succeed ([[Pereh|with one exception]]), they are still being developed as a special munition designed to be launched out of the main gun. This provides tanks with an option to engage targets that are difficult to hit at distance with their main gun, which can include helicopters. Lighter tanks like the [[M551 Sheridan]] typically use guided missiles to give them an extra anti-armor punch when needed. Similarly, old Soviet tanks like the [[T55AM2]] are upgraded to fire advanced missiles as a way of extracting more usage from obsolete but otherwise functional equipment.

===Defense===

In general, tanks are designed to maximize their protection for a given weight. Initially, the only criteria during World War I was that tanks should be bulletproof... which they were, to some extent. While their armour might have been thick enough to deflect most bullets, poor quality steel and riveted construction meant that tank crew tended to get injured anyways by pieces of steel breaking off from repeated impacts. They also did jack squat against artillery, large bundles of grenades, poison gas, and flamethrowers; later in the war, the Germans developed special armour-piercing bullets and anti-tank rifles that could punch straight through.

Fast forward to the Second World War. Early on, you still had tanks that were so poorly armoured that they could be easily pierced in several places by heavy machine gun fire or special anti-tank rifles. As tanks got bigger and more capable however, they started to incorporate not only thicker, welded armour, but also a technique known as sloping. Basically, what this involved is the angling of armour plates to increase their line of sight thickness, so a 45mm plate angled at 45 degrees relative to an incoming shot would effectively have a thickness of 90mm; slanting the outer surface such that the anticipated trajectory of incoming projectiles will not hit it perpendicularly also increases the likelihood that they will deflect and only deal a glancing blow, instead of penetrating the hull before detonating. This technique was not unknown before the war, but the size limitations of earlier tanks made it difficult to implement, as sloped armour ate into usable interior space; it was also a little harder to build than just slapping everything together at right angles. Of course, then the T-34 came along and showed that sloping could make plates of even modest thickness repel any early or pre-war anti-tank weapon, and then on sloping became an integral feature for almost all tanks.

All seemed fine and dandy until some assholes started knocking together something called a shaped charge onto lightweight launchers that [[Tankbustas|a complete bunch of nutters could use to take out a tank]], creating weapons like the American M1 Bazooka or the German Panzerfaust. At some point during the Cold War, the increasing effectiveness of shaped charge weaponry made some designers throw up their hands and give up on providing maximum protection to their tanks. If the thickest armor you can put on a tank is going to get penetrated anyway then your best bet is not to armor it at all and focus on maximizing speed and minimizing profile to make sure you don't get hit to begin with. The German [[Leopard 1]] and French [[AMX-30]] were designed according to this principle, when it seemed like it would be impossible to defend against new HEAT shells. Others kept experimenting, and by the 1970s, people developed measures to deal with them, starting with the well-known principle of spaced armour, and then moving on to quartz and ceramic plates.

Nowadays, most modern tanks have good protection all around from most weapons, with a particularly heavily-armoured turret and front to resist dedicated anti-armor weapons. Most modern tanks have some form or another of composite armour, which consists of layers upon layers of spaced steel plates, ceramic tiles, kevlar liners, and so forth. The idea is that by putting these various materials together, you can achieve greater protection against most things for far less weight than an equivalent protection level of steel, though it does become quite bulky. How these materials exactly work together is not entirely known to even the most pretentious armchair generals. What can be said, however is that there are two big ways to defeat armour: punch through it with enough force (and, for an added treat, explode inside after that) or smash it with sufficient force it shatters and the debris ravage what is behind (somthing called 'spalling'). Thus, modern composites deflect brute-force projectiles away and have spall liners woven throughout to prevent spalling from killing the crew.

Below are a few devices and techniques utilized for defensive purposes:

*'''Smoke Dischargers:''' The little pipes or beehive-like clusters you see on the turrets and hull of the tank are smoke launchers, which fire a single salvo of smoke grenades upon activation. You may find the idea of trying to [[Creed|hide a tank]] ridiculous, but a good tank commander will know how to use smoke to mask their movements in case they need to make a hasty retreat, or to cover an advance into a more favourable position. However, they're also really, really good at fouling up enemy sensors (anywhere from optical to infrared) and guidance systems. Even a few moments of obscuration to the enemy tank's gunner can mean the difference between life and death.

*'''Camouflage:''' Because the best defence is often not getting spotted until it is too late. Visual camouflage in the Second World War was extensively employed to either make them more difficult to spot or to obfuscate their silhouette. For the former, tanks would be painted in colours that helped blend in with their background; netting, foliage, and/or debris may be incorporated to complete the look. The latter works by deceiving the enemy into thinking that the tank they're seeing from aerial reconnaissance is actually a truck, or that the tank over there does not have a gun capable of turning your tank inside out. Dealing with non-visual spectrums such as infrared or radar detection require the use of special materials or paints that make tanks harder to pick out of the background.

*'''Reactive Armor:''' As per the name, they are designed to react to incoming projectiles. The most common form is what is known as Explosive Reactive Armor or ERA: essentially metal boxes with a small explosive charge sandwiched between two metal plates. When a sufficiently large projectile hits an ERA tile, it detonates, forcing the metal plates apart; this can disrupt a shaped charge jet before it has time to form. Later versions like the Russian Kontakt-5 and Relikt are capable of defending against APFSDS munitions by forcing the penetrator off course, dissipating its kinetic energy. In addition, there is also what is known as Non-Explosive Reactive Armour or NERA. Instead of an explosive charge, NERA incorporates an elastic material that is wedged between the two metal plates. Like ERA, it will react to attacks; however, instead of exploding, the sandwiched layer will expand, with similar effects on incoming projectiles to ERA. Compared to ERA, they have the distinct advantage of not exploding, which makes them safe to use around infantry, so they tend to be more like easily-replaceable armour tiles; modern-day composite armours may also incorporate them into their defence arrays to varying extent.

*'''Slat Armor:''' Due to how shaped-charge rounds work, they need to detonate at the right distance of the armor to punch through it. Something as simple as a metal cage surrounding you can prevent the shaped charge from doing much damage by just making it go off early or warping the detonator upon impact, rendering it useless.

*'''Improvised Armor:''' Just like its name says. During the Second World War, tank crew tried to bulk up armour with whatever they could find in the field. These can take the form of salvaged armor plates from other tanks and bedspring mattresses, or nothing more than basic materials like sandbags, wooden logs, or ooncrete. Ironically, many of these materials were probably ''worse'' than nothing: the added weight overstressed components and slowed down whatever tank they were mounted on. Moreover, due to defects in HEAT design at the time, they may have actually ''enhanced'' the effect of the warheads by causing them to detonate at the optimal distance, away from the tank's main hull.

*'''Active Protection System:''' An active protection system is a device that shoots down or deflects incoming anti-armor projectiles. It takes two forms. The first is an electronics countermeasure system that detects incoming guided missiles and attempts to trick them into ''not'' hitting the tank, usually by messing with their guidance systems. The other type involves an active radar scanner linked together with a launcher or projectile weapon of some sort; when it detects an incoming projectile larger than a bullet, it calculates its incoming trajectory and then fires a projectile which destroys it mid-flight. Like reactive armor, it’s usage is restricted from general deployment due to costs or concerns on the risk of collateral damage to civilians or allied infantry.

*'''Spaced Armor:''' Spaced Armor is what it sounds like. Armor with a large gap. This gap helps dissipate the shaped charge. The most obvious examples are goofy-looking thin plates around a WWII German tank's turret and tracks (''Schürzen'' or skirts). Although they were initially designed to deflect light AT guns and rifles, they may have had some effect against HEAT warheads, at least according to some people. Whatever was the case, it has been well-established that trying to force a shaped charge to travel through three feet of air will protect a tank far better than a foot of armour. Usually incorporated as one aspect of modern composite armour.

===Mobility===
Another major aspect of the modern tank is mobility. While early WWI behemoths like the British Mark I and the German A7V were content to lumber slowly forward with all guns blazing at the enemy, the need for higher speed and better cross-country capacity soon became apparent. Mobility in general is dependent on four major components, namely: the tracks, the suspension, the transmission and steering mechanism and the engine itself.

*Track design is as integral to the identity of a tank, as it allows it to move around without sinking into the ground. Modern tracks are so good at their job that a tank imparts a lower ground pressure (or weight per square inch on the surface) than an automobile tyre or a human foot. That said, they are a also a significant weak spot: they can break or slip off, leading to a complete loss of traction, and a stopped tank is a dead tank. Nowadays, tracks often use the so called "slack-track" approach: a number of road wheels low to the ground transfer the weight of the tank to the track, two sprocket wheels (one in front and one at the rear) transfer the motive energy to the track and a couple of return wheels on top keep the whole track tense while in use. (Other arrangements have been used historically, but they fell by the wayside due to either fragility, or being too maintenance-intensive.) Efforts are made to keep the height of the whole track assembly as low as possible, as no matter how cool the [[Wikipedia:Mark I tank|British Mark I]] looked, running the tracks over the top of the body is begging for a mobility kill. (Though to be fair to the Mark I, it needed its high tracks to cross trenches, and since it came first, there weren't really any weapons that could specifically take advantage of its exposed tracks at the time.)

*Even more than the tracks themselves, suspension is what allows tanks to travel easily over all terrain, absorbing all of the bumps and lumps. The earliest tanks did not have any suspension. By the Second World War however, you had vehicles using varying arrangement of helical and leaf springs to smooth the ride out a little. Most tanks now employ what is called torsion bar suspension, which translates the up-and-down movement of the roadwheel into a metal bar designed to resist twisting. A few newer models employ hydropneumatic suspension, which can be adjusted to cope with softer or harder terrain, as well as adding a few more degrees of elevation or depression for aiming the main gun.

*Transmission and steering of a tracked vehicle is quite complex in execution, however it is conceptually quite simple: turning is accomplished by accelerating one of the tracks and slowing/stopping the other one. While there have been many different combinations of engines/driveshafts/clutches/brakes to obtain this since the first WWI vehicles, modern tank design boils down to two concepts: Russian/Chinese ones favor two separate transmissions, one for each track; while Western ones prefer the so-called 'double differential' approach that adds a second driveshaft and idler sprocket wheel to each track that can be used to speed/slow it. One big advance of the modern tank (and tracked vehicle in general) is the so-called 'neutral steering' that allows the tracks to turn in opposite directions and the vehicle to easily and quickly turn on the spot, something a wheeled one would be hard-pressed to accomplish as quickly and smoothly (if at all).

* As for the engines, most tanks designed prior to the Second World War but after the First World War utilized the same engines as trucks and buses (cheap but underpowered), while a few settled on downrated airplane engines (lots of power but unreliable). At the start of the war, only the Germans dedicated engine production for military vehicles (which led to problems that we won't get into here) but it was the Soviets who would later take the cake, with the relatively lightweight yet powerful diesel Model V-2 in the T-34 (seeing a pattern here?) that would go onto to power almost all of their tanks. Most tanks nowadays go for diesels but a few use turbines. A diesel has the advantage of being fuel-efficient but with a rather poor power-to-weight ratio, while turbines run on nearly anything flammable and have much better power-to-weight ratio and are quieter, but are ''very'' thirsty and their much hotter exhaust can present some trouble to camouflage the vehicle against IR sensors and hazard to accompanying infantry. In the interest of making warfare more environmentally friendly, we may eventually see tanks driven by electrical power and hydrogen-fuelled turbines.

By nature, tanks have some wading capability, capable of going through water that would stop your average automobile dead. To go through deeper waters usually requires extensive modifications. The first truly amphibious tanks for instance, required canvas screens to be attached for flotation, along with a propeller driven by the tank's own engine. Presently, a few tanks, most of them Russian, have the capability to be driven completely underwater, provided that they're provided with a snorkel.

===Support===

In addition to the essential three attributes of offence, defence, and mobility, tanks rely on a whole host of systems to be tanking. While none of them are strictly speaking indispensable, those extra systems are what turn a tank from a mobile pillbox fighting on its own into a force multiplier able to support their fellow soldiers and efficiently outmanoeuver and take out what has the misfortune of being in front of them. Any modern tank design will weigh the pro's and con's of outfitting the vehicle with said systems. Where including some systems are a given, other's aren't - it will often boil down to intended use, economics, and local limitations.

*'''Communications:''' The most vital improvement on this list, it comes in two distinct parts both equally important.
**'''Internal Communication''' An intercom is extremely important inside a tank because, well, tanks are '''[[Noise Marines|LOUD]]''', and it's the only way for the crew to talk to each other without going hoarse yelling at each other. And it's not a joke: before the advent of intercom the commander often had to kick the driver on the left or right shoulder to indicate the direction he wanted him to turn because even yelling wasn't working with the ruckus of the moving tank. Modern intercoms often have double and sometimes even triple-redundant systems, because it is that important for the commander to tell his driver where to go and his gunner where to shoot.
**'''External Communication''' Another not be overstated improvement is keeping in touch with other tanks as well as whoever is in charge. Having a system to coordinate multiple units determines whether or not a tank is a rolling pillbox or a decisive, mobile weapon of war. Inter-war tanks often relied on flag signals with only the company leader having a radio for coordination, but in the early thirties [[Nazi|some guy named Guderian]] ordered "Each vehicle must have its own radio; no exceptions!" and the rest is history. Indeed, in both the battle for France and the early Operation Barbarossa the German tanks were outnumbered, undergunned and underarmored compared to their opponents but thanks to their radios, they were able to outmaneuver the enemy and take them apart. (Conversely, during the Battle of Britain, the Luftwaffe failed to similarly radio-coordinate their fighter planes whereas the RAF did, giving the British a very significant advantage.) Cue everyone doing the same (even if Soviet tank crews actually communicated mostly in kicks and flags until well into 1943 because early Soviet radios were shit tier and tended to break in the first minute of every goddamn engagement), and still doing it today. The major improvement modern communication systems have brought is the ability to transmit not only voices but also data, which makes keeping everyone informed of the whereabouts of one's allies and enemies much faster and easier. Since WWII, many tanks also come with a built-in wire phone in an armored box on the back called the “tank-infantry or grunt phone” for infantry to talk directly to the tank commander for fire support and coordination of combined arms tactics. This may seem redundant with the use of wireless walkie-talkies but is a godsend in the case that airwave frequencies are jammed and the platoon commander needs to direct the tank to provide armored cover and supporting fire for infantry in a chaotic firefight without rolling over their allies.
***'''IFF''' Piggybacking on the improved communications and electronics of modern vehicles, the "Identification, Friend or Foe" system is basically a nifty little system that transmits a 'I'm a friend, don't shoot me.' signal to any other unit in the vicinity when queried and (if all goes well, for it is not always 100% reliable, especially amongst multi-nation task forces) will prevent friendly fire incidents. A simpler version of this would be IR identity stickers posted on the hull for aircraft to see from afar or RFID tags that can be read with the right scanning equipment. ''OR,'' if you're [[Ork|Russian]], just covering your vehicles turret to track in [[Administratum|hastily spraypainted]] "Z"s to tell the other conscripts not to shoot at this particular T64, and tell the Ukrainians to line their Javelins up.

*'''Detection:''' Tanks have notoriously bad situational awareness, so people came up with solutions to improve it. The most basic instrument is of course, Eyeball Mk. I, initially relying on either vision slots, optical instruments such as periscopes, or the commander poking his head outside of the tank. In WWII, the Germans installed an armored cupola with vision slits atop the turret in order to improve the commander's sight while 'buttoned up'; near the end, they also came up with primitive infrared illuminators as well. Nowadays, you have an array of cameras, night-vision, and infrared/thermal imagers to give you a clearer picture of things. Some tanks also have an automated laser warning system to detect when enemy vehicles have painted them with a rangefinder or are locked on by a homing weapon. Once it detects the laser, it will warn the crew and taken defensive actions such as using smoke grenade launchers, active protection systems, or laser jammers. Lastly, many militaries rely on combined arms use of reconnaissance units (in the form of light vehicles, mounted infantry, aircraft, or drones) to screen the area ahead of tanks to minimize the risks of ambushes.

*'''Fire Control:''' Another big chunk of tech, fire control includes any and every system meant to improve the main gun's accuracy and reduce the time between identifying a target and actually blasting it to smithereens. The first tanks did not have really anything like a modern fire control systems. However, when it became clear tanks would be called upon to deal with other tanks, improvements were sought in roughly three different and complementary directions: improving accuracy at longer ranges, improving accuracy while on the move, and improving accuracy when firing at a moving target. There are many historical attempts to achieve this; below you'll find a list of the most common historical ones, all culminating in the modern computerized fire control system.
**'''Sights:''' By the outbreak of WWII, tanks commonly used telescopic sights with stadiametric indicators for ranging; think a rifle scope, but adapted for the tank's gun. The indicators allowed for a precise compensation for the target's range and movement, however the scope by itself had no way to measure said values; and those were often left to the crew's experience, pre-battle reconnaissance and educated guesswork to determine.
**'''Ranging Shot:''' Laugh if you want, but an experienced gunner could use a quick burst from one of the tank's machineguns to make a decent estimate of the range to target and quickly compensate for the follow-up shot from the main gun. Sure, it was crude, but it worked pretty well for what it was. The British went a step further and attached ballistically-matched spotting rifles to their tank guns, where firing solution was confirmed by a tracer impact on target (the American M60 'Ontos' did it in 'nam as well).
**'''Rangefinder:''' Battlefield experience from WWII impressed upon military commanders the importance of ensuring the first shot fired at an enemy tank hit, denying the enemy the ability to react to a missed shot. As tank warfare rolled into the Cold War, so-called "first-shot accuracy" became a priority for tank designers, who once again took a page from the navy and started mounting dedicated optical rangefinders to their designs. These devices allow crew to determine the range of a target, without having to leave their positions inside the tank. Rangefinders were considered a huge improvement, and quickly became commonplace. Modern ones are laser-based, computerized, and far quicker to operate.
**'''Stabilizer:''' Essentially, this is a mechanism for keeping your main gun pointed in the correct direction while the tank is moving. While these sound great in theory, initially they were not viewed as critical to tank effectiveness, particularly since early designs didn't work very well: in WWII the American M4 Sherman tank used a stabilizer which only compensated for vertical movement, and only at low speed. But as we've said earlier, a stopped tank is a dead tank, and moving makes it harder for you to be hit. As such, even the earliest iterations were useful as a critical time-saver: relieving the gunner of some of the burden of aiming after the tank comes to a stop to fire at a target. As WWII ended and the Cold War began, stabilizer designs continued to improve. Later designs provided stabilization for movement in the horizontal and vertical angles, and modern designs even accommodate for the vertical heave of the tank changing physical elevation as it drives. Stabilizers have become essential for modern tanks, allowing for accurate firing while on the move.
**'''Ballistic Computer:''' A modern development allowing for the gunner to accurately compensate for the target's movement (and other factors if necessary), especially when his tank is moving as well. This is yet another adoption from the navy, who were already using mechanical targeting computers during the turn of the 20th Century. It required half of a century's advances in computing miniaturization to create a mechanical targeting computer small enough to be fitted into tanks. Mechanical rangefinders appeared during the early Cold War, and digital computerized rangefinders would be developed and used in the late Cold War.

*'''Autoloader:''' A mechanism for automatically loading shells into the main gun, obviating the need for a loader. This is less of an obvious decision than it would seem. For decades, human loaders were actually regarded as better than mechanical loaders because they were generally faster and better: most early autoloaders had to depress the gun to a minimum elevation before loading and had difficulty switching between different types of shells. An autoloader that is put out of action by mechanical failure or damage will either make the cannon more difficult to load by hand or at worst, render it entirely inoperable, requiring extensive repairs in order to be restored to fighting condition. Plus, as mentioned in the previous section, having a human loader lends versatility and redundancy to a tank crew, as the loader could function as an additional pair of eyes and hands whenever needed. Initially, the main advantage to automating the loading process was that you could afford to have one less crew member, thus reducing overall weight. Newer developments however, can easily match or surpass human loaders in terms of loading speed, with the additional benefit of never tiring.

Due to their desire to man more tanks for the same unit size (cutting crew from 4 down to 3), the Soviets went in heavily for carousel-style autoloaders, storing ammunition beneath the main turret. One unfortunate (but hilarious) drawback of these autoloaders is that in the event of a strike to the turret (especially by a top-down anti-tank guided missile), this will often lead to all of the rounds cooking off, blowing the turret off the tank and killing the crew (examples can be now found all over Ukraine). Newer style autoloaders, such as that used on the Leclerc, mitigate this concern with the use of blowout panels.

*'''Remote Weapon Systems''' The pintle-mounted gun is great for clearing out and suppressing infantry because it can rotate 360 degrees and is at the top of the tank, so it has a bird's-eye view of the area. Unfortunately, popping your head out to shoot at people makes you a prime target for snipers. A solution for this is having the pintle gun be virtually controlled from the inside by a remote weapon system, so the gunner can still shoot at targets without threat of catching a bullet in the face the moment they peek out of the hatch. Granted the gun itself can still be shot, but it's a lot easier to replace a machine gun than a trained crewman. The aforementioned blurb regarding replacing the MG with grenade launchers also apply here.

*'''Air Conditioning System/Climatization:''' Yes, I can already hear you laughing. First, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1rXLhow1Ro watch this 30 seconds video.] Then imagine having to ride/fight into a vehicle getting that hot for hours, you'll get the point. An airco is not strictly speaking mandatory, depending on where your tank is operating. But many modern designs include one by default, as it is an easy way to improve crew morale and efficiency.

*'''Automatic Fire Extinguisher''' Fire in the hull? No problem. Tap a button to activate some kind of extinguishing system in either the engine compartment or fighting compartment. Modern systems are automatic, in the case of the Abrams tank the crew just wait a few seconds and Halon gas at 7% concentration will puts it out.

*'''Damage Control:''' A big problem with tanks is them tanks going up from the ammunition being detonated when hit. The remains of the crew would be... messy, to say the least. Frequently they would be buried all together in a matchbox. So, once again, we came up with way to limit that happenstance.
**'''Common Sense, Better Training and Improved Logistics:''' Early in WWII, the doctrine called for full combat load and crews tended to cram in a generous extra helping of fuel, ammo and spare parts in their tanks, "just in case". This turned their tanks into mobile explosion hazards (just imagine a Sherman chock full of over 120 shells, 5000 MG rounds, extra fuel drums lashed to it... you get the idea). To remedy this, combat loads were lowered, logistics were improved to make sure tanks could be repaired and resupplied easily, and crews drilled to take on no more than needed for the mission; which led to a marked decrease in such big booms.
**'''Welded Armor:''' Toyed with by all belligerents, the idea was to weld extra armor plates on the outside of where the ammo racks were. Which was a double-edged sword: it added protection, but was also an unmistakable 'shoot here for full effect' sign. Quickly abandoned when it became clear guns would improve faster than armor.
**'''Ready-Rack and Secondary Ammo Stowage:''' The idea here is that the gunner/loader only keep around 'a handful of shells' (between 6 and 10 shells depending on the tank) inside the turret in easy reach, and the rest of the ammo stocked in armored compartments near the bottom of the tank, where the tracks/wheels/transmission/engine would work as that much added armor. The reasoning being that if a shot was powerful to reach the ammo stocked there in the least vulnerable part of the vehicle, the tank was fucked every way to Sunday anyway; and the decrease in rate of fire when the ready-rack needs restocking was an acceptable drawback for the improved protection. This concept is still in use on modern Russian/Chinese tanks, who have a rotating ammo carrousel at the bottom of the tank.
**'''Wet Storage:''' Ammo compartments surrounded by a reservoir full of a mix of glycerine and salt water that would flood the ammo compartment if breached and buy time for the crew to bail out by delaying the cook-off. Good idea that worked good enough (lowering the risk of a cook off by about 30% when first introduced with the M4A3E8 Easy Eight Sherman) but ultimately more hassle than it was worth, and dropped after WWII. But...
**'''Blowout Ammo Compartment:''' The idea of 'wet storage', adapted for modern tanks. They're basically compartments that blow outwards when the ammunition is hit and begin to burn; they vent the bang away from the main body of the machine, thus saving the million dollar tank (and the squishy but almost equally expansive meatbags inside). Sure, the tank must retreat to restock ammo, a new storage bin and some tuning up; but it can still fight with a small repair... if your ammo storage compartment wasn't open the moment it was hit.

*'''NBC protection:''' Because [[Nurgle|war never ceases to become dirtier]], modern vehicles are outfitted with a system that creates slightly more air pressure in the crew compartment than is outside, and circulates air through a filtration device to protect against airborne threats to the crew. Those broadly come in the forms of nuclear, bacteriological or chemical agents which may be lingering outside the tank.

==Crewmen==

Unlike a car or most combat airplanes, a tank isn't something that one person can fully operate alone (at least for today's standards). It is a large, complex machine that requires multiple people with specific tasks to keep it working. Never discount the importance of a well-trained crew, as they can be every bit as important as the selection of equipment. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HV2nIkqnGBI While technically feasible] to operate a tank with only two people (a driver and a gunner, as was the case with the Renault FT), it’s much more practical to have more people per tank to divide the workload, especially since a successful tank battle is heavily determined by the time it takes to get off a successful shot. Early tanks were envisioned as 'landships' and had a crew of around ten men, but most tanks today have a crew of three or four, with some crewman having multiple duties to keep things as streamlined as possible.

*'''Commander''' The commander is the one who issues orders to all crewmen. Their main responsibilities for the tank are navigating for the driver, spotting targets for the gunner, and coordinating everyone to work as one well-oiled deathmachine. They're also the one who typically mans the hatch-mounted machine gun when needed. In modern times, they are also responsible for the radio, which gives them the responsibility of coordinating with other tanks or infantry as well.
*'''Driver''' Maneuvers the tank, but with a twist. Because the driver is typically near the bottom of the tank he only can see in front of him unless he sticks his head out of a hatch; his peripheral vision borders on the non-existent. Because of that, they have to rely on the commander for precise maneuvers when the tank is traveling at full speed. That said, it is still possible for a driver to maneuver the tank on his own (yay for vision slits and/or cameras). In modern times, they also double up as the crew's mechanic.
*'''Gunner''' Operates the tank's main cannon(s) and coaxial machine gun, again with a small twist. He's responsible for aiming the guns where they need to shoot and firing when appropriate. They can also double as a loader if one's not available. But because the gunsight is quite narrow they can only make fine adjustments on their own and so need the Commander to spot the target and give them the rough direction in which to point the gun in the first place for them to acquire it and blow it up. A tank typically only needs 1 gunner, but older models that have more than 1 main cannon (like the WW1 British Mark tanks) required a gunner for each gun.
*'''Loader''' Assists the gunner by loading the appropriate ammunition into the main gun. Loaders are less common in modern tanks due to rise of autoloaders these days, but older tanks needed them to perform efficiently and the extra man has advantages his own. These include helping in field repairs and helping fuel the tank up and in the Abrams' case manning a second pintle gun.
*'''Mechanic''' Responsible for fixing up the tank when it breaks down (well, the whole crew pitches in but he's the guy with the knowledge). In later years to ease space concerns; the driver typically doubles as the crew's mechanic.
*'''Radio Operator''' Operates the radio and relays any orders and communications with friendly forces to the commander. Due to advancements in radio technology; radio operators are no longer needed in modern tanks as the commander can do that on their own these days.

==Tank Classifications==
In spite of what many [[/k/|autists]] would tell you, ''there are no objective classifications for tanks''. Militaries throughout history, especially those that design their own equipment, have experimented with (and adapted from other militaries) different designs, configurations and loadouts for their tanks. These are based almost entirely on their needs and combat philosophy at the time.

In general, the best definition for a "tank" would be: "fully-tracked, cannon in a turret, fights other vehicles." This would ironically exclude the earliest tanks and tankettes, while also including [[M10|Turreted]] [[M36 Slugger|Tank]] [[M18 Hellcat|Destroyers]] which many more autists will tell you are "NOT TANKS". This gets even more complicated when you learn that most tank chassis end up being adapted to serve other functions, like [[Jagdtiger|tank destroyers]], impromptu APCs (Kangaroo APCs), engineering and bridge-laying vehicles, [[Pereh|or guided missile systems built on older tank chassis but designed to look like another tank (but still isn't a tank)]]. Consider as well that the doctrines of different countries could classify the same tank differently (American WWII doctrine would call the Churchill a "heavy tank", but the original WWII British designers called it an "infantry tank"), and it's possible that a country's modern doctrine would classify a tank differently than it's historical doctrine! The key takeaway here is '''[[RAI|to just go by whatever the designers/military intended]] for simplicity''', keep in mind that most militaries had flexible definitions, and [[Fail|don't sperg out because some reporter called an APC a tank]].

The modern catch all term for all purpose built and improvised combat vehicles, not necessarily tanks, is '''Armored Fighting Vehicle''' ('''AFV'''). Below you'll find some historical classifications and /tg/ related examples of both proper tanks and their AFV cousins.

===Classes of Proper Tanks===
*'''Male/Female''' A very, very early designation that only really applied to the British Mk-series of tanks from World War 1. These tanks have very little in common with their descendants, being little more than rolling bunkers. They didn't even have turrets, instead having sponson guns. The main difference between them is obvious, male tanks have cannons, and female tanks have only machine guns. In modern time however Gendering Tanks is completely obsolete since most tanks by definitions have cannons and it is generally pointless to use an expensive tank to not carry a large caliber cannon. A comparison might be drawn to something like the BMPT Terminator which has autocannons, grenade launchers and ATGMs but no cannon on a tank as being the equivalent a female, though this is a thin stretch.

*'''Tankettes''' Less of a tank and more of an armored clown car with guns; these were in vogue for a while in the 1930s. They're essentially a one or two-person tank, armed with machine guns, flame throwers, or anti-tank rifles and not designed to move much faster than the infantry around them (except for the italians, whose [[Wikipedia:L3/35|cute lil' buggers]] could reach a respectable speed). They're generally made to act as mobile infantry support or anti-tank weapons. Needless to say, this idea didn't stick because when even a high-caliber machine gun (which WW2 was rife with) could penetrate the armor of the tank, making it useless in straight-up combat. Only the Japanese extensively used them during WW2, which made some sense as most of their combat theater is in jungles that would bog-down full-sized tanks (Plus their doctrine emphasized more on air and naval superiority, with them island-hopping during their conquests). Tankettes however, were still fielded in limited quantities after WW2 due to their light weight that allowed them to be safely air-dropped, mainly for non-front line use like tank destroyers, AA guns, and recon vehicles. The only tankette still in use is the German Sedan-sized Wiesel, an airdropped scout vehicle. In effect, the smallest of the tankettes with a crew of one were an attempt to make an individual soldier into a one man tank to allow them to support their comrades. [[Power Armour|Sounds]] [[Centurion Squad|familiar]], [[Terminator|doesn't]] [[Battlesuit|it]]?
Examples: [[Grot Tanks]]

*'''Light Tank''' Light Tanks are usually small, fast, and carry smaller caliber guns. Because of size constraints, they also have smaller crew sizes. Because of their small size, they're also significantly lighter, making them much easier to transport/air-drop. Historically, the transition from tankette to light tank is blurred, since most militaries developed some sort of light tank during the interwar years, then scaled up tank production from there, going from two-man tankettes armed with machine guns to three-to-four-man light tanks armed with smaller-caliber (less than 75mm) cannons.
**Light tanks aren't universally fast and weak, though. Some of the early British [[Valentine|infantry tanks]] were classified as "light" in comparison with their contemporaries, but were equipped with armor that was much thicker than their competition. The [[M551 Sheridan|Sheridan light tank]] from the 60s was also armed with a 152mm cannon, a caliber much, much larger than anything mounted on WW2 Heavies ([[KV|with one notable exception]]), and continues to be an exception even with today's MBTs.
**Unlike their Medium and Heavy counterparts, light tanks have survived in some form or another to the 2000s, even to the present-day in some armies. Since modern tanks are less reliant on armor thickness, and gun caliber matters a little less when you can load a guided anti-tank missile into your gun (though shaped charge effectiveness still depends on ATGM diameter) or just bolt it externally, [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiesel_AWC Wiesel-style], Light Tanks have seen a resurgence as fire support for marines and air-dropped units, as well as taking priority in high altitude or jungle areas where keeping an MBT operable is very expensive.
Examples: [[Siegfried]], [[M551 Sheridan]]

*'''Infantry/Cavalry tank'''- A paired concept developed by the British and the French (but mostly the British, due to the occupation of France and all), Infantry and Cavalry tanks were the first attempt at diversifying tanks, classifying them by role rather than weight division. The Brits kept this system throughout WW2, and because they were classified by role, infantry and cavalry tanks don't fit neatly within the weightclass categories. In fact, there is an infantry tank for [[Valentine|each]] [[Matilda II|weight]] [[Churchill|category]], including [[TOG 2|superheavy]].
**Infantry tanks would be used to support infantry, so they did not need to be fast, but they did need to be able to shrug off incoming fire and cross difficult terrain, so most were long and ungainly so they could be used as mobile cover and to cross trenches. In some cases, it [[M6 Heavy Tank|was more important to be used as cover by infantry than having exceptional armor]]. Tank on tank fighting wasn't really a concern at this point, since most tacticians, even the Germans, believed that towed support guns would be sufficient, so early-war infantry tanks didn't have the large caliber long cannons needed to punch through their own armor. Examples: [[Churchill]], [[Matilda II]]
**Cavalry/Cruisers tanks were designed with mobility in mind so that they could exploit holes in the enemy's defenses and cause general [[FATAL|havoc in the enemy's rear]]. Just like the infantry tanks, they weren't really meant to fight other tanks either and instead attack targets of opportunity like supply trucks, so their guns weren't all that powerful, either. Some attempts were made at making Cruisers just as tough as infantry tanks, and at first this was a losing battle as guns would simply get better and render all that work moot. However eventually the cruisers got faster and were armed with better performing guns. These developments eventually led them to design "Universal" tanks post WW2, which were fast, decently armoured, and had guns that could punch through anything the enemy had.
Examples: [[Cromwell Recce|Cromwell]]

*'''Heavy tank''' - "Heavies" is a catch-all term for big, fuck-off tanks with loads of armor. They're what most people think about when you think "tanks", and most of the first tanks built fit this mold even before they needed to distinguish them. What all Heavy Tanks have in common is their role: take a lot of shots and shoot as much as you take. They saw their peak in World War 2, with some post World War 2 developments, but changing technology saw the entire designation become obsolete in favor for Universal/MBT designs.
**Russia was the first to supersize their tanks. Their first attempts at "breakthrough" tanks were multi-turreted monstrosities (T-28, T-35) that had lots of guns but no armor, and were so complicated and redundant as to be useless. Their next attempt with the [[KV]] was much more successful, being practically impenetrable by German weapons when it was first encountered. But being a rushed design that prioritized armor over function meant that it would quickly become obsolete in favor of [[T-34|tanks that were easier to manufacture]]. Soviet heavy tank production culminated with the [[IS-2|IS]] series, tanks that were equipped with largebore (85mm, very quickly replaced by 122mm, standard now, but massive at the time) guns and used steeply-sloped armor over raw thickness. These tanks were actually the impetus for British and Americans to abandon heavy tanks for Universal designs, since they weren't planning on facing the Soviet tanks head-on, but instead destroy them at range. The Soviets were designing heavies until the death of Stalin, when the lack of pressure from him and the popularization of ATGMs made heavy tanks moot.
**Germany's experiments into heavy tanks also began with some multi-turreted breakthrough designs, but they quickly changed their minds when they encountered British and French infantry tanks. The Germans realized that what they needed was a tank that was at the same time heavily-armed, heavily-armored ''and'' with the mobility to keep up with the rest. The result was the [[Tiger 1]] and it ''was'' successful in that it did exactly what they wanted (big gun, heavy armor, good enough mobility) while also scaring the shit out of its opponents. But it was also over-engineered and was so complicated that it became unreliable, was simply too heavy for many roads and bridges and costed a lot of hard to get resources to make. Heavy tanks, while cool and absolute beasts on the battlefield when used correctly, were faced very real technological, physical, and environmental limits; and the Tiger was ([[Skub|depending on who you ask]]) either close to hitting or already past that limit. On top of it, while the Germans got what they wanted they didn't really know how to use it. In the mind of the people responsible for revolutionizing warfare with the Panzer divisions, Tigers were basically a special operations unit. Sure, they destroyed enemy tanks like nobody's business hanging back and firing at long range, but couldn't act as an actual breakthrough tanks. Doubling down when encouraged by the perceived success of the Tiger 1, the Nazi's proceeded to make [[Tiger II|them]] [[Jagdtiger|BIGGER]], to the point that they began making [[Baneblade|Superheavies that would never make sense in the real world]].
**The British and American heavies, on the other hand, were more reigned in, if for no other reason then both of them would have to put there tanks on boats to get them to mainland Europe. As mentioned, their [[M6 Heavy Tank|Infantry Tanks]] [[Churchill|''were'' their heavies]], and because they weren't trying to cram speed, armor, and gun into a single perfect tank, they were a bit more reliable than the German vehicles at the cost of giving up either speed or armor. Compared to the Soviets and Nazis they didn't go overboard with gun caliber, and instead settled for high-velocity 75-77mm caliber cannons that were 'good enough' against the vast majority of opponents. Should they run into anything requiring a larger gun; well, time to call in the tank destroyers/artillery/airforce. The Americans made ''one'' "Heavy Tank," the [[M26 Pershing]], which was designated a "Heavy" because it ''would'' have filled that role if it ever saw real service in WW2 (it was also important from morale perspective) but by the end of that war it was demoted to "Medium" status because of how it compared against the [[IS-2]].
Examples: [[Tiger 1]], [[Churchill]], [[IS-2]]

*'''Medium''' The most enduring class, Medium tanks are the most flexible, being much more capable than light tanks in a fight, but not as tough and cumbersome than heavies. Medium tanks were originally built with specific purposes in mind, rather than being generalists: During the Interwar period, the British divided their tanks between "[[Crusader (Tank)|Cruisers]]," which sacrificed armor for speed, and "[[Matilda II|Infantry tanks]]", which were meant to either support infantry advances, or hold the line as an anvil while the Cruisers maneuvered around to the [[FATAL|exposed rear]]. The first infantry tanks weren't as crazy huge as the heavies that succeeded them, nor were the Cruisers as light and defenseless as the light tanks that preceded them.
**For their part, after the Germans [[Alpha Legion|rearmed in secret]], their arsenal was nothing but medium tanks. Just like the Brits, their tanks were specialized towards certain roles. Their [[Panzer III]]s were smaller and more mobile than the Panzer IV and built to fight other AFVs. Its guns, ranging from 30mm to 57mm, were adequate at the time for the job of killing trucks and punching tanks in the butt. The bigger [[Panzer IV]] did the same job as the Matilda as an infantry support vehicle, but was nowhere near as heavily armored (or slow for that matter.)
**When they finally met on the battlefield, it was more or less stalemate. While the British infantry tanks were impenetrable from all but the closest ranges, the Germans could outmaneuver them and had superior fire-support. Of course, being early in the war, both armies went back to the drawing board, with Germany deciding to build heavy-tanks and up-gun the Panzer IV as a stop-gap, and the British doubling-down on their Cruiser-Infantry tank paradigm, creating the Cromwell and Churchill respectively.
**While many [[/k/|wehraboos]] jack themselves off to pictures of Tigers in the mud, it was the humble medium tanks like the [[M4 Sherman]] and the [[T-34]] that really won the war by the sheer dint of them being completely [[Reasonable Marines|reasonable.]] It cannot be overstated how important it was to the war effort that the Allies put their resources into tanks that ''weren't'' struggling to even bear their weight, because rather than creating contrived solutions just to make their big caliber fantasy a reality, they settled for designs that were reliable, easy to produce and with 'good enough' performance. Sure, you may not have wanted to be inside the poor Sherman/T-34 facing off against a Tiger, but your comrades thank you for your sacrifice as they dog-pile on the tank that killed you ''and eventually win the war''.
**The difference in firepower between the T-34/M4 Sherman and the German heavies did not last, however. Being flexible and having tonnage to spare, engineers were able to mount better performing guns on their chassis. Though it took some time, when the T-34-85 and the Sherman 76's/Firefly finally rolled out they were more than adequate at challenging German heavies. Sure, the German still had the advantage in kill range, but dog-piling them was now even easier and less costly thanks to the better guns. Foreshadowing the new lap of the arms-race between anti-tank weapons and armor thickness, the Western Allies would continue to develop Medium and Universal Tank concept until the advent of the Modern MBT.
Example: [[M4 Sherman]], [[T-34]], [[Panzer IV]]

*'''Universal/Main Battle Tank''' - The advent of the MBT is ironic, because it became the standard when militaries realized that you can't mount enough armor to stop dedicated anti-tank weaponry on all sides, and front armor should be an absolute priority. As an example, M1s shrugged off direct hits from T-72s from the front during invasion of Iraq, but had to be upgraded with TUSKs so they won't be burned down by an RPG older than its' entire crew combined from the side. This realization came about at different times for different nations, and everyone had different ways of dealing with it. The Soviets, for example, continued to experiment with dedicated heavy tanks until the 50s (creating [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IS-7 monsters that weighted as much as Tiger II] in the process) so the Western Allies built guns to destroy it, and built the tank around the best way to use said guns. They are often separated by "generations".
**The first British "Universal" MBTs continued to be split between a "medium" MBT for close combat (The Centurion) and a "heavy" MBT (Conqueror) for ranged combat, before eventually settling for the modern [[Chieftain]] with its iconic 105mm Royal Ordnance gun, the gun that was exported to the rest of the West. Interestingly, Brits are <s>special</s> unique due to rocking rifled barrels on their modern MBTs.
**American design basically boiled down to capitalizing on what they had and continually improving it, only switching to the next generation when the last one was really no longer viable: starting with the M46 Patton and its multiple upgrades (the M47 and M48, upgraded versions of the M48 are still in reserve in many NATO countries), then the M60 and its multiple upgrades and eventually [[M1 Abrams|everyone's favorite dispenser of FREEDOM!]] and its multiple upgrades. [[fail|Just never mention the MBT-70 project...]]
**The Soviets [[T55AM|made]] [[T-62|many]], [[T-72|many]] different MBTs in response to advancing Western technology, but they were all pretty much just modernizations of the previous design. Steeply angled armor, low profiles due to people sitting on top of the ammo, autoloaders on later models, easy to operate even for conscripts and being dirt-cheap to produce. Thanks to how Cold War worked, they were lethal opponents to the previous generation of MBTs they were made as a direct counter to; and a manageable but not neglectable threat to the next one... as long as the crew was competent, that is.
**Germans, when they got the chance to restart their own armament industry in the late fifties, realized that should WWIII arrive they would be first in line for another [[rape|bout of being rolled over]]. So they designed their machines to give them the best chance of holding the line long enough for the rest of NATO to arrive. Both the [[Leopard 1]] and the more modern [[Leopard 2]] emphasize high firepower and high mobility at the cost of armor, and Rheinmetall-Borsig's Rh 120 gun has become a staple of MBT main armament all over the globe.
**The French, in a display of irony are today pretty similar to the Germans: just like their ancient enemy they came later into the picture with vehicles that prioritized mobility warfare over attrition matches. And while many jokes were (and are still) made about their overall performance, you do ''not'' want to be on the recieving end of their AMX series or Leclerc's punishment. As of today, there are talk of a joint-venture between France and Germany for a successor to both the Leopard 2 and Leclerc.
**Another feature you may notice in Universal to MBT tanks is that the turret gets larger and more elaborate as time goes on. Turrets would become the most well defended part of the vehicle, partly because if it got penetrated the ammo would likely blow, but also because ideally the only part you want exposed is the turret. NATO tanks were perfect for this "hull-down" deployment and could hit a Soviet tank before they could even consider rangefinding, while Soviet Tanks were very low to the ground and relied on slope and gun-fired ATGMs for extra range.
**For defense, most Western tanks use some sort of Composite Armor. Composite Armor is much thicker than metal, but lighter and much more resistant against anti-tank weapons. Kinetic shells can shatter before they make it through, and explosives find it harder to melt their way through layers of different, non-metal materials. Composite Armor is the reason why all Western Tanks have that flat smooth look, because steep angles actually make Composite armor less effective. So yes, the [[Leman Russ (tank)|Leman Russ]] makes some sense at least.
**Soviet countermeasures relied on both composite armor (the [[T-64]] was the first tank equipped with it) and Explosive Reactive Armor. Think of an ice cream sandwich, but the filling is explosives. When hit, the explosive detonates and (hopefully) disrupts the projectile. Since then, tandem charges were created, specialized two-stage missiles that trigger the ERA prematurely with a smaller charge, before delivering the bigger, main charge, which is countered by new-generation ERA, to the point of some engineers suggesting to mount ''three'' charges in one ATGM. Needless to say, it's a little excessive in a world where concepts like Javelin and NLAW exist.
Examples: [[Chieftain]], [[M1 Abrams]], [[Leman Russ (tank)]]

*'''Super Heavy Tank''' Superheavies were conceived in World War I, essentially using the term "landship" literally. Armed with giant cannons (sometimes multiple ones, and usually reserved for artillery or battleships) and armor plating so heavy you'd mistake it for a fortress; they were meant to be the ultimate line breakers. While some prototypes were fleshed out, none (except for the French [[Wikipedia:Char 2C|Char 2C]], although it arrived too late to be used in WW1 and was obsolete in WW2) were put into service because they were simply too impractical. They were often too heavy to be supported by most roads (and off-road would have been worse), and were a logistical nightmare since their engines guzzled gas like no tomorrow. There was also the combined problem of being so slow and so large that they were easy targets for artillery spotters and bombers and it was near impossible to hide in the field due to it's large profile, so it was easy to disable the tank even before it got into effective range (No matter how much armor you put on a tank, artillery designed to level structures will eventually turn it into an expensive hunk of scrap metal). Overall, commanders found out that it was much better to send out multiple medium/heavy tanks to do the job, than sending a single super heavy. Still, because the idea of a multi-turret warship on treads is universally hella cool, that didn't stop writers from including such weapons in the arsenal of their armies, just to show how powerful they are. Super-Heavy prototypes had cannons that could range between 120mm-280mm, with the Nazis having many of the more absolutely ludicrous designs *cough*''Ratte''*cough*''Maus''*cough*. At the end of the day, this whole concept ended up being a useless waste of money in real life, at least until technology improves sufficiently.
Examples: [[Baneblade]], Maus

===Classes of Not Actually Tanks===

Despite having treads and a gun, the following vehicles are not considered tanks. The difference is that tanks are designed for frontline combat, while other vehicles with treads are designed to carry and support infantry (APC/IFV), bombard enemy positions with heavy artillery (SPGs), or act as general support weapon systems. Many of these vehicles are light enough to be deployed by aircraft, giving them an edge over tanks in response time to emerging threats. If it isn't a purpose built chassis, they are frequently based on the previous or current tank being used to simplify logistics.

*'''Armored Personnel Carrier''' APCs are light vehicles designed to carry infantry and not much else. They're usually given a heavy machine gun to support the infantry they're carrying into battle and to defend itself, but they're highly unlikely to have more firepower than that. They're designed to protect against small arms fire, not tank shells. Unlike IFVs, APCs are not expected to fight on the front due to their lackluster protection and armaments. However, they're sometimes also amphibious, something that the vast majority of tanks are not, allowing for both seafront assaults and quick getaways down waterways. Don't expect anything bigger than a HMG (that being under 20mm, usually also under or equal to 15mm) and a grenade launcher. Very rarely a low caliber (20 to under 25mm) autocannon may be present. May have a couple ATGMs (Anti Tank Guided Missile) to suppress the enemy but it isn't designed to stay in a firefight, an APC is first and foremost a transport.
Examples: [[Rhino]], [[M113 Armored Personnel Carrier|M113]], Namer (notably, it is based on the Merkava, an MBT, and has unusually tough armor)

*'''Self-propelled gun (SPG)''' Vehicles armed with artillery weapons designed to bomb the enemy back into the stone age, ranging from howitzers, mortars, or missile systems. Typically built similarly to tanks, but sacrifice armor for their heavy guns since in normal circumstances they should be too far away to get shot at directly. Not to mention that some artillery pieces have a minimum range where they can drop their payload; thus, the SPG needs to put some distance between them and their target so that they can be in effective range. The advantage to having such artillery on an actual vehicle rather than being stationary, is that counter-battery fire can threaten static guns, while mobile guns can safely get out of the danger zone once they've delivered their payload. Self-propelled guns typically carry a 150+mm Howitzer, much larger than what any proper tank would carry. While mobile rocket platforms such as the [[BM-21 Hail]] or MLRS are more popular than Self-propelled guns and are capable of absolutely soaking an area in rocket spam, the SPG has the advantage of being able to sustain fire for longer periods of time. Besides that, most SPGs can also depress the barrel enough to engage something directly which can be useful in some situations (avoiding collateral damage, for instance). Do note that standard operating procedure for SPGs is to <s>leg it like a little bitch</s> tactically redeploy if the enemy close on their position: even if they carry a big gun, they are not front-line capable vehicles. Direct engagement is avoided even if a huge shell will ruin a punk's day just fine. May have a machine gun or two just in case (and theoretical anti-air in older models, mostly enough to scare them off with a burst of tracers), or an autocannon if the armed force is particularly passive aggressive and has money to blow on useless overkill.
Examples: [[Basilisk Artillery Gun]], [[M109 Howitzer]]

*'''Self-propelled anti-aircraft gun (SPAAG)''' Tank-like vehicles armed with weaponry designed to shoot aircraft out of the sky to provide mobile anti-air cover. There are only three real ways to shoot a very fast moving aircraft out of the sky. [[Dakka|First you can use as many rapid fire guns as you can to fill the air with as many bullets as you can and hope for one hit]]. Second, you can fire one big shell up into the air and at a certain height have it explode spraying shrapnel around it self to score the one hit you need, this are known as Anti Air Artillery, and are known in the English world by the name the Germans used during World War 2, flak. Both have been superseded by AA missiles which can track a target and put that shrapnel warhead closer to the target than just guess work and a slide rule can. Others use both guns and SAMs. As a sidenote, flak tanks (and half-tracks) equipped with heavy machine guns and small autocannons have a nasty reputation as being infantry trouncers as multiple barrels spewing lead at high speed will turn soft ground targets into mulch very quickly. Indeed, both the M19 MGMC and the M42 Duster were primarily used in this role despite having been envisioned as point-defense SPAAGs. That role had something of a heyday between WW2 and Vietnam, with the quad mount 50 cal M45's being nicknamed Kraut Mover and the twin 40mm's of the M42 being used to lumberjack VC hiding in treelines. Modern variants mostly have guided missiles and the BRRRRT variants are usually not mounted on tanks.
Examples: [[Hydra Flak Tank]], [[ZSU 23-4 Shilka]]

*'''Infantry Fighting Vehicle''' Known as IFVs, these almost-tanks are capable of transporting infantry forces, while being armored and armed enough to be of support to the field, unlike light tanks. However, unlike true tanks, IFVs can't be expected to stand up to enemy armor. Modern IFV's can have anti tank missiles, but with their tin can armor, going toe to toe with a main battle tank is suicide and so it supports regular tanks or takes on enemy armor in emergencies. While APCs and IFV can share similar roles and armaments today, the main way to distinguish them is with their main gun: anything that has a main gun smaller than 25mm is classed as an APC, and anything higher is an IFV. IFVs are designed to stay and fight (though not toe to toe with enemy tanks) and act as direct fire support. Effectively, when comparing a squad with an IFV vs a squad with an APC, the later is an infantry squad with a transport, the former is a (light) tank that can dismount some of its crew.
Examples: [[Chimera Transport|Chimera]], [[Razorback]], most [[Land Raider]] patterns (albeit with the difference that they can hold their own against regular tanks just fine), [[BMP]], [[Bradley_Fighting_Vehicle|M2 Bradley]]

*'''Armored Reconnaissance Vehicle''' In some ways they can be confused for IFVs in that these vehicles are similarly equipped and focus on mobility, and may even have limited troop capacities. But where they mainly differ is in doctrinal use: Armored Recon is mainly used to provide independent support to a recon team rather than support front-line troops. As such, troop carrying capacity isn't as necessary if it has any at all. See below the Infantry vs Cavalry Tank distinction as it can apply here as well, since modern cavalry units use such vehicles. Some IFV's share a base chassis with ARVs , those ARVs are usually called Cavalry Fighting Vehicles (CFV).
Examples: [[Salamander Reconnaissance Tank]], [[LAV-25]], [[M113 MRV]], [[Bradley_Fighting_Vehicle|M3 Bradley]]

*'''Tank Destroyer''' Tank destroyers are specialist armor designed for one thing in mind: knocking out armor and not much else. Some are turreted, and some aren't. Most modern ones use guided missiles, all historical and some modern use cannons. What makes them not tanks is a matter of technicality. Tanks are designed for general military purpose (so useful for a range of tasks) while tank destroyers are for only one thing, destroying armor (especially on vehicles). After World War 2 we figured out that since tanks fought other tanks so often anyway tank destroyers don't really make sense so we upgraded the guns on regular tanks. While the role of “Light Anti-Armor Vehicle” was taken by ATGM carriers, which are mostly modified APCS and IFVs, have the ability to kill tanks while being very mobile and easy to transport. A handful of cannon-armed Tank Destroyers still exist, some tracked, others wheeled, but they're a rare breed. They tend to be considered for use with airborne troops in need of anti-armor capability (since a proper tank tends to be too heavy to airdrop) and for certain strategic mobility concerns, usually built by replaced IFV turrets with a cannon equipped one, practically making a wheeled light tank.
Examples: [[Leman Russ Battle Tank#Destroyer Tank Hunter|Destroyer Tank Hunter]], [[Leman Russ Battle Tank#Leman Russ Vanquisher|Leman Russ Vanquisher]], [[M901 ITV]]

*'''Assault guns''' Similar to tank destroyers, assault guns differ in one important way: instead of an anti-tank gun, they're armed with a anti-building weapon, frequently a howitzer. These tended to be fairly big and fairly heavy compared to SPGs, because they're made to get in close to heavy fortifications. After World War 2 assault guns became light air-dropped weapons to support airborne troops if they encountered hard targets. They are comparatively very rare in modern orders of battle. Most that remain are in the Third World (usually WW2 Soviet vintage, they made a LOT of things), but some nations use IFV's equipped with cannon turrets, effectively making wheeled or tracked tank destroyer assault gun hybrids.
Examples: [[Vindicator]], Churchill AVRE

*'''Flame tank''' a tank (going from tankette to heavy, all types were used in WWII) with a [[meme|werfer zat werf flammen]] instead of a big gun as main weapon. Only used in the 1920s-1950s as they were quickly rendered obsolete (it was more cost-effective and just as efficient to have standard tanks have a flamethrower as a coaxial gun), though incendiary weapons of various sorts are still used today, mainly in artillery roles. Typically unpopular with both forces using and opposing them for many reasons: the implications of this weapon were very harsh as the typical man-portable flamethrower has a range of 60 meters max (video games lied to ME?!) and their heavy mechanized versions could reach most of a quarter mile with their concentrated hydraulic spray of diesel fuel. Flame tanks were supposed to start with a "Wet fire", basically spraying the fuel without igniting it into bunkers or fortifications to get enemy units to realize just how hard they were fucked, really weren't protected from the coming blaze at all and in turn they would surrender before being cooked to death. Which a vast majority actually did when '''''hosed with gasoline'''''. The problem was that, due to either open fighting, soldiers that just wouldn't surrender or sadistic crews/commanders, the weapons were often fired outright the first time around to horrific physical and psychological impact on both sides - burning, screaming soldiers, the fumes making crews sick, thick diesel smoke inhalation or oxygen depletion asphyxiating those in poorly ventilated areas (especially caves in the Pacific Front) and the smell of burnt human flesh permanently seared in their minds meant that instant life derailing post-traumatic stress disorder was a very common side effect of witnessing a flame tank in action. Another was that flame tank crews that were captured were usually subjected to torture and summary revenge executions. In the end, flame tanks are remembered as a job nobody wanted to do, an enemy nobody wanted to face, a weapon that accomplished little that soldiers using the man-portable variety (which already had a bad rep' but was begrudgingly tolerated by soldiers as tactically necessary to avoid chemical warfare, nobody in their right mind wanted to clear caves out directly) could not do and pushed the propaganda and soldier's beliefs forward that the enemy truly were barbarians and made of evil, all pushed ahead because a Commissa -- I mean General far removed from the field said they were necessary. Real life Grimdark indeed.
Examples: L3/35 "Lanciafiamme", M3 "Satan", M4 "Crocodile", Flammpanzer III, Churchill Crocodile, Kliment Voroshilov model 8, OT-34,

And finally, something of a special case:

[[File:Hilux.jpeg|200px|thumb|right|What a "technical" looks like over history, as demonstrated in this meme photoshop<ref>We'll ignore that there's only one actual Hilux in this "ad", for the sheer joy of imagining Toyota advertising in glossy magazines to warlords</ref>.]]
*The '''"Technical"''', also known as "non-standard tactical vehicle" or "light improvised fighting vehicle". Essentially, just a pickup truck with a machine gun (or some other semi-portable weapon, like an anti-air or anti-tank weapon) mounted in the back. Originally named "Technical" because some of the first notable versions were hired by charities operating in very dangerous territories in Africa, and since said charities were forbidden from calling them "mercenaries", they euphemistically referred to the money used to hire them as "technical assistance grants". The Technical's most shining moment was probably the "[[wikipedia:Toyota War|Great Toyota War]]" of 1984, where Technicals, armed with precision anti-tank missiles from France, beat a Libyan force with actual tanks. [[Pun| Technically]], [[counts as]] an Infantry Fighting Vehicle, but fills a distinct, unique role in modern warfare: the cheapest, frequently fastest to make IFV available to just about anybody with access to weapons and trucks, useful for projecting power and supporting infantry on the quick and cheap.
Examples: Too many to list, although a Toyota Hilux with an M2 Browning or DShK is probably the most popular Real Life combination, [[Goliath Truck]]

==Tanks in Warhammer 40,000==

Since [[Games Workshop]] seems to think that tank development in the [[Warhammer 40,000]] universe stopped somewhere between the World Wars, most of the iconic fighting vehicles of the [[Imperium]] are a mish-mash of modern and historical designs. We can quibble that some of those vehicles are not really tanks but armored personnel carriers or other specialized classes of armored fighting vehicles, but GW's design team has a serious problem with looping their tracks all the way up and over the chassis for that 1918 flavor, and not even in the correct direction for what they were designed for. A variety of other vehicles in the 40k universe are referred to as tanks, but these are often hovering vehicles like those used by the [[Tau]] or [[Eldar]], and thus technically don't count.

==Real vs Fictional Tank Designs==

Its important to know that games like WH40K subscribes to the rule of cool, rather than logic. So while things like the [[Land Raider]] or [[Baneblade]] looks cool; in a real combat situation, these tanks would range from highly impractical to down-right detrimental for everyone involved. Here's a short list of why real-world tanks, aren't designed like most fantasy tanks.

===Profile===

One of the main concerns of a tank designer has always been reducing a tank's profile as low as possible. This is for this main reason: it makes the tank harder to spot, and shoot at, at range. The others are mainly for mobility, like making the center of gravity lower so it doesn't flip over on uneven terrain, or smaller so its able to operate in various locales. Plus smaller tanks mean less material used, so that can be used on another tank or given to another project.

Sure it seems odd that this would be taken into account, given a tank is as large as a city bus; but since WW2: it wasn't really ''that'' hard to disable a tank (rocket launchers, mines, anti-tank guns, AT grenades, aerial bombers, artillery, better concealed tanks, to name the most common), if your opponent had the weapon to do so, and if they didn't: making a tank unnecessarily large just made it easier for your opponent to spot you. Thus, making your tank's profile as low and small as possible, contributed in making it less of an easy target, while still being able to act like a priority target for your opponent.

As with so many other aspects of tank design, there is a trade-off involved. Making a tank ''too small'' can compromise its ability to function as intended on the battlefield. Interwar tankettes were the most extreme example of this, with some that were smaller than the average automobile but lacking armament more powerful than a machine gun and armour that could protect against the same. With larger tanks, you could still run into similar problems by simply not leaving enough space for sufficiently powerful armament or engines (a problem which plagued many British tanks during the Second World War) or by making it too cramped for the crew to efficiently work with (which is common to many Soviet tanks before and after the Second World War).

===Speed===

Like what we've described above: it wasn't that hard to stop a tank with the proper armaments (or at least avoid it once spotted) and once your opponent has the guns to stop it, your hulking behemoth will slowly turn into a liability soon enough. (And even if they didn't have the guns; that makes your tank too-slow of a threat, which begs the question as to why you have it there in the first place).

Tanks were also pretty vulnerable on their own, requiring infantry support to deal with targets at close range (the co-axial gun only had limited elevation and was slow to aim as the entire turret had to face the target, and the pintle-mounted gun was limited to the line of sight of the gunner) as a nutter with a powerful-enough explosive could easily run/sneak to an unsupported tank and blow it to smithereens, or disable it (which pretty much meant the tank is still toast).

Nazi Germany got around this problem by using mechanized infantry (troops transported in vehicles) to support their armored forces, so everyone picked up on that and started making tanks fast enough to keep up with infantry transports to create a combined-arms assault, allowing tanks to deal with hard targets while infantry dealt with other targets that were too small for the tanks to take care of.

So, people started distancing themselves from heavyweight tanks, and started using lighter, but more faster tanks in modern combat (plus advances in modern technology made it that even a medium tank could still be as survivable and powerful as a true heavy, while still retaining maneuvrability).

===Mobility===

An immobile tank, is a dead tank, so people have gone to great lengths to either reduce, or outright remove the many ways on how infantry could disable a tank from moving; but the most common of this is by taking out the tracks with mines or explosives. This was partly fixed by putting the tracks at ground level, covering the tracks with armor, and adding additional armor skirts to further guard it from attacks from the side, ensuring that little of the tracks were exposed to direct enemy fire. Sure it was still vulnerable up-close and mines can still do a number on it, but that's what your infantry support is for (you did bring them, right?).

While the British Mark 1's rhomboid-tracks looks cool; having that on a tank today made it ''incredibly'' easy for an opposing force to disable your vehicle, as the tracks could be easily targeted. Plus even if you were to cover it in armor; it made your tank unnecessarily bigger, and people wanted to make their tanks as low and small as humanly possible. It also made maintenance and repairs unnecessarily complicated (Have to repair the tracks? Too bad, now you gotta get on top of your tall tank to fix that. Hope snipers aren't watching.).

Also while the sponson-mounted guns look cool, they're useless in modern tank combat. Apart from the obvious issues of being unable to bring your full-firepower to bear if your opponent isn't situated right infront of you AND that they have to be larger than the width of your tank: having two of your sophisticated weapon systems near ground level meant a plethora of reliability issues (went through water or muddy terrain? Pray to the Machine God your gun doesn't malfunction if you didn't clean that right away. Went through a building? Hope all that rubble didn't tear off anything important.).

Also note that this setup was done to for trench and fortification clearing, not tank vs tank combat (since WW1 focused on trench warfare than mechanized assaults). Having your turret in be centered with the hull itself, either with a turret or having it built into the tank itself to save on parts, was infinitely more effective. It also made weight distribution more balanced, which made it easier for tanks to maneuver in rough terrain.

===Logistics===

This should be an obvious point, but the Imperium of Man has only been able to create and maintain ludicrous super-heavy tank designs, because they have the aid of the Mechanicus (even if they've been reduced to a shadow of their former glory) to assist with creation and maintenance, plus having access to thousands of planets full of resources to get materiel and fuel from. Plus the creative liberties of simply accepting that "It just works" and "THE FUTURE", because it'd be boring if we had to explain that a Forge World couldn't build a Baneblade because some mining world couldn't produce the output or the resources for it were earmarked to other projects, rather than something more exciting, like foul traitors constantly assailing their supply lines, or the techpriests need some MacGuffin stolen by the Orks. After all, 40k is a wargame, not a [[Administratum|convoluted bureaucracy simulator]].

Another design point for tanks is resource economy. It had (and still has) to be produced using, and maintained with, the least possible amount of resources whilst still being formidable in it's role. If an army would deploy superheavies today, just remotely near the scale of how Imperial forces do during wartime; they'd be bankrupt and end up with a lopsided army. If creation didn't eat up most of their supplies; the amount of resources they'd need to keep these war machines maintained would put the US Army to shame. Once they realize they can't keep it up, they'd start scrapping those and scramble to turn them into practical tanks (assuming they still had fuel left).

It should also be noted that Warhammer 40k (or most military fiction for that matter) tends to focus on the cutting edge of warfare. We have far more images of Leman Russ tanks and the thousand varieties of Guardsmen than the logistical trucks or field kitchens which keep the Imperium's war machine functioning on a day to day basis. In escapist fiction people want to be Luke Skywalker rather than one of the the X-Wing mechanics at Yavin Base.

===Armaments===
Putting two cannons as your tank's main armament like C&C's Mammoth Tank looks neat and [[Baneblade|UNLEASHING ELEVEN BARRELS OF HELL]] sounds awesome, but that has its own set of problems. One is that putting a lot of main guns on your tank requires you to make the chassis bigger, as you need more room to accommodate the guns, ammunition, and larger engine (as you need more power to keep that sucker mobile), which makes it an even bigger target.

Another is that its a waste of resources; those other main guns, ammo, and materials, would be better put in making another tank, and two tanks are still more threatening than one. It is also either overkill, as the main guns of today's battle tanks can typically penetrate tank armor easily enough, or worthless since if you did meet a tank with armor too strong for your guns, having more of them is not gonna help. The probable rate-of-fire, firepower, or accuracy advantage you have over tanks with only one gun, would be easily off-set with autoloaders, specialized ammunition, better targeting systems, and/or a well-drilled gunner crew. That or an auxiliary missile launcher, which is loads more practical and cost-effective.

One more, is that in the event your tank is destroyed; that's a massive ammo-cookoff you're looking at, which can be dangerous to both the crew and surrounding friendlies.

===The "Soft Factors"===

Then there are a bunch of factors that can't quite be quantified, but significantly impact the quality of the resulting tank. Things such as "How quickly can you reload the main cannon *'''in combat conditions'''*?", "How hard is it to aim the cannon?", "How reliable is the engine?", "Why is it so goddamn hard to steer this thing?", "How much situational awareness can the tank commander have?", "How long does it take to repair?", "Does it have a radio? That you can use in combat conditions?" and so on. They heavily distort the quality of the resulting tank, yet are (mostly) really hard to fit on a data sheet.

==Character Role==

''See also [[Combat roles]] for other roles''

In many role-playing games, particularly the online ones, the term "tank" has also arisen to describe a character whose primary purpose is redirect all damage from enemies to himself. This was one of the primary purpose of actual tanks as well; tanks, being as armored and threatening, are supposed to get most of the enemy's attention while the squishier units like infantry and light vehicles move into advantageous positions to deal more damage, without the threat of serious retaliation.

See, many enemies in RPGs have ''way too much health'', deal way too much damage for most classes to withstand, and fights with them are unlikely to be decided in one round unless they're uncharacteristically vulnerable to save-or-die rays (which almost never happens).

Furthermore, many of the classes that are best at dealing damage (assassin and wizard types, for example) often have very little survivability when it comes to being punched in the face, in order to balance out classes. If a class can both tank damage and deal high damage at the same time, they either render other classes redundant or can do neither as well as a dedicated tank or damage dealer. (This is where the gaming term differs from the historical/military term - a "pure" tank (unit role) is strictly something that attracts and survives damage, without much or even necessarily any of the punch a tank (vehicle type) has.)

Thus, demand is created for a character whose job is to redirect enemies' aggression away from the squishy members of the party and towards them instead, usually using their mastery of mind-control, irritating sound effects, imposition of dangerous effects for attacking anyone else, or simply cutting insults and rude gestures which draw attention to themselves. They also tend to have abilities that help them in resisting, mitigating, avoiding, or regenerating from some of the damage they suffer (and on occasion act as a secondary damage dealer). In most cases, tanks are also often reliant on healer classes as well to keep them alive while they do their thing, as enemies that require tanks can usually deplete a good chunk of their health in a few attacks. Making sure that chunk is constantly restored is required to make sure they can keep at it.

''[[4th Edition Dungeons and Dragons| Fourth Edition]]'' refers to this role as the "defender," while ''[[Dawn of War 2]]'' vets will recognize it as the "[[Tarkus]]", and later the "[[Apollo Diomedes|Diomedes]]." While it is most obvious in online video games, the necessity of drawing fire away from squishier party members toward tougher ones who can take a beating exists in a variety of different games, from [[Sentinels of the Multiverse| cooperative card games]] to MOBAs. The wargame equivalent would be the [[DISTRACTION CARNIFEX]].

==See Also==
*[[Team Yankee]] - a tabletop game that revolves around late Cold War tank warfare, with plenty of info on real-world tanks.

{{Vehicle Warfare}}

[[Category:History]]
[[Category:Vehicles]]

Twin-Linked

2023-01-22T09:08:37Z

2601:1C0:4500:A540:0:0:0:8ACF: /* In Real Life */

{{Wh40k-stub}}
[[File:Nerf_Twin_Linked.jpg|right|400px]]
'''Twin-Linked''' weapons are a subtype of weapon found in the [[Warhammer 40,000]] universe that embody the timeless tactic in warfare of ensuring a hit by slinging more rounds at the target. The way this is done is typically duct taping two guns together and firing them at once so that the target has to avoid twice the number of rounds. Typically vehicles, monstrous creatures and terminators carry twin-linked weapons, considering that typically only heavy weapons are twin-linked. Although storm bolters are twin-linked boltguns in appearance, they actually increase the fire rate of the weapon. Perhaps a prerequisite of being allowed to wear Terminator armor is knowing where those extra shots go.

Where exactly the other gun's shots go if you hit the first time is a mystery whose answers are known to none, but it means that twin-linked weapons are, somewhat ironically, [[Ork|horribly inaccurate]] as at least one of the guns is always guaranteed to [[Fail|miss the enemy]]. As of 8th Edition, this is now no longer an issue, see below.

For the most part, twin-linked weapons are more often found to be mounted on vehicles, turrets, batteries, specific emplacements and etc. for a variety of reasons. From the fact that they can afford to have that much dakka, they might actually ''need'' that much dakka, and being mounted on a vehicle or some static weapon emplacement means that recoil or weight isn't much of an issue (depending on the weapon of course).
==In Game Terms==

When trying to hit a target, you can reroll if you miss. This is useful especially if you are using a weapon that [[Plasma|has a good chance of melting your face off rather than firing]], as it means that if you get a Gets Hot! result you can reroll, though template Gets Hot! weapons roll for it before resolving scatter, [[Leman Russ Battle Tank#Leman Russ Executioner|so don't put too much faith in plasma cannons]]. Weapons that scatter reroll an undesirable result if they are twin-linked as well. This can be exploited to allow you to reroll ordnance (for example, coupling a [[Necron|Triarch Stalker with a Doomsday Ark]]).

This, however, resulted in a rather odd display of mechanics over common sense: if you hit with your first shot, rolling the second bullet would cause it to just disappear into the warp itself. This made twinlinking always flatly worse than just having a second shot: Two of the same gun have the same odds to get at least one shot, but the two guns have a chance to score a hit and wound with the second shot.

===8th edition===
Twin-linked no longer gives you a reroll - in an incredible display of common sense, [[Games Workshop|our overlords]] have decided that a twin-linked autocannon is simply two autocannons duct taped together, and twin-linked weapons now give you twice as many shots as a non twin-linked weapon.

Aside from the logical improvement to its advantages, since the additional shots now actually go somewhere (they can all hit the target), it also logically makes twin-linked plasma weapons more likely to melt your own face, instead of less likely. Which really does make sense.

==In Real Life==
Functionally in reality, twin linked weapons are most often seen in modern warfare in situations where you or the target are moving very fast and you need to increase your odds of hitting by shooting more bullets. This is why pretty much all small caliber AA weapons tend to be mounted in pairs such as the M45 Quadmount, quite literally two pairs of twin-linked Browning Machine Guns that were twin-linked in turn, or the German Wirbelwind AA tank, or the 4 twin linked 50 calibers on the P-47 for eight total. In ground combat twin-linking is rarer but not unheard of, the SAS jeeps used by long range desert patrols were sometimes armed with twin-linked <s>Lewis guns.</s> Vickers 'K' guns.

The more common use in the past was for single shot weapons in which case reloading would take so long that being able to get a second shot off quickly was more important, cost be damned. This is why many old time 'elephant guns' have two barrels. If the elephant or even a boar turns on you if your first shot does not kill it you better pray you can get a follow up shot to connect. Over-under shotguns (breech loading double shot shotguns) for hunting are another example: getting a second shot off immediately matters in case your target escapes you, be it a deer or especially a bird.

Muskets can count too, as some variants were built custom by gunsmiths to fire both musketballs at the same time, though these would tend to fetch a higher price than just a good old normal musket, and as such were usually reserved to men of great wealth or standing within either the merchant classes or the nobility, the nobility being the more likely of the two.

===In Other Words...===

[[Dakka|MOAR DAKKA]]

==Gallery==
===Imperium===
<gallery>
File:SquadStubber.png|<center>Close-up of the [[Death Korps of Krieg| Krieg]] [[Heavy Weapons Squad]].</center>
File:SaberStubber.png|<center>The Sabre Gun Platform, when you think one pair of Heavy Stubbers isn't enough</center>
File:TigrusBolter53.jpg|<center>A Tigrus Combi-Bolter</center>
File:Leman_russ_exterminator_(las).jpg|<center>Leman Russ Exterminator</center>
File:Annhilator.jpg|<center>Leman Russ Annihilator</center>
File:99590105335_Dkkmarsalphapatternannihilator02.jpg
File:Hellfire_Dread.jpg|<center>Hellfire Dreadnought with Twin-linked LasCannons</center>
File:MortisDreadMini.jpg|<center>Mortis Dreadnought with two pairs of Autocannons for massive dakka</center>
File:DeathwingDreadnought.jpg|<center>Deathwing Dreadnought</center>
File:99120101083 VenerableDreadnoughtNEW01.jpg|<center>Venerable Dread with a pair of LasCannons</center>
File:Deredeo_Dreadnought.jpg|<center>Deredeo Dread, even more dakka than the Mortis<center>
File:OsironPattern.jpg|<center>Contemptor-Osiron Dread with twin-linked Autocannons<center>
File:Contemptor-Cortus.jpg|<center>Contemptor-Cortus Dread with twin-linked Heavy Bolters</center>
ile:Tartaros.jpg|<center>Two marines in Tartaros Terminator Armor;one carrying a combi-bolter the other a Reaper Autocannon<center>
</gallery>
===Orks===
<gallery>
File:Twin-Linked_Shoota.PNG|<center>MegaNob Twin-linked Shoota</center>
TwinShootaFront.jpg|<center>Front View</center>
TwinShootaBack.jpg|<center>Back View</center>
TwinShootaNob.jpg|<center>Common Twin-linked Shoota</center>
TwinShootaTrakk.jpg|<center>Twin-linked Shoota mounted on a [[Wartrakk|Wartrakk]]</center>
KombiSlugga.jpg|<center>[[Shootas'an_Dakkas#Slugga|Slugga Variant of the Shoota]]</center>
</gallery>

==See Also==
* [[Combi-weapon]]

[[Category:Warhammer 40,000]]

Incendiary Weapons

2023-01-21T08:43:55Z

2601:1C0:4500:A540:0:0:0:8ACF: /* Historic Use */

A '''Flamethrower''' is a device which projects a jet of fire. While the Flamethrowers have other applications such as defoliation the most well known is as a weapon. Flamethrowers can be very destructive against wooden structures and flood rooms with a lethal inferno. Even so, one of the biggest factors about flamethrowers is psychological. People have a well established aversion to being consumed by fire, both by instinct and because being burned to death is a horrible way to go. Therefore, the mere ''threat'' of being burned alive (such as by merely drenching the intended target in unlit fuel) is enough to send people running.

==Historic Use==
The basic mechanisms of a Flamethrower are pretty simple. All you need is a cistern for fuel, a pump, a nozzle and a pilot light. It's not hard to figure out so long as you have the technology for pumps and access to some kind of Oil. As such there are various interment examples of there use throughout history. The earliest example this editor could find would be in the battle of Delium in 424 BC where the attacking Boeotian's tried to some some kind of flamethrower against the Athenians defenders.

The first perhaps wide spread use of flame throwers though goes to the Byzantines and there "Greek Fire". Greek Fire is some times considered 'the first secret weapon' and alongside roman concrete is one of the earliest trope setters for 'unknown lost technology' that 40k takes and run's with. In any case Greek Fire was a very effective weapon and although land based uses are recorded, as you can imagine in an era of wooden ships (with the cistern and pump being heavy) it was a dangerous weapon on water. As stated we still don't know quite what greek fire was, though we have a few ideas. It alongside most early (and modern) flame throwers were likely used some sort of petroleum derived compound, but if you do a quick eye ball of Byzantines territory in the time Greek Fire was supposedly introduced, not a lot of natural oil fields were left especially easy to get stuff so jury is still out. Other have suspected some kind of quicklime based solution as well.

Meanwhile in Asia the forces of the Song Dynasty also built flamethrowers, multiple types in fact. It's genneral understood (read stolen from wiki) that the Chinese of this time period were tributes petroleum from Vietnam. Called "měng huǒ yóu" in Chinese which translates to "fierce-fire oil" from Vietnam which gave the Chinese fire weapons there heat. One such flamethrower is recorded in the "Wujing Zongyao", a military guide written around 1040-1044.

And of course any discussion of pre modern incendiary would be incomplete without mentioning: Naptha. Naphtha is just a type of petroleum known since ancient times. Nowadays it's pretty broadly used as a name for crude oil or even more refined items like kerosene. But while Napatha is bit boring since it's 'just' patroleum, it's still a name that shows up in both history and fantasy so it's worth going over quickly what it is: just read 'crude oil' and you won't be too far wrong.

Even so, it was in the 20th century in which Flamethrowers really came into their own as man portable units. It started with the Germans who worked out that they could be used to clear out trenches.

==Modern Use==

At present, flamethrowers in a military context are mainly used against bunkers, pillboxes, and other fortified positions. Since they're throwing flaming liquid, and that liquid can pass around corners, through narrow passages, and over barriers.

There are also valid civilian uses, most notably for starting control fires<ref>Smaller fires intended to stop or prevent larger ones from spreading</ref> and melting snow and ice, which is why some variants are actually sold to the general public (and only regulated as fire hazards). Such commercial flamethrowers typically do not have the range of military ones; a WW2 M2 flamethrower has an effective range of about 65ft, well in excess of any civilian application.

==Flamethrowers in Fantasy==

In [[Discworld]] flamethrowers show up on occasion including the Klatchian Fire Engine in ''Men At Arms'' and the Deep Downers have some in ''Thud!''

==Flamethrowers in Science Fiction==

== See Also ==
*[[Flamer]]
{{Stub}}
[[Category:Weapons]]
{{MedievalWeaponry}}

Armor

2023-01-21T08:18:17Z

2601:1C0:4500:A540:0:0:0:8ACF: /* Types of Body Armor */

'''''Armor''''' (also spelled Armour) is a protective layer of material used to protect something from damage. Some types of armor includes armor for buildings, armor for vehicles and armor for personnel (generally referred to as body armor). Putting armor on people or putting them in [[Rhino|metal boxes]] to keep them safe is important because we can be [[Rip and Tear|killed]] by sharp rocks or branches or basically anything else at all except grass and leaves. In fact not [[Wikipedia:Bamboo#Weapons|even]] [[Wikipedia:Toxicodendron_radicans|those]]. This is because because our skin is not armor and it [[FAIL|sucks]]. This article will focus mostly on body armor.

[[File:ERA man.jpg|thumb|350px|right|Here you see a highly advanced tactical soldier well equipped for battle with the latest in ERA technology]]

== Types of Body Armor ==
Numerous forms of body armor have been developed over the millennia by civilizations with various levels of technology and resources on hand. Every single one of these died out in Europe by the 18th century, not, contrary to popular belief, because they were useless - forged iron or steel plate armour was still very effective at deflecting bullets, as shown by the armour European Cuirassiers wore well into the 19th century; in fact they were proof marked by a single dimp in the plate itself, made by firing a flintlock pistol at point blank at them - but equipping the increasing numbers of soldiers of the standing armies that became the norm after the Thirty Year War and the reforms undertaken during the long reign of Louis XIV. of France was simply too costly; the levied and mercenary forces prior to and during this war bought their equipment out of their own pockets. Efforts to make personal armor for the lowly Infantryman cheap and efficient enough never really stopped, but were almost met with failure, either because the results proved to be too heavy, too unreliable or too expensive, most of the times all three. Modern body armor works different insofar as they dissipate the force of a bullet hitting them like a big pillow, (spreading the kinetic energy over a relatively large area instead of outright making the bullet bounce off, also causing the bullet to get stuck in vest instead of going -plink!-) but some of the force will still get through and, as many military and policemen (and women) can attest, the sensation of getting hit while wearing a Kevlar vest is not very pleasant, to put it mildly; the remaining force is still sufficient to break bones or cause internal damage if you're unlucky. Still, a treatable, if painful, wound is of course still preferrable over a lethal one.

*'''Leather armor''' - not just any leather would do; soft leather offers no protection against blades. You need specially treated leather to be effective. Another name for this is "cuir bouilli" or "cuirbouille". The exact method of creating is unclear, as simply boiling leather in water (as the French name implies) will result in leather that’s hard but highly brittle (like diamond) to the point it can be snapped with one's bare hands. The best guesses are that animal glue and/or oil were involved. The high biodegradability (and, to many vermin, tastiness) of leather, especially with period natural treatment, has created a near total lack of historical examples surviving though we do see some possible examples in period art. Whatever it is, what is for certain is that this was the result was not flexible like a modern leather jacket, but would have a fairly solid shape (one possible method of creating it resulted in leather sturdy enough it could actually be used to ''chop wood''). The general consensus is that it had less presence in Europe (though there are surviving inventory accounts that confirm it existed). Meanwhile, in the East (both middle and far) it did exist (with inventories and accounts confirming Chu and Zhou armories using rhino or water buffalo hide), it wasn't that much widespread either and disappeared once other materials were obtainable. These circumstances became more prevalent as metalworking became more accessible. On the Central Asian steppes or in areas with large amounts of livestock, the leather was more widespread as lamellar or scale armor. This was likely a matter of resource availability as the nomadic tribes had little access to metal outside of trading and would prioritize using it for tools, swords, speartips, and arrowheads instead. Regarding the tribes in the Americas (some examples include the Tlingit, Chukchi, and Yupik or the Plain Indian's hair-pipe breastplates) as well as the Polynesian and Austronesian islands, where metalworking was noticeably diminished or not present, leather armor was relatively common while bone, shell, and coins were used as external reinforcing elements. Some examples include the Baju/Baru tribal war garb (made from hide, turtle shell, &/or crocodile skin) in the Nusantara Archipelago in Austronesia. On the other hand, all these regions gradually phased out leather once they gained reliable supplies of crafted metal or firearms via trading or learning metalsmithing. While phased out as as a primary form of protection, Buff coats were still made of leather and retained to act as cushioning underneath metal breastplates. It also served as slashing protection for exposed joints or in cases where wearing metal armor was inconvenient.
** Real-life note: while sometimes seen on TV and in video games, there is no such thing as studded leather armor as mentioned below in Brigandine's section. Think about it. How does adding a metal studs cause a significant increase to the armor's effectiveness? You will see this mistake in many RPGs. This idea probably came from people misunderstanding some of the other kinds of armor that use cloth as a binding agent on the outside.
*'''Padded cloth armor''' - Cloth bundled in sufficient thickness was one of the first forms of armor, since bronze armors tended to be too expensive or too heavy to be widely used. Cloth continued to be used mostly as padding underneath metal armor, to help absorb blows and all through the middle ages continued to be the go to protection for men-at-arms in lieu of expensive metal plate or mail. Despite what you might think it (obviously) provided one of the best protection against percussive strikes, second only to full plate (which have padded cloth integrated into it), surprisingly high level of protection against slashes and swings, unless the blade is razor sharp (most historical blades weren't that sharp) and while it barely ever provides full protection against piercing weapon heavier than a shortbow arrow, it does lower the depth of penetration, often turning instantly lethal wounds from glancing stabs or slashes to survivable if debilitating, or even surface damage, with an added bonus of often catching enemy weapon (although given in most times where blades get stuck in padded cloth after stabbing through, they pierce deep enough to kill so it's more to the benefit of your companions than yours). Sometimes confused with Brigandine armor (which externally appeared to be made of cloth with metal studs but also contained overlapping metal pieces). Besides the Gambeson and some Austronesian Baju/Baru war jackets woven from hardy fibrous plants, some other historical examples include:
** The distinctive ancient Greek armor called "Linothorax" (literally meaning linen torso): believed to be made out of quilted linen with glue laminate and is presumed to fall under this category, though historians can't be entirely sure as no full examples survived the centuries. Lighter versions known as "Spola" were worn by the Greeks and Macedonians.
** A gambeson is unlike most “soft” armor in that we actually have a fairly good understanding of its construction due to some 15th century writing detailing how to make it (deer skin with a ~30 layers of linen).
*** Aketon is roughly equivilent to a gamebeson, being made of raw cotton (which is not the soft, smooth, fluffy stuff the clothes you're wearing are made out of) rather than linen. Generally assumed to be a corruption of the arabic word for cotton.
** A hard, quilted, and 2 inch-thick form of cotton armor was used by the Mesoamericans such as the Aztecs, Toltecs, and the Tlaxcalans. Called ”Ichcahuipilli” in the Nahuatl, it was often hardened with resin-like substances like brine salt. In combat, it was effective against obsidian-edged Macuahuitl/Macana sword-clubs and arrows. They were also effective enough that Spanish Conquistadors sometimes adopted them for use in the summer to avoid being baked alive in their steel cuirasses. Other related armor include decorated sets called "Tlahuiztli." Similar thickly padded cotton tunics were worn by Incan nobles and Muisca warriors in South America (with the former using small wooden planks to reinforce the back).
** An early bulletproof form of cotton armor worn by the 19th century Joseon Koreans called “Myeonje baegab.” It was invented when they confronting Western armies at the same time the Western powers began probing expeditions into Qing China and Tokugawa Japan (pre-Meiji Reformation). While effective against low velocity bullets from black powder firearms, it was prone to being burned from incendiary hazards like explosions or red-hot shrapnel.
** Various early forms of pistol-proof armor were documented that were made from layers of silk but were usually expensive and restricted to wealthy politicians or nobles (for example, [[The World Wars|Franz Ferdinand]] ironically was believed to have owned one but wasn't wearing it on his fateful final day, though as he was shot in the neck it wouldn't have made a difference).
*'''Paper armor''' - this one sounds crazy, but apparently it was actually a thing in 10th Century China. The Mythbusters tested it out and it might have been actually effective... at least, so long as it does not get wet, a bit of of an issue considering human beings tend to sweat when under the stress of matters of life-and-death. Indeed citizen, this is testable by you! Obtain a notebook and ensure it is tightly closed. Then, stab it with a knife as hard as possible. Apparently, it was also used by some ethnic tribes in China as late at the 19th century while interlayered with cotton and was good against smoothbore muskets and bayonets but not breech-loading rifles.
*'''Wooden armor''' - either based on wooden planks held together or overlapped with fibre in a manner similar to mirror armor, brigandine, and lamellar, or alternatively composed of woody rods interwoven like a thick basket (similar to rattan shields in Asia) into the form of cuirasses and shields called rod-and-slat armor, these types of armor were known to be used in pre-colonial natives in Austronesia (such as the Kiribati) and the Americas (such as among the Inca, Haida, Iroqouis, & Tlingit tribes). Like leather armor or cotton armor, there are very few preserved copies due to wood’s tendency to rot away when exposed to wet climates with most accounts coming from written records by colonial explorers. While effective against the wood, bone, and stone based weaponry used indigenously in the region, it inevitably disappeared once metal weapons or firearms were introduced by Western explorers.
**”Bamboo armor” - basically wooden armor, but with the advantage in that you can shape bamboo more easily. Bamboo is also notable in the sense that it has a high strength weight ratio. It also is rather weather resistant.
*'''Scale armor''' - An early form of armour, sporting overlapping metal (cuirbouille and lacquered leather were also used) plates arranged in a similar fashion to roofing tiles, which were riveted/sewn onto a backing cloth or leather and oftentimes loosely laced together in rows. One of the earliest examples of armour, used predominantly in Eastern cultures most distinctly used to deck out their early heavy cavalrymen and horses both in this. These "Cataphracts" were said to be able [[Awesome|to get showered in arrows without getting hit]]. Used by Rome as the lorica squamata, apparently simultaneously with mail. The art of ''Grandes Chroniques de France'' shows (at least) helmets with such an appearance existed in Europe as lower class armor in or before 1270.
*'''Mirror armor''' - an early form of plate, this was a small round bronze plate attached to the torso. Besides physical protection, it was also believed to ward off the supernatural. The plate itself was frequently a supplement over a suit of mail, but plenty of poor warriors throughout ancient history made due with hoping that no one would hit them around the single non-encompassing plate they strapped to their chest (beats having no armor).
*'''[[Mail]]''' - the iconic armor made of interlocking rings. One of the most common and effective type of armor from the ancient world to the middle ages. Flexible and easy (though time-consuming) to make, it was widely used by many cultures. It was also significantly easier to repair, as a break could easily be mended by replacing a few rings, whereas a hole in plate armor might require a complete replacement. While fairly effective against foot soldiers, the crossbow and the lance charge required knights to wear extra armor over mail for additional protection. In the modern era, they are used for non-combative roles, such as shark suits, butcher's gloves, animal control, and dealing with high-power electrical wiring (because electrons "slide" along the mesh rather than penetrate", admittedly the mesh must be very tightly made). Some nations still use mail armor to supplement riot gear. Note that it MUST be backed with leather or something stiff, otherwise knives will drive it into the body. Just for the love of god: don't get shot. The British tested this in WW1 and the bullets ends up dragging the links into the body with it. They did wind up using it to protect crew inside a tank from spalling that was reliably created from even non-penetrating hits against its armor (early tank armor just wasn't very thick, and the issue lessened by the time of World War II's technological advances in tanks).
*'''Plated Mail''' - Also known as Mail and Plate armor or splinted mail, this is not what some sourcebooks refer to as platemail, which is basically just plate armor worn over a mail hauberk. Plated mail integrates metal plates into the rest of the mail pattern, ranging from large rectangular plates on areas like the chest, to small plates arranged like fish scales on areas that require more dexterity, such as near the shoulders and back. A form of transitional armor in Europe alongside brigandine as knights gradually shifted from full mail to plate armor, it was popular with medieval Slavs, Eastern Europeans, Persians, Indians, and other Asian kingdoms.
*'''Laminar armor''' - armor made from overlapping bands of metal. A predecessor to full-body plate armor, most famous example is the ancient Roman [[wikipedia:Lorica_segmentata|Lorica Segmentata]], though it was less prevalent among the Romans than is usually portrayed and mail remained in use among the Romans' frontline infantry, even in the Segmentata's heyday. Other examples existed such as the Dendra armour from Mycenaean Greece, some Warring State Period samurai armor once muskets were in use, or Renaissance Polish Hussars but the latter was held together by sliding rivets rather than leather strips and laces used in Greek and Roman versions of the armor.
*'''Lamellar armor''' - <s>Essentially scale armor sewn together</s> Not exactly. It's an armour made from overlapping pieces of leather, ivory/bone, or metal, each piece being laced side-by-side to create semi-rigid rows, which then are laced together to form a complete suit of armour. This form differs from other "overlapping plates" types of armour in that it is self-contained and does not rely on backing material to keep the all the pieces together (unlike Scale or Brigandine). Again it is one of the oldest types of armour (being found in places as widespread as Mesopotamia, Europe, the Central Asian Steppes, Pre-Columbian North America, and even the Arctic Circle) and was still in use as recently as 1930s.
*'''[[Samurai]] armor''' - depending on the period, it could be lamellar, laminar, or even western plate (but not wood. That has no basis in history). The helmet (kabuto) had a distinct shape that often featured ornaments and even a removable facemask (Darth Vader's helmet is said to be a hybrid of a kabuto and a German stahlhelm). Also notable for featuring one or two large [[pauldrons]] (called ''sode'') on the heavier models that protected the entire upper arm, and were used as small shields to absorb impacts while leaving both hands free for weapon handling. ([[Power Armour|Sounds familiar, huh?]])
**'''Ashigaru armor''' - Worn by conscripts, it featured the same kinds of breastplates, a lesser helmet (which was sometimes made of wood) and some minor stuff but was overall less complete than samurai armor. Eventually became a standardized, mass-produced design used by everyone after [[firearms]] made their entrée, relegating the heavier samurai armors to symbols of status.
*'''Brigandine''' - a.k.a "Corazzina,” “Coat-of-plates,” and “Jack of Plate” armor. Brigandine is a "poor man's plate" and was quite popular in medieval Europe as part of "transitional" armor alongside plated mail (when knights began transitioning from full mail to plate armor), when worn in combination with mail and metal splints covering the limbs. While it may not provide as sturdy protection compared to full plate, it was very easy to make and repair. Also, while not as flexible as mail, it had more rigid protection against blunt force trauma. In essence, it was a compromise between the two while also being cheaper. Even after nobles and knights began using full plate armor, it was still kept as a form of armor for all rank-and-file men-at-arms; even seeing use in the New World by colonists against the natives’ arrows. It was also widespread across all of Eurasia with evidence of its existence seen as far out as as Turkey, India, Russia, China, and even Japan. Often confused with "studded leather armour" or the padded cloth gambeson. In modern day warfare, ballistic vests with trauma plate inserts made from metal or ceramic on the front, back, and sides of the body are spiritual successors to this form of armor. <s>Construction-wise, it’s essentially an inverted suit of scale armor with the backing cloth on the outside</s> Not quite. Underneath the cloth and over the padding, a "brig" is built from overlapping plates of various sizes and shapes, riveted onto a leather or cloth "jacket", but it differs from other "overlapping plates" armours in that:
** A) the plates are *usually* bigger and shaped according to where they go on the armour (scale and lamellar mostly use same-sized, same-shape plates),
** B) they are riveted (or sewn in the Jack-of-Plate’s case) inside the leather/cloth and not on the outside and
** C) the plates are '''not''' linked together in any fashion and fully rely on their fastening to the backing to keep them where they're supposed to be.
*'''[[Plate armor]]''' - armor made from single, solid pieces of metal. Bronze plate armor had been used in ancient times, but was limited to helmets and sometimes breastplates due to the weight of the armor. Full suits of plate armor were not possible until improvements in smithing allowed for large bars of steel to be hammered out into single pieces. A popular misconception about full plate is that it's very hard to move in, to a point it's exclusive to cavalry. While this is true for a '''tourney plate''' specifically designed for maximum protection in jousting tournaments, an actual battle plate was designed with maximum mobility in mind, and it was not uncommon for a knight (or later an officer) to do a somersault or dance with his lady while testing his new plate armor. During and after the Renaissance, mass produced '''munitions plate''' armor appeared; this was usually a partial suit of armor that protected the chest, shoulders, and upper leg; it was partially effective against harquebus fire and early grenades but fell out of use as muskets proliferated.
*'''Jack Chains''' - if you were too poor to afford proper plate armor, you could at least add some metal reinforcements to your gambeson called Jack Chains. These were essentially gauntlets, elbow plates, and shoulder guards linked together by chains and attached to the arms so that one could, at bare minimum, block slashes to their sides without getting cut, or use it as a improv shield against incoming sword attacks.
*'''Makeshift Armor''' - Not really a set of armor in the traditional sense, generally makeshift armor is what ever one could scrounge up to make a protective wear. In the modern day, this is a protestor (think 2014 Ukraine Revolution) go to for long term engagement. Generally, motorcycle and safety helmets alongside heavy thick jackets, protective sports gear, or motorcycle gear would be the go to, as well as whatever one can strap to themselves. Don't be wearing something that might shatter easily though if you expect to be shot at, because that might manage to injure you even worse with the flying bits.
*'''Flak Jackets''' - The first standard-issue modern body armor to be developed, Flak Jackets were developed in WWII out of high-strength nylon to protect aircrews from fragments fired from flak cannons in conjuncture with manganese steel plates. While good against shrapnel and pistol rounds, it was still ineffective against rifle bullets. Before the invention of Kevlar and ballistic vests, this was the only kind of body armor available to modern soldiers expected to walk.
*'''Early 20th century armor''' - in WW1 and 2 many nations began experimenting with various forms of body armor to deal with shrapnel. This included steel breastplates, lamellar and steel plates in canvas carriers. This was more experimental than anything else. The biggest users of body armor in WW2 were the soviets who issued "steel bibs" to their soldiers. These could stop shrapnel fire and pistol bullets (a big deal given that Sub Machine Guns were a common infantry arm for urban combat) but were on the heavy side and were restricted to urban warfare or motorized infantry.
*'''Ceramic armor''' - Originally descended from the ceramic “Chicken plate” armor worn by helicopter gunship crews, it is typically, high-strength ceramic plates (typically made from boron carbide) are used as an energy-absorbing component in some ballistic vests (otherwise the wearer would suffer blunt trauma and internal bleeding from a bullet impacting the vest). A common myth is that Ceramic trauma plates shatter after only a 1-2 hits. This somewhat of an exaggeration, although generally plates are certified to take one well aimed steel-cored 7.62x63/53 mm rifle round (in layman's terms, a armor piercing sniper bullet) straight in and anything more you get out of it is pushing your luck. These are some of the best plates for infantry.
*'''Ballistic vests''' - "bulletproof" armor vests able to stop bullets of varying sizes and speeds. For "soft" armor, the use of high-strength fibers that "catch" the projectile, thereby slowing them down enough to prevent them from penetrating, are used, typically for security guards, low-intensity combat areas jobs, and cops. For "hard" armor, ceramic/metal/ultra-high-strength plastic/combination-of-the-previous may be used in the form of solid plates. Body armor may come in as either a standalone vest (i.e. "soft" kevlar vest) or a carrier (which can further more simply be a holder for a solid plate or a combination of "soft" and "hard" armor). Options of groin, neck, and shoulder protection may be included with the vests but aren't used unless you're in a SWAT team or fighting in close quarters in a building.
**'''Ballistic Visor''' - A visor of transparent, bulletproof, plastic. Despite its weight, bulk and making it impossible to use a standard rifle properly, it's only really suitable against low powered handgun rounds and thus it sees little use outside of European SWAT counterparts.
*'''Blast suits''' - full-body armors capable of absorbing the heat and shrapnel of a bomb blast. The only part that isn't protected are the hands, since wearing thick gloves is detrimental to manual dexterity. So if a bomb goes off, you may be maimed and lose parts of your hands - but at least you're not dead or torn to ribbons by shrapnel! May also include a closed air supply in the case of biological or chemical bombs. Commonly worn by EOD technicians. Often used in TV shows, movies and video games to allow its user to shrug off gunfire. This is obviously false as the suit is designed to stop kinetic energy and shrapnel NOT bullets. Attempting to mimic media like that is a good way to end up like Swiss cheese.
*'''[[Power Armor]]''' - As of current, we already have prototype exoskeletons, but they're one of the many inventions that isn't in common use purely because of current limits on battery power (all current examples are plugged into a power source). There isn't as much a need for such strength in direct combat like in fiction, as it's designed more for load-bearing in mind, allowing for bigger, heavier guns and/or more ammo. However, that could include allowing the user to wear heavier armor as well. Generally speaking, the servos and external components are rather exposed. Think STALKER's exoskeleton for modern military exoskeleton prototypes. Frankly, you're more likely to find these systems being used by workers in a factory or maintenance depot than on the battlefield, and that will likely remain the case until the power situation is figured out. A rare case of mundane utility winning out over combat potential for first time deployment.

== Modern Body Armor ==
With modern technology and all it's amenities, a large choices of body armor exists on the market (the NIJ level approved list for body armor products consumes 212 pages on a PDF file, and that's just stuff the manufacturer has paid the considerable expense to have tested by the NIJ instead of in-house). That said it is good to know what levels of protection for both ballistic and melee threats are. The advent of modern style body armour came at the beginning of the Cold War, when military equipment became ever more complicated to handle and expensive to make. These two factors put an incentive in place for the military leaders of the world to invest more resources into the training of its Soldiers, but also to protect this training and money invested into it (as of writing this passage, the cost of the training alone is estimated by the Pentagon to range between 20-40.000 US-Dollars ''per soldier for just basic training''), as well as the outrageously expensive equipment they are carrying. Compare this to previous wars like World War 2, where 90 days were deemed sufficient enough to teach some basic tactics and the workings of an M1 Garand and whatever specialty gear the individual soldier was issued. Point being: The advancements in weapon lethality also made Soldiers much less expendable (ironically enough) than their previous incarnations.

[[image:NIJ Ballistic Protection Rating.JPG|thumb|250px|right|NIJ Ballistic Standard]]
[[image:UL 752 Bullet Resistance Chart.PNG|thumb|250px|right|UL 752 Ballistic Standard]]

*'''Ballistic threats''' Aka bullets most of the time. Soft body armor (aka Kevlar, UHMW Polyethylene, Dyneema, etc) that is rather flexible, but also vulnerable to high velocity threats. Thus most body armor of that class is relegated between II to IIIA. From there on out, it's hard body armor, which usually consists of some sort of metallic (usually steel, but titanium and high-strength aluminum are options too), ceramics, and composites. NIJ Standard III to IV stop those threats. Technically, though only rated up to 30-06 AP rounds (IV), some plates of body armor offer higher than IV. Some have even shown to stop a .50 BMG round, though the likelihood of one surviving such a shot from the sheer force of it hitting them even without going into them is still in question. Particularly when that burst of energy can still rupture organs or shatter bones. Standard helmets only go up to level III
** Since some common threats are ''just'' above certain ratings, like 55 grain 5.56 from a 20 inch barrel penetrating level III or 5.7 pistols beating most soft armor, the NIJ system is currently undergoing an overhaul. While most western countries use NIJ rating standards, at least as a secondary, Russia has its own, completely unconnected, system for rating armor.

*'''Stab threats''' Protects against low energy stabbing objects (aka knives and maybe some small swords). Stab and piercing vest should not be trusted for higher level threats such a two handed weapons such as an pickaxe, sledgehammer, axe, spear, and even affixed bayonets. Even a knife in the hands of someone who can put an unusually high amount of force into stabbing can defeat a stab vest. However it is still great for stuff people would likely to conceal where rapid quick jabbing is likely to occur. Of course there is probably protective gear such as riot gear that could be more withstanding of heavier two handed threats, but it's likely best to not take a pickaxe to the chest in the first place.

Overlap between the two categories is minimal. Metal ballistic plates will stop knifes, though said plate covers minimal body area and is typically heavy. Soft armor is one or the other, though one could be worn over the other at the cost of bulk.

[[image:NIJ Stab level.PNG|thumb|200px|right|NIJ Stab standard]]

== Modern Materials ==
For soft armor vests, the original materials used to make the dozens of layers that catch bullets and absorb their energy were either silk, cotton, or nylon. Ultimately, they were replaced with high strength synthetic polymer fibers with Kevlar being the first invented in the the 1970's and replaced ballistic nylon. It's been competing ever since with over a dozen rival polymer formulas.
The standard hard armor trifecta of UHMWPE (essentially dense polymers ratched up to 11), Steel/titanium, and Ceramic usually places Ceramic at the top with the latter being first used on helicopter crews in the 1970's as well. As ceramic is not vulnerable to steel-core or fast-moving threats, it does not fold to M855 and M193 at the NIJ III level like UHMWPE and Steel do, respectively. What makes metals and UHMWPE appealing for plate inserts over ceramic is cost reduction and (assuming the plates haven't been penetrated yet) reusability. On the other hand, metal plate inserts need to be coated with high strength resins and polymer covers to prevent metal fragments from ricochets and spalling from hitting soldiers in the face or limbs.

== Yurop and Russia ==
Outside of the US, there are standards like VPAM and GOST, HOSDB and SK. Of these, the HOSDB is the only one not designed for military and civil use, while the rest are comprehensives intended for both military and civil protection.

==Anatomy of armor==
[[File:HenryVIIIArmor.jpg|right|thumb|300px|You thought we were joking about the dick armor?]]
Basic terminology of the different parts of armor. Unless you were very wealthy, such as a knight, not everyone had every part of their body covered in armor.

*[[Helmet]] - protects the head, one of the most common pieces of armor.
*Gambeson - padded cloth armor suit worn underneath metal armor to absorb blunt force and protect the wearer from the armor itself (metal and boiled leather aren't nice to unprotected humans skin, especially under extreme temperatures). Later variants often reinforced with sown-in mail in places actual metal armor above it have gaps and joints.
*Cuirass - protects the torso. If its made from a single piece of metal, it is a breastplate. Most breastplate are associated with full-body steel plate armor, but ancient Greeks had a bronze version called the "heroic Cuirass", or the Roman "Lorica Musculata", often molded with fake muscles and various decorations.
:*Plackart - lower torso reinforcement that would overlap with a breastplate for extra protection, and connected to the faulds. The reason for this reinforcement is to act as a cushion for blows to the chest, as there is enough space between the plackart and curiass that it acts as additional padding to prevent soft tissue damage underneath. Also enabled wearers to bend their torso sideways due the breastplate and backplate resting on the shoulders and around the ribcage while enveloped by the plackart around the midriff like a Russian matryoshka doll. Meanwhile the plackart and faulds being fastened around the hips enabled wearers to bend forwards, sideways, and backwards.
:*Faulds - a metal skirt attached to the breastplate, allowing some leg protection while offering mobility. Alternately, if the Faulds are in two pieces (one for each leg), they're known as Tassets. If a separate piece protects the ass, it's called a culet.
:*Lance Rest - the lone offensive feature of armor (aside from the rare spikes), enables holding using a lance with less energy wasted on sliding around. Makes the energy transfer so efficent that lances can actually break when used.
*Gorget - protects the neck and nape. With certain helmets, such as the Sallet, the gorget protected the lower head where the helmet did not.
**Bevor - a related piece of neck armor. Unlike the Gorget, these did not surround the entire neck but covered the front of the neck at the throat and chin. If segmented by folding laminate plates, it was called a Falling Buffe.
**Aventail - a mail curtain that hangs from the helmet to protect the neck, could be used in place of mail coife. It was itself replaced by the gorget.
*[[Pauldrons]] - protects the shoulders. The real life versions are nowhere near as big as those on space marines.
**Spaulder - Armor used to protect the upper arm between the vambrace and the pauldron. Later replaced by the simpler Rebrace (also called an Upper Cannon).
**Besagew - A circular plate that hangs from the spaulder to protect the armpit; because there aren't many good ways to protect places like the groin or armpits without limiting mobility, it might be flimsy but its better than nothing.
*Gauntlets - protects the hands.
*Bracers (also call vambraces or braces) - protects the forearms and wrists.
**Manica - Armor that covers an arm, used primarily by the Romans. Typically used to protect the sword arm when it leaves the safety of a shield, but gladiators are known to have worn just it and the attached pauldron.
**Couter (also called Cowter or Elbow Cop) - essentially a metal elbow guard.
*Greaves - similar to modern shin guards, they protects the legs.
**Poleyn (alternatively called Genouillere) - basically a metal knee guard.
*Sabatons - protects the feet (you don't want some smartass spearman stabbing at your unarmored feet now, would you?)
*Codpiece - Yes, believe it or not, you could get dick armor too. Ordinarily this was just to armor the [[Slaanesh|groin area]] like an athletic cup, but some people like King Henry VIII made [[Kaldor Draigo|massive codpieces]] to show off how well-endowed they were.
*Tabard - Technically not armor, but was the decorative sleeveless coat that would drape over the armor of knights. Besides being used as an identifier through the knight's [[Imperial Knight|heraldry]], it also shielded armor from the desert sun so that the knight wouldn't boil in their own armor. Another related piece of clothing was the Surcoat/Jupon.
**Sashimono - Japanese equivalent. Essentially a way for armor to hold a small flag. Associated more with ashigaru armor than samurai, but samurai did wear them as well.

== Warhammer 40k ==
*[[Flak Armor]]: This is actually a ballistic vest, not Flak armor. Think an ESAPI (or the new XSAPI) plate modeled off of a cuirass. It can withstand stubber fire all across, up to rifle caliber, so consider most modern rifle ammo utterly pointless and it can take a modest beating from lasguns. The problem is, it starts getting shaky at the 12.7mm level, which... Unfortunately for the Imperial Guard, a ''lot'' of stuff can be considered "higher" than said level.
*[[Carapace Armor]]: Better flak armor (the 40K kind which is a ballistic vest) but with much more coverage and better quality materials. Basically the equivalent to full-plated armor made of ceramite and plasteel, it's generally [[Neckbeard|heavier and cumbersome]], but only issued really to those more capable of making the most use out of it.
*[[Power Armour|Powered armor]]: Space marine general issue, as well as several powerful Imperial organizations. Comes with both long term and short term necessities, with high-grade ceramite and admantium for protection, stabilizing and targeting gear to assist, and general life support if the being inside doesn't already have some. Very fancy. Honestly, it has its own article for a reason and this list section would do it no justice.

== Armor in Fiction ==

==Gallery==
<gallery>
Image:Musclecuirass.JPG| Greek bronze Muscle Cuirass
Image:Linothorax.jpg| Greek Linothorax, a bronze-reinforced linen armor
Image:Roman Soldier mail.jpg|Roman Mail
Image:LoricaSegmentata.jpg|Roman Lorica Segmentata, a type of Laminar
Image:MirrorArmor.JPG|Mirror armor over a mail shirt
Image:ScaleArmor.JPG|Indian Scale armor
Image:Plated mail.jpg|Indian Plated Mail
Image:Bechter.jpg|Close-up of Eastern-European plated-mail pattern
Image:Koryak.jpg|Koryak warriors wearing traditional lamellar armour
Image:Lamellar.JPG|Japanese Lamellar
Image:Samurai armor.jpg|Japanese Laminar
Image:Gambeson.jpg| European Gambeson, a padded cloth armor used by both commoners and knights
Image:Brigandine.jpg|European Brigandine
Image:visby.jpg|Inside view of some DIYfag's homemade "Visby-pattern" brigandine
Image:Plate armor.jpg|European Plate
Image:FlakJacket.png| Flak Jacket
Image:BallisticVest.JPG|Ballistic Vest
Image:Bombsuit.jpg|Bombsuit
Image:IOTV_(OCP_variant).jpg|Improved Outer Tactical Vest
Image:SPS_(Soldier_Protection_System).jpg|Soldier Protection System, set to replace the IOTV in 2019. Designed with both mobility and protection in mind.
</gallery>

== See also ==

* [[Fantasy Armor]] for one of the usual flame wars involved in "armor".
* [[Armor Save]]

[[Category: History]]

[[Category: Weapons]]

[[Category: Medieval Weaponry]]

[[Category: Armour]]

{{MedievalWeaponry}}

Angron

2022-12-28T16:55:27Z

2601:1C0:4500:A540:0:0:0:8ACF: Because as much as another 'rip and tear' line fit's angron, really reading his story, he's more tragic then most of the fallen primarchs, and to try and keep 'quote bloat' to a minimum I just pruned one

{{heresy}}
{{Cleanup}}
[[File:AngronArtPortrait.jpg|400px|right|thumb|Rare portrait of Angron. Strangely looking like he is holding in a giant fart.]]
{{Topquote|I think... when one has been angry for a very long time one gets used to it. And it becomes comfortable, like... like old leather. And finally... it becomes so familiar that one can't ever remember feeling any other way.|[[Star Trek|Captain Jean-Luc Picard]], on a man who hated because he would not let himself grieve}}
{{Topquote|If the world hates you; keep in mind that it hated me first|John 15:18}}

{{Topquote|But who prays for Satan? Who in eighteen centuries, has had the common humanity to pray for the one sinner that needed it most, our one fellow and brother who most needed a friend yet had not a single one, the one sinner among us all who had the highest and clearest right to every Christian's daily and nightly prayers, for the plain and unassailable reason that his was the first and greatest need, he being among sinners the supremest?
|Mark Twain }}

His name is Angron (A.K.A. '''The Red Angel''', '''The Slave of Nuceria''', '''Lord of the Red Sands''', '''The Eater of Worlds''', '''The Gladiator King''', '''The Prince of Blood''', '''Broken One''' if you're Argel Tal, '''Angry Ron''', '''40Kratos''', '''Shithead''' if you're sergeant Gharte, '''That Goddamn Retard''' if you're [[Leman Russ]]). Cmon, do we really have to spell it out? While his name <s>may be</s> is clearly a play on the word "Anger", it is possible that his name is based on the Greek word ''Agrion'' which means "Wild" or even ''Agron'', the Gallic word for "slaughter" (which all pretty much suits him considering he's the angriest, wildest, slaughteringiest mother-fucking mother fucker in a long and extensive history of bipedal mother fuckers). Also, if you spell his name backwards it's Norgna, which has to count for something. Apparently the inspiration for his name was a corruption of the nickname a bouncer in Nottingham has: Angry Ron.
What we're trying to say is, Angron just might be the angriest and the most talented in manly face-to-face fighting son of a bitch in the galaxy. In fact, one time he was so angry about being angry all the time, that the part of him that made him angry exploded in his head, rendering him permanently angry (and also sexually impotent, but don't let him know that). And then there was that time he was kidnapped by the [[God-Emperor of Mankind|Emprah]], which didn't help his temper much, and gave him an excuse to fucking RAGE at his dad by joining up with [[Khorne]], Warhammer's God of Battle, War and [[Rage|RAAAAAAAAAAGE]]! Angron just so happens to be [[Primarch]] of the [[World eaters|World Eaters]] and [[Kharn|that swell guy]].

His revered exploits include slaughtering the entire population of a planet within a night; killing an entire contingent of Eldar warriors led by a Farseer when he was only a child; and leading a gladiator rebellion against their slavers and slaughtering 25 other armies sent against them, non-stop, until a huge one made up of seven armies came and fucked their shit up against a dirty rock <del>proving that a seven nation army could hold him back</del>. The Emperor saved him from dying there (but left all his buddies to die), which was a tremendous blow to his martial pride and among other things, eventually led him to [[Rage|RAAAAAAAAAAGE]] furiously against the Emperor, believing him a coward devoid of honor. Angron went on to become one of the first Primarchs to side with Horus during the heresy, and was turned into a monstrous, frothing demon-prince by his brother Lorgar. Eventually, Angron joined up with KHORNE, the aforementioned God of War, Murder, Killing, Bloodshed, Weeping Buttholes, Battle and [[Rage|RAAAAAAAAAAGE]].

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNkRBowsAmI Here is the theme song of this glorious bastard.]

==History==
===Early Life===
[[File:Past-Angron-art.jpg|300px|right|thumb|You'd be pissed off too if your dad didn't let you avenge your dog.]]
{{Topquote|I was born in blood, raised in darkness and I shall die free!|Angron, to the Nucerian High Riders and their armies}}
Angron has good reason to be ever-so-slightly miffed: his early life was one big bowl of shit after another. First he crash-landed on his new home [[Nuceria|world]] (because Khorne didn't give him a soft landing) and had a good chunk of his head torn off in the crash, after which he got jumped by the aforementioned Eldar, then (tired from the killing and the massive brain trauma --keep in mind he was like 6 hours old) got captured and sold into slavery by people with near-Imperial level technology before making him fight as a gladiator for their entertainment. He also appears to have been either the least intelligent of his brothers, or else that head injury he took while crashing did a number on his intellect. For Angron attempted to escape from his captors numerous times even before his implantation with the Nails but somehow was recaptured each time. Remember, these guys were just baseline humans with no outstanding tech aside from a few odds and ends like the Nails. Also keep in mind that more than a few of these attempts occurred when he was fully mature, and thus should have been leagues beyond what even a Custodes would be capable of in terms of physical and mental prowess. The fact that he somehow managed to ''fail'' in repeatedly attempting to escape from a bunch of normal humans is actually far more unbelievable than if he had succeeded.

A later retcon revealed he was a decent guy who loved his fellow gladiators, but after an incident where he refused to kill his adoptive father in the arenas, his masters proceeded to replace part of his brain with ARCHAEOTECH SHIT (originally this happened before he fully grew up) that drove him so mad that he murdered his dad regardless, cueing a massive bout of despair. The stuff they stuck in his head would later be called ''"The Butcher's Nails"'', and, though never fully understood (even after the Emprah's best techs took a look), they constantly applied pain to his brain and made it so the only time he could feel anything resembling happiness was while murdering shit. It should also be noted that they go from excruciating to normal, and ''do not'' [[Slaanesh|deal with the pleasure centers of the brain.]] In other words, this pertains to actual negative reinforcement in classical conditioning.

After years of being a slave, fighting through the gladiator pits and becoming the best of them, Angron eventually set up and led a rebellion, fighting to free his brother and sister gladiators. This would make him 40k's answer to Spartacus, the same way Curze is 40k Batman. He and the gladiators terrorized the planet's population for a while, burning down cities and generally making a mess of things. However, due undoubtedly in no small part to the Nails (and the high probability that Angron was a bit of an idiot anyway), he didn't attack the Nucerian ruling classes with anything approaching a coherent strategy. There was seemingly no plan, only wanton destruction. As a result, the rulers of the various parts of the planet sent their militaries to gang up on Angron's comparatively ragtag group of about 2000 and after a few years, Angron's force had been reduced to half and was surrounded by at least seven full scale armies. So he and his buddies were completely screwed, making Angron the only Primarch who failed to conquer his home planet, something that his Legion would end up being more than a little embarrassed by.

Around that time, the Emperor showed up, and hashed out a deal with the local planetary government in order to expedite Angron's capture and win over the planet without any further bloodshed, because there was no point in the Emperor helping his son win a (totally justified) war against a population that had already submitted to compliance. Of course, this deal required the Emperor to take Angron away from the only people who weren't shitty to him and leaving them all to die; but Big E didn't give a rat's ass about those fuckers (and they were all summarily executed, as you would expect in a slave rebellion). Naturally, he didn't tell Angron any of this, because <s>he couldn't give less of a shit</s> [[Aaron Dembski-Bowden]] wanted to make the Emperor look like an ass again. Daddy issues don't make for bad writing by themselves, but said good writing is harder to write without nuance and depth. Of course, the Emperor could have saved them all or simply kill the local slavers who were, despite compliance, flying in the face of the law of the Great Crusade, give Angron the planet as a recruiting world and take the slaves to his ship to be made into a loyal ass-wrecking rapetrain of AWESOME alongside all the Terran legionnaires. Buuuut we need our dose of our [[Edgy]] [[Grimdark]] here, right?

So long story short, the Emperor told Angron he was coming along on the Great Crusade, Angron told him that he would rather die alongside his fellow gladiators, and the Emperor beamed him up onto his ship and left all the other gladiators to die. On the ship, Angron completely lost his shit and started attacking everything around him, managing to kill one of the Custodes before Big E force gripped him into submission and basically told him to get over himself(AD-B, seriously fuck you). After this, Angron was apparently taken back to Terra to be examined by the Emperor and his best tech adepts in the hope of finding a way to fix Angron's mutilated brain.

Back on [[Terra]], the Big E summoned [[Arkhan Land]] to his labs and showed Angron spread out with his skull hacked open & brain exposed on a surgery table, taking a good look at Angron's fucked-up skull and decided that he was a waste of time and effort, and arrived at the conclusion that even trying to remove them would likely kill him (reference "Betrayer"). The Mechanicus estimated that he wouldn't live long enough to see the end of the Great Crusade.

It is during this procedure that it is revealed just how completely the Nails destroyed Angron, and how thoroughly tortured he would be for the rest of his existence. According to the Emperor in conversation with Arkhan;

<blockquote>''"With the alterations made to the limbic lobe and insular cortex, the surgeons have impaired the Twelfth’s ability to regulate any emotion at all. Furthermore, they have rethreaded its capacity to take pleasure in anything but the sensation of anger. They are the only chemicals and electrical signals that flow freely through, and from, its brain. All else is either dulled to nothingness or rewired to inspire a supreme degree of agony. It is a testament to the durability of my primarch project that the Twelfth has managed to survive this long.

''"His own emotions cause him pain?"''

''"No, Arkhan. Everything. Everything causes it pain. Thinking. Feeling. Breathing. The only respite it has is in the rewired neurological pleasure it receives from the chemicals of anger and aggression."''</blockquote>

Aaand it gets worse. The Emperor then reveals a few moments later that Angron's limbic and insular lobes had been straight up removed and replaced with parts of the Nails. This essentially meant that Angron would not have been capable of feeling empathy or compassion, and it would have completely restructured his ability to link behaviors to outcomes (ie this behavior makes me feel good vs this behavior makes me feel bad). Even his sense of self awareness and IQ would have been affected, which would go far in explaining quite a lot of straight up retarded crap he would go on to do. So essentially the slave masters of Nuceria took away his compassion, his empathy, his emotional control, his intelligence, and his ability to learn or feel anything pleasant outside of aggression. Oh, and left him in constant agony whenever he wasn't angry. Scratch the Emperor being a dick for not removing the Nails, He was more of a dick for not just putting Angron down then and there (though the fact He refers to Angron only as "Twelfth" and "it" is shown the Emprah is not too hot on compassion, at least as far as Angron seems to be concerned). The most tragic part of it all was that apparently Angron was quite the bro-tier Primarch before the Nails were implanted. He even had the ability to empathically soothe the pain of others by taking it upon himself (almost certainly some latent psychic ability), and he very often did just that for his fellow slaves. So on top of everything else, the Nails completely destroyed Angron's personality, taking him from a potentially Vulkan level nice guy and lowering him to Perturabo levels of barbarity. To top it all off, the Nails had been designed for use on baseline humans. As a Primarch, Angron's brain was not only far more complex than that of an ordinary human, but had the capacity for wholescale regeneration. This would only cause him more problems however, as the damaged or missing parts of his brain attempted to regenerate around the Nails. It was believed that this process would eventually cause him to lose all ability to control himself, and that he would become little more than a rabid animal as some of his legionaries would later demonstrate. At that point, is was almost certain that he would manage to get himself killed in one way or another.

Considering that later during the Horus Heresy, '''Menes Kalliston''' of the [[Thousand Sons]] was fairly certain that their [[psyker]]-medics could figure out how to remove them from [[Khârn|a certain swell guy]], it is possible that the Emperor - being the most intelligent person in the [[Imperium]] and the most powerful psyker ever - ''<u>could</u>'' have achieved it if He put some resources into it (especially since at least one AdMech replaced everything, including his brain with machine parts); or it's equally likely the Thousand Son space marine was just stalling because he had an insane psycho-killer moments away from killing him breathing down his neck. It is however, far more likely that the Nails implanted into the World Eaters were not so difficult to remove as Angron's would have been. Entire vital parts of Angron's brain had been removed and replaced with the crude cybernetics of the Nails, whereas the World Eaters' Nails were knockoffs which were simply added on to their existing brain tissue. Because of Angron's brain being a half-cybernetic mess, both the Emperor and Arkhan believed that the Nails were, ironically, the only reason Angron was still alive. If they were removed, Angron's brain would likely have simply ceased to function. Additionally, attempting to replace parts of a Primarch is almost certainly a borderline-impossible task, particularly if that part is a brain. The Primarchs were not just flesh and blood, but creatures of the warp incarnated by the Emperor's genecraft. Whatever the Emperor did to create them, He clearly could not just do it on a whim as He could with Custodes or Astartes. There were only ever 20 ([[Omegon|21]]) of them and even when two were erased from history mid-Crusade, they were not replaced. The Emperor also never seemed to consider the possibility of making more of them after the initial scattering when they were presumed dead, despite the massive blow that killing all 20 Primarchs would have dealt to his plans.

Regardless however, Arkhan described the Emperor as being "inhumanly toneless" when speaking of Angron, and as being "passionlessly interested" in the surgical nightmare that Angron had become. Whether this is due to Him genuinely not caring or simply being too far beyond Arkhan for His attitude to be understood properly is up for debate. Rather strangely, the Emperor appeared to have been unusually callous when it came to Angron in particular, as even Primarchs like Konrad Curze, Perturabo and Mortarion were shown at least ''some'' level of love and interest from Him. However Angron, for whatever reason, was disregarded almost entirely. Regarding this anomaly, it is worth noting that Angron was the only Primarch who did not end up ruling his native planet. The other Primarchs either conquered theirs or used their charisma and intelligence to work their way up the hierarchy of whatever planet they landed on (or both). Angron failed to do either, and was on the verge of being slaughtered along with his army when the Emperor came for him. Perhaps this failure is why the Emperor seemed so uniquely disinterested in him.

As it is, the Emperor was told that Angron would likely not see the the end of the crusade. At that point The Emperor probably decided "this is a sunk cost" and wrote Angron off. An so he did nothing to mitigate the effects, do nothing to change how much Angron hated him, and throw him into warzones after giving him a massive force and assumed that it would never come back to haunt him, after all Angron was going to be dead before the End of it, may as well get some use out of him. Could He have saved Angron? Perhaps, should he have the occasion to put his entire undivided attention to it. But with Him busy with the demands of the Imperium, powering the [[Astronomican]] and trying to get the Human Webway online the Emperor seemingly did not want to sink the extra time and resources into saving one of His Primarchs.

===Great Crusade===
[[File:Preheresy-world-eaters.jpg|300px|thumb|right|Angron back when the Great Crusade was still a thing. Along with [[Kharn|that swell guy]] on his right and [[Lotara Sarrin|the angriest, most heterosexual woman in existence]] on his left.]]
{{Topquote|You kept that mule Kor Phaeron. Russ kept his kin-friends. The Lion kept Luther. Humans - brothers and foster fathers - saved and raised into Legion ranks. But not me. Not Angron, no. Did the Emperor teleport his gold-wrapped Custodians down to help me and my army? No. Did he free the War Hounds and order them to battle, fight alongside me? No. Did he save my brothers and sisters the way he spared the Lion’s closest kin? No, no, and no. No mercy for Angron. Angron the Oathbreaker. Angron the Betrayer.| Angron explains his anger towards the Emperor to Lorgar, during one of his more calm moments.}}

Either way, when Angron was introduced to his legion he was inconsolable. He ended up hacking apart the legion captains until Khârn (who was actually much further down the list of command, having risen up the ladder thanks to several of his superiors' untimely ends) managed to talk some sense into his father. Though bearing in mind the Emperor had already let [[Perturabo]] dispassionately decimate 10% of an ''entire legion'', Angron killing some captains in an emotional meltdown is small potatoes.

Anyway, [[Kharn]] successfully talks some sense into him, and Angron renamed his legion ''World Eaters'', a name you might recognize translates to ''fucking savage'' in the common tongue. Angron's old army of gladiators whom he'd led to freedom and been denied death alongside them was known as "the eaters of cities" on [[Nuceria]]. So, as Dreagher, a Terran-born War Hounds legionary who served as Captain of the Legion's 9th Company, described it: ''from then on, they would no longer be the War Hounds, but Angron's "eaters of worlds"''.

Angron then replicated the Butcher's Nails technology on his legionaries, despite the Empy's warnings and how much he hated the source of the Nails, his old masters - <s> which adds a little hypocritical spice to his complaints about how the Nails ruined his life, given that he did the same thing to other people for no fucking reason when given the chance. Perhaps Angron wanted his sons to feel the same pain he experienced since he would never be able to remove the goddamn thing from his brain and it pissed him off that his own flesh and blood did not suffer as he did.</s> More likely he was desperately trying to emulate his blood brothers and sisters in the pits since they were the only ones to give a shit (plus Lorgar). Even in spite of being the first legionary to GIT SOME, [[Kharn|that swell guy]] became Angron's 'cool headed' equerry. Ironic.

The Nails also negatively interacted with psykers, killing Librarians who tried to get them installed (blowing holes in spaceships and taking down entire squads of space marines in the process as their altered brain chemistry made it impossible for them to control their abilities anymore). Also merely being near a psyker made other Legionaries feel... ''uncomfortable'' (described as ''ticking'' by Kharn). Angron personally took this to eleven, hating psykers for the additional pain they brought - with the strange exception of Lorgar & the Emperor, who seemed not to trigger that effect. Still, the whole Butcher's Nails thing is actually quite tragic (could the fact that even being psykers caused pain to everyone implanted with the nails indicate that they were not just archeotech, but technology corrupted by Khorne who hates psykers? And even the daemon primarch still has them implanted...all the implications). In "Betrayer" Argel Tal asks Kharn why the World Eaters allowed themselves to be mutilated so, to which Kharn replies that they thought it would bring them closer to their father. Argel Tal continues asking if it worked, and Kharn sadly mutters to himself "no, it didn't". So, before Erebus made sure that Kharn would become the RAAAAAAGE train we know in 40k by killing Argel Tal (in the same novel), because - as Erebus put it - his damned humanity would have spared Kharn this fate (because becoming a berzerk psychopathic killer is so much more awesome than staying sane) he appears to be regretting this decision - at least at this point.
[[File:World Eaters.jpg|400px|thumb|right|Angron and his World Eaters, pre-heresy and pre-[[daemon prince]] in a rare state of tranquility standing on top of [[grimdark|a pile made of snow and dead bodies]]. It's hard to calm down when there's nails in your brain.]]

During the Great Crusade, the World Eaters were known as the Imperium's butcher force. Their arrival or even just the threat of their arrival in a system was enough to make non-compliant Imperial worlds surrender, lest they be completely and utterly be butchered by the Red Angel and his sons - which only made it easier for the World Eaters to butcher them. They were typically unleashed in situations where the Imperium really didn't care about collateral damage. For where the Space Wolves and Dark Angels, the other two extermination legions of the Imperium, could be controlled, the World Eaters simply could not be. Angron ordered his sons to complete every single conquest and compliance action in thirty-one hours, since he and his gladiator army had once destroyed an entire city on Nuceria in the same span of time. When and if they failed, he mocked them for being inadequate and ordered them to [[Perturabo|decimate themselves]], it apparently not having occurred to him that it's a little harder to take down an entire planet than it is one city, even if you are a Space Marine legion (remember, not the brightest of his brothers). Things were getting so bad that some of the World Eaters' senior officers were considering going to the Emperor for help, at least until the Nails became a thing and they stopped caring about anything beyond RIP AND TEAR. One of them even talked back to Angron on the subject, which caused him to RAEG the fuck out and start killing his own sons again until some of the Librarians knocked him out.

He also had a run in with [[Leman Russ]] at some point, just after the XII Legion started getting their brains Nailed. Russ came to Angron after having heard reports that the World Eaters were increasingly just bathing in blood, instead of bringing worlds to compliance. Angron wasn't as brain-damaged as he would be later, so he asked if Russ had come on order of the Emperor. Russ grudgingly had to admit he wasn't; this wasn't an execution ordered by the Emperor (yet) and he privately didn't want it to become one in the future. So he went on saying that implanting Angron's legionaries with the Nails had to stop and that they'd be brought to Terra so a way of removing them could be devised (so he basically told Angron to sort his shit out and stop mutilating his sons). But we all know how good Russ is with people and generally <s>just liked throwing his weight around</s>. In more seriousness, this is one of the cases where Russ really, genuinely wanted to help one of his brothers, having had his own bouts with [[rage|irresistible murderous intent]] to deal with. Additionally, it is heavily implied that the two missing Primarchs met their end at Russ's hands on orders from the Emperor. Russ was not a fan of his role as being the Emperor's personal Judge Dredd as would later be demonstrated by the fact that he pleaded Lorgar's case (of all people) to the Emperor when He was considering 86ing the Word Bearers. Russ's approach sadly [[fail|wasn't well thought out]]. Though to be fair Angron wasn't exactly diplomatic either, telling Russ that the Nails were the only thing that kept him going, that the EMPRA was just another slaver (and that bringing "compliance" to worlds was just a way of candycoating enslaving worlds which merely had wished to be left alone), and that without the Nails he might go to Big.E and chop "the slaving bastard's" head off. Ironically enough Angron had a solid point with the former argument, but the very suggestion of turning against Emps basically made Russ [[rage|lose what remained of his cool on the spot]] with the result one would expect.
[[File:Angron, lord of the locker room.jpg|thumb|right|A Remembrancer's sketch of the duel between Angron and Leman Russ.]]

There was a brief skirmish between the two Legions (an event which would come to be known as the "Night of the Wolf") where Angron fought Leman Russ in personal combat. [[Rape|He made him his personal bitch]] until he was outmaneuvered by the Space Wolves troops and surrounded, isolated from his World Eaters who were just like their father putting up one hell of a fight and hurt on the Wolves but being slowly separated and isolated from each other. Russ then tried to make his point a second time; that Angron's berserker rage made him and his Legion lose sight of the larger tactical and strategic objectives and that Russ had deliberately lured him into a position where he could be gunned down with a snap of Russ fingers. Angron refused to acknowledge his losing position since he was the one holding the weapon at his brother's throat and that killing EVERYONE should be the only objective anyway. Russ might be very well holding the proverbial gun to his temple, but it was only worth anything if he was willing to pull the trigger. Which at that point Russ wasn't, so Angron completely ignored him. Yet, surprisingly, Angron did not press his attack either and both Primarchs separated and went their own way. But, as time would show, the nails had a degrading effect on Angron's ability to hold back and remain coherent, so maybe that's your answer right there.

Angron was certain of his victory that day and didn't give the incident any more thought, the Nails stayed with him and his Legion. In the end, though, Leman Russ was right: Angron's failure to learn and control his murderous rage would be amply demonstrated and only become worse with time. At the tail end of the Great Crusade when he butchered a whole city which had just surrendered, on Isstvan III when he sabotaged Horus' clean [[Exterminatus]] by going down to rip the loyalists apart personally, and on Nuceria where he ordered every living being killed. But what’s truly sad is that Lorgar actually did seemingly succeed where Russ had failed in teaching the lesson of the Night of the Wolf years later. Weirdly, he did this by simply telling Angron in no uncertain terms that Russ had won and why, and for whatever reason Angron's previous retardation dawned on him this time. In the case of Lorgar's explanation, not being in the middle of a fight to the death (at least as far as Agron was concerned) probably helped with regard to Angron's perceptiveness (fewer MURDERMURDERKILLKILL impulses from the Nails). Additionally, on their way to Nuceria during Angron’s last weeks as a human, he actually seemed to be trying to open himself up a little more to his legion by joining them in watching pit fights and hanging out with them during feasts, all of which was rendered too little too late by what went down when they reached their destination.

===Horus Heresy===
[[File:Daemon-Angron HHST.png|400px|thumb|right|Angron during the [[Siege of Terra]], about to give the defenders a very bad day]]
When Horus decided to rebel, Angron was one of the initial Primarchs to join him, along with Fulgrim and Mortarion. Why is not particularly hard to guess; he already hated the Emperor's guts like practically no other Primarch (with the possible exception of Curze, though even he managed to come to terms before his death with his father), and considered the Crusade to be little better than a galaxy-spanning slavery endeavor. How this concern jives with him being one of the Crusade's most prominent butchers is somewhat strange but his brain probably resembled a scrambled egg more than anything else at this point. A little cognitive dissonance was the absolute least of his problems.

On that note, Angron kicked off his contribution to the Heresy in a characteristically retarded fashion. When the firestorm on Isstvan died down, it became apparent that large numbers of Loyalists had survived. Said survivors immediately hit the vox-casters and began demanding answers/hurling insults up at the orbiting fleet, outraged and grief stricken that they had been betrayed by their own Primarchs. Horus disregarded this and prepared to initiate a second virus bombing. Angron however, was not quite so thick skinned. Hearing the howled insults of his own Loyalist World Eaters (which more than likely included some cutting one-liners and yo-dead-gladiator-crew jokes), Angron flew into a rage and deployed onto the planet his legion. When he learned of this, Horus was so furious that he seriously considered proceeding with the virus bombing regardless of Angron's presence planetside. However the Warmaster then took a few moments to collect himself and attempted to salvage what was supposed to have been a simple Exterminatus. In an adorable attempt to give the situation a silver lining, he reasoned that if he backed Angron's ground assault, his troops would get some experience fighting other Astartes. He also hoped that by giving Angron's landing his blessing, Angron would see that Horus was willing to give him freedoms that the Emperor had not. Finally, the World Eater's fleet elements were still present in orbit and manned, and killing their Primarch probably wouldn't have gone over too well with most of them. With about a third of each of the Traitor legions' Astartes having already remained loyal, Horus was in no position to have the remaining two thirds of the World Eaters turn against him. Sadly for Horus, Angron's decision ended up being one of the biggest mistakes of the heresy. Due to a number of unforced errors on the part of several Traitor commanders, and a mindblowing amount of grit on the part of the Loyalists, the Traitors ended up losing over half of their attacking force over a period of 3 months. To add insult to injury, Horus eventually decided that he was losing too many assets trying to break the Loyalists on the ground. Though the Loyalist commanders had mostly been killed by that point in the campaign, Horus had quite [[Dropsite Massacre|a number of other things that he needed to be getting on with]]. So he had Angron physically wrestled back up into orbit (as Angron wouldn't leave any other way), and used his fleet to glass the entire planet's surface.

Angron was much more handy on Isstvan V, wreaking all sorts of carnage in the Dropsite Massacre. Ironically his presence there hardly mattered considering how thoroughly boned the Loyalists had been to begin with, but Horus surely appreciated having such a supremely capable beat-stick to hit his foes with. When Horus and the other Traitor Primarchs departed, Angron stayed behind to hunt down the surviving Raven Guard who'd escaped with Corax. Despite the Raven Guard's supreme sneakiness, they eventually ran out of places to run and hide, and Angron was only hours away from finding and butchering the lot of them. Fortunately for the beleaguered [[meme|birbs]], a group of Raven Guard reserves rocked up from Deliverance due to warp phuckery and managed to rescue Corax and most of his men, leaving Angron even more beside himself with fury than usual.

Lorgar then roped Angron into his Shadow Crusade, systematically butchering worlds across Ultramar to invoke the Ruinstorm. Initially, this was a campaign with mixed success: the two Legions nearly fought in the void before an Eldar fleet tried to destroy Angron, and the World Eaters wiped out several worlds which Lorgar had wanted to skip. The Word Bearers were nearly driven to despair by the World Eaters' degradation, and Lorgar began to worry that Angron couldn't see how he was degenerating - and there was only one way that could end. Still, Lorgar wanted to save Angron, although in his case "save" meant "transfigure into a daemon Primarch without asking". Angron was, according to Horus and Lorgar, the only Primarch besides Horus himself that could potentially be able to successfully take on Sanguinius in full rage mode (though Russ and The Lion would probably give them a run for their money if fighting to kill and judging from recent lore, Sanguinius would/did wipe the floor with him), which at that point was basically the only use Horus had for him. To do that, Lorgar led Angron back to his shitty home planet [[Nuceria]]. There, Angron returned to the site of his followers' final battle, now little more than an open-air graveyard filled with the bones of his compatriots. This caused Angron to fall into a deep depression, which only lasted until he had the misfortune to be told he had fled that final battle. Needless to say, hearing this caused him to go completely berserk, and he ordered his legion to slaughter every fucking thing on the planet faster than an [[Exterminatus|inquisitorial cyclonic torpedo bombardment]].

The arrival of Guilliman's forces delayed its inevitable doom for a little while, and Angron had an epic showdown with [[Roboute Guilliman]] when he helped [[Lorgar]] in fighting big boy blue. Guilliman called Angron out to which the Red Angel replied as follows:

<blockquote>''"What would you know of struggle, Perfect Son? When have you fought against the mutilation of your mind? When have you had to do anything more than tally compliances and polish your armour?" [...] "The people of your world named you Great One. The people of mine called me Slave. Which one of us landed on a paradise of civilization to be raised by a foster father, Roboute? Which one of us was given armies to lead after training in the halls of the Macraggian high-riders? Which one of us inherited a strong, cultured kingdom? And which one of us had to rise up against a kingdom with nothing but a horde of starving slaves? Which one of us was a child enslaved on a world of monsters, with his brain cut up by carving knives? Listen to your blue-clad wretches yelling of courage and honour, courage and honour, courage and honour. Do you even know the meaning of those words? Courage is fighting the kingdom which enslaves you, no matter that their armies outnumber yours by ten-thousand to one. You know nothing of courage. Honour is resisting a tyrant when all others suckle and grow fat on the hypocrisy he feeds them. You know nothing of honour."''</blockquote>

Guilliman ended up getting beaten so badly he had to crawl away on hands and knees (though to be fair to him he put up one hell of a fight, especially considering that half his face was missing), but not before throwing back a pretty scathing retort of his own:

<blockquote>''"You’re still a slave, Angron. Enslaved by your past, blind to the future. Too hateful to learn. Too spiteful to prosper."''</blockquote>

The irony is Angron was right all along about Emperor being a dick, as Roboute realized on Terra ten thousand years later. But in all seriousness, both of them had a point. True, Guilliman had it comparatively easy and could have turned out massively different had his life not been so cushy. But Angron's rage over ''his'' admittedly-shitty life, worsened by his unwillingness to move on from the loss of his old comrades or accept his Legion as being his new family and compounded further still by not even trying to rise above his upbringing, had consumed his soul and didn't exactly let him off the hook for turning his entire legion into murder machines despite constantly blaming the Butcher's Nails for ruining his life.

Additionally, Angron of all people attempting to lecture anyone about the concept of honor is hypocrisy of the highest form. Even Konrad Curze, arguably the most terrifyingly barbaric Primarch, had a logical reason behind his brutality before he completely lost his mind. Angron never had a reason for killing, and he never needed one. He spilt blood just for the sake of it, annihilating entire planetary systems simply for the lulz. Whatever honor Angron once might have had, he had tossed it aside long ago in the name of satiating his hatred. At the time of his confrontation with Guilliman, he was little more than a rabid dog; his brains in the final stages of degradation via the Nails. He was essentially already a Khorne devotee in all but name and aspect; the sick daemon form he would soon receive was just an aesthetic cherry on top.

What made it worse was that the Nails themselves, as it turned out, could actually be overcome. As demonstrated by Arrian Zorzi, a renegade WE Apothecary who threw his lot in with [[Fabius Bile]] and eventually became his 2nd in command of [[The Consortium (Warhammer 40,000)|The Consortium]], and who likes (evil) gardening: a highly disciplined mind could control the aggression of the Nails. Which meant that, in yet another tragic twist of irony, Angron might have been able to save himself if he had simply not given over so completely to despair and spite. On the other hand, the cruder copy implanted in World Eaters legionnaires might be easier to overcome than the genuine article, and Zorzi is (so far) a unique case.

Furthermore, during their duel Guilliman shattered one of the skulls of Angron's rebel followers that he had carried with him (and whom he had promised to die alongside with... until the EMPRA abducted him. Angron himself said to Lorgar in "Betrayer" that he died on Nuceria), which obviously drove Angron to an entire new level of despair, allowing for Lorgar to capitalize on that emotion to fuel Angron's ascension into a daemon primarch. There were even 19 World Eater librarians, that had tried to prevent their primarch's ascension forming a gestalt warhound, pulling Angron's soul from one end, while Lorgar as well as some daemons pulled at it from the other, like children fighting over a doll. In the end, Lorgar - being the more powerful psyker - defeated the Librarians, and turned Angron into the Daemon Primarch we all know and love; his first act upon ascension was to immediately slaughter the Librarians. Guilliman ended up suffering a grievous wound, but escaped the planet, which was rendered devoid of all life by the World Eaters, and had its records erased by the Imperium of Man.

It should also be noted that one or two battles beforehand a Warhound Scout Titan tried to step on Lorgar after the Aurelian had taken two discharges of the the titan's main plasma weapon and was badly hurt (to the point of almost being mortally wounded) in the process. Angron stepped in to save his brother, catching the titan's foot and setting a new world record in squat weightlifting, keeping the titans weight suspended above himself through his sheer strength and RAGE, enabling Lorgar - who was almost dead at this point - to escape (meanwhile Ferrus Manus could punch THROUGH REAVERS and doubtless would have found this adorable). And this was after digging his way up through 200+ feet of solid debris, after being warned by WE Librarians he had been digging 'downwards', and with Lorgar teleporting from orbit to help excavating the XIIth Primarch (while Lorgar simultaneously destroyed several Ultramarine Thunderhawks with telekinetically hurled building debris which Angron had been buried under). Of course, after this the relationship between the two primarchs became pretty remarkable, and Lorgar ended up repaying the favor by arranging for Angron's ascension to daemonhood during their fight with Guilliman. At first Lorgar thought that Guilliman was ruining the "song" and finally understood that Guilliman had never hated or looked down on him until the Heresy (and the destruction of Calth) - actually distracting Lorgar for a moment as he realized that he had misunderstood his brother all along - At the end though, when Guilliman was about to gain the upper hand Angron emerged and engaged the XIII Primarch. At this very moment (topped off by Guilliman stepping on one of the aforementioned skulls) the "song" fell back in tune, and Lorgar could finish the incantation.

After this, the World Eaters ''somehow'' managed to get Angron back aboard his flagship, but were at a bit of a loss as to what to do with him afterwards. Obviously having a blood crazed Daemon Primarch living in one's basement was not exactly ideal even for the World Eaters. So initially they attempted to restrain Angron, but there was literally nothing they could do to keep him contained. Any cell block or restraining device they used on him he simply turned to scrap the instant it started annoying him. And yet, Angron never once actually attempted to leave the part of the ship in which he'd made his lair. He had developed crippling bipolar tendencies, and where his manic phase embodied the champion of raw murder we all know and love, his depressive phase was so utterly ''dead inside'' it makes [[Isha]] look cheery in comparison. He spent most of his free time cowering in a corner, calling out for the Emperor or just crying himself to sleep. This only made the World Eaters ''more'' terrified of him, as he could rampage through the ship at a moment's notice and they wouldn't be able to stop him. Only Kharn was able (or willing) to talk to Angron, and even Kharn knew he was risking death each time he did so; it would literally only depend on whether or not he caught Angron in a bad mood.

Kharn's conversations with Angron revealed yet another sad development for the Primarch, which was that becoming a daemon had caused him to develop a sort of dementia. He had to be verbally prodded by Kharn to remember certain places, people, and events, and Kharn was not always successful in doing so. Even his past as a gladiator or his adoptive father were hit-or-miss in terms of whether or not he could recall them. His entire sense of self had become lost to Khorne, and he swung from sapient being to bloodthirsty beast with seemingly no control over who he was as any given moment. He also became completely dependent on bloodshed to maintain his link to the mortal realm, and could only last a few weeks without planetary scale butchery to keep him tethered. As such, the World Eaters were forced to divert into any populated system they could find as they travelled towards Terra just to keep Angron in the material plane. He was also the only Daemon Primarch who, in yet another grim irony, never got any say in becoming a daemon- even [[Magnus the Red]] did not ascend before first rejecting the Emperor's offer of forgiveness. So he went from being a slave to the Nucerians, to being a slave to the Emperor, to being a slave to Khorne, forced to fight for all three without ever having any choice and now he could not even rebel. He's basically 40k's Butt-Monkey at this point. Angron's transformation into a Daemon also caused the World Eaters to develop an unmatched hatred for the Word Bearers for so thoroughly destroying their gene-father. Kharn in particular was furious about this in his comparatively lucid moments, as being the only person who Angron wouldn't immediately kill gave him front row seat to witness the completely broken, miserable monster Angron had ultimately become.

Shortly thereafter, Horus sent Perturabo to go collect Angron and his now completely degenerated legion for use at the Siege of Terra. As stated previously, the World Eaters had needed to stop every time they found a populated system in order to shed the blood necessary to keep Angron in the material realm. But they were getting too sidetracked in doing so, and Horus hadn't been able to talk them into hurrying up. Upon confronting the World Eaters, the Iron Warriors absolutely wrecked their maniacal brothers, ironically by doing the same sort of thing that the Space Wolves had so many years ago during the Night of the Wolf. Instead of allowing the World Eaters to engage them in close combat, the Iron Warriors initially shot only the daemons amongst the World Eaters, and then largely attempted to trap or disable the World Eaters where possible. The point was both to deny them combat, and thus power, and obviously to round them up for the Siege. Angron himself confronted Perturabo, who willingly met his brother's charge. After getting blasted into pasta sauce by a group of Iron Warriors, Angron jumped into melee with Perturabo and heavily damaged his armor. Perturabo got in a decent counter-hit or two but he'd always been one of the brainy rather than brawny Primarchs. He was simply no match for Angron in melee combat even with Forgebreaker in hand, though his armor's durability was something to behold.

However, it would turn out that being an evil version of Guilliman would come in quite handy for Perturabo. For you see, Perturabo gave absolutely zero fucks about fighting fair. For instance, during the Drop Site Massacre when Vulkan had been screaming for Perturabo to face him in melee combat, Pert had chuckled a bit and then dropped a nuke on him. Perturabo had come to do a job, and as per usual, he was going to get it done. As such, he repeatedly insulted Angron as being a weak, pitiful slave who had sold his strength out of despair, and had become ''weaker'' as a result. Of course, Angron hadn't actually chosen to become a daemon at all, but Perturabo clearly either didn't know or didn't care. Perturabo then summoned up reinforcements in the form of the Iron Circle, which Angron started lashing out against. Their gigantic melee shields held strong even in the face of Angron's onslaught, and he succeeded only in tiring himself out. The lack of slaughter and rather bloodless combat (and possibly the insults) ultimately drained Angron of much of his power, and Perturabo and the Iron Circle started mercilessly blasting chunks out of him with what were heavily implied to be anti-Daemon rounds. The very first [[Obliterator]], Volk, then added a fusillade of his own to the mix. The assault of Perturabo, Volk, and the Iron Circle, combined with the Iron Warriors having denied the World Eaters their tithe of blood, weakened Angron to the point where he could no longer fight. Perturabo took the opportunity to mock Angron a bit more, and then waltzed over to him and unceremoniously knocked him out with a single blow from Forgebreaker. After this, he collected his recalcitrant brother and his legion and packed them up to head for Terra. (The fact Perturabo accomplished all this while sustaining minimal casualties shows how impressive his track-record during the Great Crusade could've been if he actually gave a damn.)

During the [[Siege of Terra]], he also had a pretty bitchin fight with Sanguinius which continued his losing streak. To be fair to him though, Sanguinius is Sanguinius, and Angron put up a very worthy fight. Most of the beginning consisted of Angron simply trying to catch Sanguinus, who had recently come off of fighting [[Ka'bandha]] and was already wounded and tired. Angron, who was not used to flying and was cumbersomely bulky (seriously his model's wings have biceps bigger than his arms do, and that's saying something), found he was not fast or maneuverable enough to land a hit on Sanguinius in the air. Sanguinius on the other hand was able to quickly flit in and out of Angron's reach to bloody him, but these attacks had a negligible effect on Angron. For instance, one of these engagements saw Sanguinius land a quick slash upon Angron's head which destroyed his eyes and a significant portion of his face. However Angron regenerated his injuries almost immediately, as the absurd amount of bloodshed occuring on Terra at the time provided a constant pool of energy to empower Angron. The two of them ended up crashing into the interior of a Warlord Titan's cockpit, and began a brawl in which Angron started slamming Sanguinius's head onto the floor. However, Sanguinius retaliated using his Infernus pistol, an incredibly silly one shot melta weapon which only exists as such because its in-game rules say it can only fire once. However stupid, the shot vaporized one of Angron's arms and drove him away from Sanguinius. Angron then had a flashback of Nuceria and his gladiator brothers and sisters, ruminating momentarily on how peaceful the night before the Emperor kidnapped him had been in spite of the Nails. This distraction allowed Sanguinius to impale Angron through the heart. To Sanguinius's surprise, Angron regenerated again and attempted to grab him. Sanguinius was too fast however, and withdrew his blade before Angron could get ahold of him. The two took to the air again but Angron was still not able to keep up with Sanguinius. After a short aerial chase, Sanguinius darted back into melee range and stabbed the Spear of Telesto through Angron's mouth and out the back of his head. With his brainstem pulped, Angron was momentarily unable to move and he crashed to the ground. He managed to regenerate enough to pull the Spear out, then completely healed right before Sanguinius engaged him on the ground. Unable to quickly overwhelm Angron in melee combat, Sanguinius took off again and as he did, Angron threw the Spear at him.

However, Sanguinius caught the Spear out of the air, [[meme|barrel rolled]] with it, and used the roll in conjunction with the Spear's momentum to throw it back at Angron. Despite Angron believing that he could catch the Spear in turn, it impaled him through the chest and pinned him to the ground. As Sanguinius flew off, Angron managed to get the Spear out once more but the wound healed more slowly than his previous injuries. Angron then came at last to the realization that fighting Sanguinius in the air was simply not working, and decided to change tack. As fate would have it, Sanguinius and Angron had landed for their melee bout in the midst of a group of battling Blood Angels and World Eaters, and Angron started slaughtering these Blood Angels in the hope of luring Sanguinius back. It quickly worked, and the two engaged on the ground once again. Initially they were evenly matched, but after a relatively short time, the already exhausted Sanguinius began to give ground. With Sanguinius essentially on his last legs and Angron only growing in power, both combatants realized that Sanguinius could not afford to let the fight drag on. Shortly thereafter, Angron decided to let Sanguinius stab him in order to get in close and grab his brother's throat. In the same motion, he also impaled Sanguinius through the gut with the Black Blade. Believing he had won, Angron mocked Sanguinius as he attempted to crush his adversary's throat. Unfortunately for Angron, Sanguinius had seemingly had the same idea of taking a wound to get in close, and the Angel grabbed the cables of the Butcher's Nails that were [[what|STILL]] somehow stuck in Angron's head, and even still functioning as they ever had. Angron tried everything he could to loosen Sanguinius's grip, but Sanguinius, fully Hulked out from the Red Thirst, started tearing the cables out of Angron's head. [[Not as Planned|The Nails being ripped out caused Angron so much pain that he actually begged Sanguinius to stop]], but Sanguinius's pity well was bone dry at that point in the duel. The Angel then proceeded to rip both the Nails and the brain in which they were embedded out of Angron's skull. This had the effect of killing Angron's physical incarnation and sending his soul back to the Warp. Khorne, as his champion died, laughed at the bloodshed from inside of Angron's own skull, caring as per usual not from whence the blood flowed so long as it did. By contrast, Angron's sons were a lot less philosophical than their patron, and so far from finding the matter amusing, went berserker(er) and started team-killing, which really just further ruined Horus' sublimely shitty day.

===41st Millennium===
[[Image:Angrondemon.jpg|300px|thumb|Even in daemonhood, they ''still'' can't get the Nails out. Fucking Archeotech was built to ''last''!]]
Angron has done far more shit than all the other Daemon Primarchs put together. Instead of sitting around [[Fulgrim|being a painting on some Chaos God's wall]], sitting around [[Mortarion|being a rotting fatass and feeling sorry for themselves]], sitting around [[Magnus the Red|yelling just as planned anytime anything happens]], sitting around [[Lorgar|preaching constantly]], [[Horus|being]] [[Alpharius|(Maybe)]] [[Konrad Curze|dead]], or [[Primarch#Two Missing Primarchs|being missing]]; Angron actually gets shit done and boy howdy when he [[rage]]s his way out of the eye of terror he makes sure that everyone knows about it...by tearing ''everything'' that gets in his way a new one until he finally gets thrown back into the warp by drowning in a quadrillion metric fucktons of [[Imperial Guard|Imperial Guardsmen]], [[Planetary Defense Force | Planetary Defense Force soldiers]], [[Space Marines|Spehss Mehreens]], [[Witch Hunters]], [[Sisters of Battle|Bolter Bitches]], [[Titan|Titans]], [[Stormtrooper|Inquisitorial Stormtroopers]], [[Daemonhunters]], and [[Grey Knights]], but to be fair, everyone kind of does that when the Imperium <strike>finishes the paperwork needed to</strike> retaliates.

This was of course before The Gathering Storm, whereupon Magnus personally attacked [[Fenris]] and laid waste to much of the planet and destroyed a lot of gene-seed, proving that [[Tzeentch]] can get shit done too. Then in 8th edition Mortarion waged [[Plague Wars]] against [[Ultramar]] and established the [[Scourge Stars]] systems in M42. Also it should be noted that Fulgrim has been free of that painting for a while now, but otherwise he still fits in the above category.

He also slaughtered his way throughout Imperial Space for over a century with 50,000 World Eater [[Khorne Berzerkers|Berzerker]]s and destroyed/maimed/killed/burned/broke the backs of/split open/fucked 70 sectors. However, in a subsequent Imperial offensive, Angron was banished to the warp and his men routed. This strike force comprised 2 Titan Legions, ''only'' 4 full Spess Mehreen chapters and over 30 Imperial Guard regiments to do that, so it's suffice to say that the counterattack put up quite a fight against the superior force. But to be fair, Angron's force was only comprised of close combat heavy infantry without ranged support or artillery.

Later on, he showed up with an even bigger force to attack Armageddon. The Imperium responded in kind, sending in one hundred [[Grey Knights|Grey Knight Terminators]], and all but ten of them died fighting Angron and his Bloodthirster posse(and only because their prodigy Librarian Hyperion managed to shatter his sword, and he STILL managed to murder their leader with just his bare fists). He is armed with a really huge fucking chainaxe that's taller than him with chainswords for the chainteeth of the chainaxe. He's also got a storm bolter, but we wouldn't be surprised if that fired chainswords as well. Fittingly enough, it was called 'Godtearer'.

Strangely, as seen in the picture above, he also still has the Butchers Nails stuck in his head. This should be completely impossible as Angron technically speaking doesn't have a body anymore (he's 100% warp energy now), and the Nails are technological in nature. He's also been blasted into paste on numerous occasions and forcibly dematerialized into the warp on a number of others, which means that the Nails seemingly regenerate along with the rest of him. The most likely explanation is that, as a daemon, he is at least partially shaped by the mortal perception of him, and the Nails are a big part of his story to anyone with high enough clearance to know his name. If that is true, then he actually is finally free of the Nails and the wires and bits poking out of his skull are just his way of making sure no one confuses him with [[Doombreed]] or something. Nope, turns out they are still present and still functional in the exact same way they were when Angron was flesh and blood. In fact, Sanguinius found out that these cables were a very viable weak point on the daemon primarch, as ripping them out caused such indescribable agony that might well have killed him were he still mortal. Agony so severe that it led him to ''beg'' the person he was trying to kill to stop.

He also wrote something called the '''Clotted Scrolls''' somewhere along the line, though precisely what wisdom he wrote (probably in blood) in there is unknown (maybe methods on how to [[rip and tear]] more effectively?).

==In video games==

Unfortunately, he has appeared in only one of the official games, which greatly displeases [[Khorne]]. However, in the Ultimate Apocalypse mod for [[Dawn of War]], he takes the place of the Chaos Daemons' "game-ending win button" unit - and he's a walking rapetrain that can [[Awesome|obliterate buildings with a single hit, take out Titans in three, make himself invincible, and summon a retinue of Bloodthirsters]]. He can also be almost unkillable by exploiting a bug which lets him instantly refill his morale, which gives him disturbingly fast health regeneration. Too bad you'll almost never use him. He costs so many relic points in an army that consumes them like candy that, if you can spare the points and time to conjure him, chances are you're already winning so badly you don't actually need him. Seriously, for the same number of points it takes to conjure Angron you could just build 5-6 Helldrakes or an equal amount of Bloodthirsters, and keep in mind Chaos Daemons need the same resource for anything greater than lesser Daemons. If you're not spending them on other units you need ''right now'' then you can just overwhelm them with what you already have. Essentially the definition of "awesome but impractical", but sweet jesus is it truly awesome to watch.

Angron shows up in the Horus Heresy:Legions card game, being one of the best warlords, and in keeping with his character he has to attack every turn.

==On the tabletop==

===Horus Heresy===
====1E====
{| class=wikitable
! || Pts || WS || BS || S || T || W || I || A || Ld || Sv
|-
| '''Angron:''' || 400 || 9 || 5 || 7 || 6 || 5 || 7 || 6 || 10 || 3+/4++
|}
[[File:Angaron.jpg|300px|right|thumb|WHY IS HE BEATING UP HIS OWN LEGION said everyone on Istvaan III. Proof that Angron was actually a Loyalist Primarch. Don't believe the Chaos lies!]]
Obviously one of the strongest Primarchs in the game when it comes to close combat, aside from his stats Angron has a 3+ armor (weak for a demigod), 4+ invulnerable, FNP (the full rule since the 02/11/2019 errata) the Primarch rule and Hatred, so he gets to re-roll to-hit rolls on the first turn of any combat, while also having Armourbane and dealing Instant Death on to wound roll of 6, in case S8-9 doesn't instagib anything right away. Thanks to the Butcher's Nails he will gain 1 bonus attack (up to 10) for every Independent Character or Infantry unit he kills/destroys in close combat (But he must be the one to give the fatal blow/remove the last model to pick up this bonus) and he can also challenge as many times as there are Independent Characters and units in combat with him thanks to the Red Sands rule, assuring he will at least pick up some extra attacks during the course of the game.

The obvious downsides are that, aside from butchering things in melee, Angron cannot do anything: he doesn't buff his army in any way aside 12" aura of Fearless, while other Primarchs bestow significant buffs to their armies, and of course he is one of the (if not THE) most fragile of the Primarchs, having only 5 wounds and 3+/4++. Having FNP 5+ doesn't fully compensate against mass fire but makes him actually more resilient than most of his brothers against AP2 attacks. So all in all he's much like Kharn on steroids: you reach melee - you're king, you get your transport blown up and then get kited across the table - you're fucked. The other problem he shares with Kharn is that he tends to annihilate anything he charges in one phase either through sweeping advance or just by killing everyone outright, which leaves him vulnerable to enemy fire afterwards.

Honestly, he's not worth it. Between his fragility, low mobility, and lack of army bonuses, he's a tricky Primarch to use. Unfortunate considering his badass fluff.

====2E====
{| class=wikitable
! || Pts || M || WS || BS || S || T || W || I || A || Ld || Sv
|-
| '''Angron:''' || 450 || 8 || 8 || 5 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 10 || 2+/4++
|}

While he's taken a few hits statwise, Angron remains just as indescribably angry in the new HH, especially now that he has a proper 2+/4++ save like the other primarchs. on top of everything the Primarch rule provides, he also gets Hatred (Everything), Rampage (2) and Furious Charge (2) so his charges can be even more devastating. With both Gorefather and Gorechild being AP2 with Shred, Armorbane and Murderous Strike (3+), he can reduce plenty into paste. The Butcher's Nails rule got changed to now provide extra attacks on EVERY turn now, meaning that every turn he's on the field he becomes even more dangerous, especially when he's into all these challenges thanks to the Red Sands rule.

But as before, killing is all he can do. His Warlord Trait gives everyone Feel No Pain (6+), which is only okay, and Adamantium Mind (3+), which will only see limited use considering how few psykers are on the field. The most helpful part of this is the free reaction you can take at any phase each turn. He also has rather limited defense, as despite his 2+/4++ save, he will always be hit in melee as if he has a WS of 3, which is particularly devastating when against a praetor with a power axe.

===40k===
====Older Editions====
{| class=wikitable
! || Pts || WS || BS || S || T || W || I || A || Ld || Sv
|-
| '''Angron:''' || 500 || 10 || 6 || 7 || 6 || 5 || 6 || 6 || 10 || 3+/4++
|}

He had stats from an old issue of [[White Dwarf]], and though they might seem disappointing, especially in comparison to his Primarch form (it's barely an upgrade), his stats alone don't tell you everything.

For starters, he has additional rules such as Furious Charge (to make him S8), he has Iron Hide (keeping his power armour save), the Roar of Hate rule to reduce the Leadership of enemies by 1, and his Daemon rule made his Invuln as strong as when he relied on armour. The real boost to him however is the fact that he's a Flying Monstrous Creature now (although in the edition he came out it just gave him 12" movement instead), effectively keeping his Armourbane and AP2, and it fixes his movement issue.

The real boost to his old self is his weapon, Angron's Black Blade, and with it in hand it's no wonder Gorefather and Gorechild became hand-me-downs. This is a Master-crafted weapon that gives all of his attacks the Instant Death rule. All this combined he makes [[Abaddon]] the Despoiler and [[Mephiston]] look like total pussies, but you have to get him a bodyguard of at least 2-12 [[Bloodthirster|bloodthirsters]], which effectively racks up his point cost to over 1300 at the least, but there's nothing in the game that survive a charge from him and his bodyguards.

====9th Edition====
[[File:AngronDaemonPrimarch.jpg|300px|right|thumb|WHAT THE WARP DO YOU MEAN GUILLIMAN'S ALIVE?!]]

It's happening people: the galaxy's angriest man is at long last getting a proper model of his Daemon Primarch form and rules in the upcoming World Eaters codex, and he hasn't skipped wing day once since the 31st Millennia. BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD, BOYS AND GIRLS!

And according to Warhammer Community's previews, he appears to rightfully be an absolute monster. 16" movement means he doesn't need silly things like transports and Strength 9 and 12 attacks make him dangerous even before his weapons are factored in. He's got a dual-wielded sword (Samni’arius - not the Black Blade since that got shattered and is now called Vuragh'th to differentiate, but presumably a similar weapon) and chainaxe (Spinegrinder) with two profiles: the first one is S User AP-3 D1 and triples his attacks so you can wipe out [[tarpit]]s single-handedly, and the other is [[Anal circumference|S+5 AP-4 D3+3]] for when you really need that one character or vehicle dead yesterday. On top of all that, he's got a choice between auras that he can switch each command phase: one that adds an extra attack to friendly World Eaters core units within 6", one that gives all friendly World Eaters within 6" the ability to reroll 1s to hit in melee, and one that disables falling back for enemies within 6" so they can't avoid [[Rip and tear|their painful demise]]. The preview hints that there's a mechanic that lets him be revived if killed, but doesn't say how it works.

==Angron VS other Primarchs:==
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%">
Primarch fighting, while fun to see, isn't a very competitive thing to do as it'll usually tie up both Primarchs for the entire game without either of them dying (But with Angron this is less likely as you're going to die or kill fast!), with that in mind this section is about how Angron fares against other Primarchs Mathhammer wise. Please note that all the various abilities are taken into accounts when possible and the match-ups assume the Primarchs are the only ones involved in the fighting, so various abilities like Angron's "The Butcher's Nails" and Rampage do not provide any bonuses. The fights are supposed to be in a vacuum for simplicity (So no Furious Charge for our hero...), but notes are added to make things clearer in particular instances. Also all of the Primarchs use their most powerful weapons (because why have a contest if you don't do your best?)
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">

* Angron VS Horus
**Horus turn 1 & 2: hits 3 times, wounds 2.667 times, 0.888 after saves and FNP, and IWND will take that down to 0.555 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Horus (with Angron wounded twice): hits 3.999 times, wounds 3.555 times, causes 1.185 wounds after saves & FNP, taken to 0.851 with IWND at the start of the next turn.
**Angron Round 1: hits 5.333 times, wounds 4.444 times, 1.48 after saves, and IWND take it down to 1.148.
**Angron Wounded: hits 3 times, wounds 1.999 times, 0.666 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.333 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Despite a good showing in the first round; when factoring in Disabling Strike the whole thing becomes academic; Horus overtakes Angron in damage capacity after one wound (<2 turns) and quickly beats Angron to a pulp as Angron continues to flail feebly.

* Angron vs Fulgrim
**Fulgrim hits 3.5 times, wounds 2.333 times (2.722 times if his warlord trait is Child of Terra), 1.166 (1.361) times after saves, 0.971 (1.134) after Feel No Pain (remember that half of the attacks that wound cause Instant Death) and IWND will take that down to 0.638 (0.801) wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Angron Round 1: hits 5.333 times, wounds 4.444 times, 1.48 after saves, and IWND take it down to 1.148.
**Angron Round 2 and thereafter: hits 4 times, wounds 3.333 times, 1.111 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.778 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**A really close fight: Angron does marginally more damage if Fulgrim doesn't chose Child of Terra as his Warlord Trait. With Child of Terra it becomes a battle of attrition that Angron will eventually lose. If Angron gets blinded at any point due to Fulgrim's Gilded Panoply it puts him at a disadvantage he likely wont recover from.

* Angron VS Ferrus
**Ferrus hits 2.5 times, wounds 2.083 times, 0.694 times after saves and FNP, and IWND will take that down to 0.361 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Angron Round 1: hits 5.333 times, wounds 3.555 times, 1.185 after saves, and IWND take it down to 0.852.
**Angron Round 2: hits 4 times, wounds 2.666 times, 0.889 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.556 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Thanks to his upgraded Feel No Pain, Angron can tank more than Ferrus can, resulting in a win.

* Angron VS Konrad Curze
**Curze hits 3 times, wounds 2.25 times, 0.750 wounds after saves and FNP, and IWND will take that down to 0.417 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Angron Round 1: hits 5.333 times, wounds 4.444 times, 2.222 after saves, and IWND take it down to 1.889.
**Angron Round 2 and thereafter: hits 4 times, wounds 3.333 times, 1.667 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 1.333 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Angron easily wins, doing a lot more damage and receiving less in turn.
**Note: Curze can Hit & Run, but by doing so he would only gain one more attack, while allowing Angron to reset his Hatred, thus actually making himself die even faster. However he would be a much better fight: Konrad on the Charge would do 2.625 wounds (0.875 with ID) which become 1.168, plus 0.1389 for HoW and 0,359 for the Widowmakers, for a total of 1,666 wounds, or 1.333 after IWND. This, thanks to the -1 wound of Angron, actually means that they would kill each other on the fifth assault, at the same initiative step. Provided that Konrad always succeed in his escape, that is.

* Angron VS Vulkan
**Vulkan hits 2 times, wounds 1.666 times, 0.833 wounds after saves (ID Negates FNP) and IWND will take that down to 0.5 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Angron Round 1: hits 5.333 times, wounds 3.555 times, 1.185 after saves, and IWND take it down to 0.63.
**Angron Round 2: hits 4 times, wounds 2.666 times, 0.889 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.333 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Vulkan wins. If Angron has the first turn of combat, Vulkan's legendary endurance nearly fails him by the 8th combat, possibly resulting in an Angron win (5.741). However Vulkan is as likely to kill him in the 7th combat (4.833), and if not has a 83.3% chance of Concussing to swing first for 5.333 wounds in the 8th combat.

* Angron vs Mortarion
**Mortarion hits 2.5 times, wounds 1.666 times, 0.833 times after saves (no FNP due to Instant Death) and IWND will take that down to 0.5 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Angron Round 1: hits 5.333 times, wounds 3.555 times, 1.777 after saves, and IWND take it down to 1.222.
**Angron Round 2: hits 4 times, wounds 2.666 times, 1.333 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.778 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Mortarion loses. Despite having the same reroll on IWND and doing the same damage per turn as Vulkan; even with one extra wound Mortarion's poorer save allows Angron to take him down more quickly.

* Angron VS Lorgar
**Lorgar hits 2.5 times, wounds 2.083 times, 0.694 after saves and FNP, and IWND will take that to 0.361 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Angron Round 1: hits 4 times, wounds 3.111 times, 1.555 after saves, and IWND take it down to 1.222.
**Angron Round 2 and thereafter: hits 4 times, wounds 3.333 times, 1.667 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 1.333 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Angron wins pretty easily.
**Note: against Lorgar Transfigured with Precognition Lorgar wins (Not as easily as the old version, but is still a monster).

*Angron VS Perturabo
**Perturabo hits 2 times, wounds 1.667 times, 0.555 wounds after saves and FNP, then IWND will take that down to 0.222 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Angron Round 1: hits 5.333 times, wounds 4.444 times, 1.48 after saves, and IWND take it down to 1.148.
**Angron Round 2 and thereafter: hits 4 times, wounds 3.333 times, 1.111 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.778 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Angron wins.
**Note: in the turn after Perturabo actually wounds Angron (69% per round) he will most probably be blinded and then hammered to death. So if he can't kill him before that he is actually dead meat.

* Angron VS Alpharius
**Alpharius hits 2.917 times, wounds 1.7 times, 0.85 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.517 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Angron Round 1: hits 5.333 times, wounds 4.444 times, 2.222 after saves, and IWND take it down to 1.889.
**Angron Round 2 and thereafter: hits 4 times, wounds 3.333 times, 1.667 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 1.333 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**As with Vulkan, Angron can't use FNP in this fight due to the Pale Spear's Instant Death, but he still easily takes the win.

* Angron VS Rogal Dorn
**Dorn hits 2 times, wounds 1.5 times, 0.499 wounds after saves and FNP, and IWND will take that down to 0.167 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Dorn (Sundering Blow) hits once, wounds 0.972 times, 0.486 wounds after saves (No FNP due to Instant Death), taken to 0.152 at the start of the next turn.
**Angron Round 1: hits 5.333 times, wounds 3.555 times, 1.777 after saves, and IWND take it down to 1.444.
**Angron Round 2 and thereafter: hits 4 times, wounds 2.667 times, 1.333 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 1 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**This is probably Angron's easiest fight.
**Note: Sundering Blow cancels out Feel No Pain so it was worth calculating. Turns out it makes no difference here; Dorn has too few attacks to make a difference either way.

* Angron VS Corvus Corax
**Corvus hits 4 times (Scourge)/3 times (Shadow-walk), wounds 3 times (Scourge)/2.25 times (Shadow-walk), 0.999 wounds (Scourge)/0.750 wounds (Shadow-walk) after saves and FNP and IWND will take that down to 0.666/0.417 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Angron Round 1: hits 5.333/4.5 times, wounds 4.444/3.75 times, 2.963/2.5 after saves, and IWND take it down to 2.63/2.167.
**Angron Round 2 and thereafter: hits 4/3 times, wounds 3.333/2.5 times, 2.222/1.667 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 1.889/1.333 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Angron wins really easily as Corax is simply too frail for him.
**Note: differently from Curze, Corax would actually have the edge on the charge thanks to his Sire of the Raven Guard rule and his Hammer of Wrath/dual Archeotech Pistols. Also in a turn in which blind goes off he could have the advantage of Shadow-walk and scourge at the same times (plus more, 'cause he would hit on 3s). A tough fight, but more on his style and it could make him win in extremis.

* Angron VS Roboute Guilliman
**Angron Round 1: Angron has Hatred, so on the first turn he will hits 5.333 times, wounds 4.444 times, 2.222 after saves, 1.972 after Armour of Reason re-roll and IWND take it down to 1.639.
**Angron Round 2: Angron hits 4 times, wounds 3.333 times, 1.667 times after saves, 1.417 after re-roll and IWND will take that down to 1.084 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Angron Round 3 and thereafter: Angron hits 3 times, wounds 2.5 times, 1.25 after saves and 1 after re-roll. Then IWND take it down to 0.667.
**Guilliman Round 1/2/3: hits 2.5 times, wounds 2.222 times, 0.741 times after saves and FNP, and IWND will take that down to 0.407 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Guilliman Round 4 and thereafter: hits 3.333 times, wounds 2.963 times, 0.987 times after saves and FNP, and IWND will take that down to 0.654 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Unsurprisingly, Guilliman loses this fight.

*Angron vs Magnus
**Angron first round: hits 4.5 times, wounds 3.75 times and 1.875 after saves which IWND will take down to 1.542 at the start of next turn
**Angron second round: hits 3 times, wounds 2.5 times and 1.25 after saves which IWND will take down to 0.917 at the start of next turn
**Magnus: hits twice, wounds 1.667 times, reducing to 0.557 after saves & FNP. Then IWND will take down to 0.222 at the start of next turn
**Magnus (using Force): hits twice, wounds 1.667, reduces to 0.834 after saves. IWND brings this to 0.5 at the start of the next turn.
**Psychic powers normally don't get included in the PvP breakdowns, but Magnus is the only one with a Force Weapon so it was worth mentioning. Either way you look at it, Magnus loses this one pretty badly. Things would obviously be different if other powers were included.
**As with psychic powers in general in 30k, this fight is really swingy based on what powers Magnus takes. If he can roll Iron arm and Warp speed with a power left to generate then he could take Prescience to actually gain a decent chance of winning. At the same time he could also have a tough time in power generation and get squished.

*Angron VS Leman Russ
**Angron Round 1: Angron has Hatred and is hitting on a 5+, so he hits 3.333 times, wounds 2.778 times, invul save brings it down to 1.389 and IWND brings it to 1.056 wounds.
**Angron Round 2 and on: Angron is hitting on 5s, so hits 2 times, wounds 1.666 times, saves brings it down to .833 and IWND brings it 0.5
**Leman hits Angron 3.214 times, wounds 2.678 times, save brings it down to 1.339, FNP brings it 0.892 and IWND brings it down 0.559
**As expected Angron loses this fight. Angron puts up a reasonable fight but the wolf king is just much for him.
**TLDR: Without the Sword of Balelight, the fight is very close. Sword of Balelight is pretty busted.

* Angron VS Jaghatai
**Jaghatai (on Bike) hits 4 times, wounds 2 times, 1 wounds after saves and FNP will take that down to 0.666 and IWND will take that down to 0.333
**Angron Round 1: hits 5.333 times, wounds 3.555 times, 1.185 wounds after saves, and IWND take it down to 0.852 at the start of the next turn.
**Angron Round 2: hits 4 times, wounds 2.666 times, 0.888 wounds after saves, IWND will take that down to 0.556 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Angrons wins, and if Jaghatai uses hit-and-run he'll get destroyed even faster.

* Angron vs Sanguinius
**Sanguinius charging: hits 4 times (3.5 times with Blade Encarmine), wounds 3.999 times (double wounds taken into account) (3.111 with Encarmine), becomes 1.999 (1.037 with Encarmine & FNP) after saves
***Sanguinius Hammer of Wrath: 1 autohit, wounds 0.833 times, becomes 0.277 after saves and FNP.
***Total combined damage on charge 2.276 (1.314), taken to 1.944 (0.981) next turn with IWND
**Sanguinius thereafter: hits 3.5 times (3 times with Blade Encarmine), wounds 2.333 times (double wounds taken into account)(2.666 with Encarmine), taken to 1.166 after saves (0.888 with Encarmine + FNP), taken to 0.8333 (0.555) next turn with IWND
**Angron Round 1: hits 4.5 times, wounds 3.75 times, becomes 1.875 after saves (0.938 if Sanguinius charged). IWND takes it to 1.54 (0.604) next turn
**Angron thereafter: hits 3 times, wounds 2.5 times, becomes 1.25 after saves and IWND takes it to 0.917 next turn
***There is a lot going on with this fight depending on what Sanguinius is doing. With the Spear of Telesto, from a standing start or if Angron charges there is a mutual kill by about the fifth bout of combat. If Sanguinius can get the charge he wins.
***With the Blade Encarmine there is a close mutual kill if Sanguinius charges, but Angron wins from a standing start or if he charges. Feel No Pain really makes the difference.

* TLDR version: Despite being mocked for ''only'' having 3+/4++ in saves and fewer wounds than everyone but Lorgar (or Corax on a bad day), Angron is surprisingly resilient thanks to his FNP(5+). He will outpace most opponents thanks to his high number of attacks and good WS, so those who can't match his output turn-for-turn can only hope to outlast him. Angron is pretty vulnerable to Strikedown, Concussive, Blind, and basically any rule which reduces his ability to hit things ''(eg: Horus & Russ)'', all of which will severely cripple his overall damage potential. Keep in mind, as mentioned above, this is without any benefits from his The Butcher's Nails rule. With his attacks maxed out he can destroy almost any other Primarch (even Lorgar with Precognition, though it is damn close) with the exception of a few like Russ and...yeah, you guessed it right: Horus! Although he will surely put a dent even in the Warmaster.

In case you're wondering, Angron's mortal form defeats his Daemon form, mainly because his Daemon form was made before IWND became a thing. (Though given the Community stats for his 9E return, this might not be the case for much longer...)
</div></div>

==Angron VS other Primarchs: Horus Heresy 2.0==
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%">

'''Angron vs. The Lion'''
*Lion with the Lion Sword ''(Hits on MC 2+)'': 5.97 hits, 4.97 wounds, '''2.48 unsaved wounds''', which is reduced to 2.15 at the end of the turn thanks to IWND.
**Lions Choler (+1 attack): 6.81 hits, 5.67 wounds, '''2.83 unsaved wounds''', which is reduced to 2.5 at the end of the turn thanks to IWND.
**Lions Choler (+2 attacks): 7.64 hits, 6.37 wounds, '''3.18 unsaved wounds''', which is reduced to 2.84 at the end of the turn thanks to IWND.
*Angron with Gorefather and Gorechild ''(Turn 3, +3 Attacks, Hits on 4+)'' 8.89 hits, 7.9 wounds, '''3.70 unsaved wounds,''' which is reduced to 3.37 at the end of the turn thanks to IWND.

:The Lion wins '''under normal circumstances.''' Angron hits like a truck in the first round, and it really starts eating into the Lion's wounds giving him extra attacks, even though Angron picks up attacks as the game continues too. But due to a higher Initiative, much better accuracy, and the save reroll mean that the Lion should be able to claim the win in the third round.

'''Angron vs. Fulgrim'''

'''Angron vs. Perturabo'''

'''Angron vs. The Khan'''

'''Angron vs. Leman Russ'''

'''Angron vs. Rogal Dorn'''

'''Angron vs. Konrad Curze'''

'''Angron vs. Sanguinius'''

'''Angron vs. Ferrus Manus'''

'''Angron vs. Roboute Guilliman'''

'''Angron vs. Mortarion'''

'''Angron vs. Magnus the Red'''

'''Angron vs. Horus'''

'''Angron vs. Lorgar'''

'''Angron vs. Vulkan'''

'''Angron vs. Corvus Corax'''

'''Angron vs. Alpharius'''

</div></div>

==Gallery==
<gallery>
File:Past-Angron.jpg| Doomguy called he wants his training uniform back, and he wants your head with it.
File:Angron.jpg|Can [[Anime|Vegeta]] say what his power level is?
File:Angron Butchers Nails.jpg|Angron before Daemonhood. The only real difference is a lack of wings.
File:Aerion's Angron.jpg|Angron portrayed in his natural state: PISSED THE FUCK OFF ABOUT EVERYTHING!
File:Angron by alexboca-d7930i6.jpg|Angron just generally being a boss (and looking absolutely goddamn awesome while doing so). And you call the epic ness that he wears "3+" greatly displeases khorne and teh emprah
File:angron_is_for_angry_by_sunradio-d6oferw.jpg|Daemon Primarch Angron at the final battle of the First war of Armageddon.
File:Happy angron.jpg|Angron can be happy too...
</gallery>

==See Also==
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKPVNaKvODw&t=0s| They hit him with a truck!]

{{Primarchs}}
{{Daemons-Characters}}

[[category:Chaos]][[Category:World_Eaters]]

Irregular Militia Group

2022-12-25T11:35:53Z

2601:1C0:4500:A540:0:0:0:8ACF: /* IRL */

{{topquote|WOLVERINES!|Robert Morris}}

Since the formation of the US, the image of the militia man has been an enduring part of the Cultural Identity of Americans. During the Revolutionary War, Minute Men were used by the Continental forces as something of a rapid response force. During the Civil War, both the North and South used militia style forces during the early years to bolster their numbers. Militias even served as late as the Spanish-American War.
But by the 20th century, the usage of Militias by the US government pretty much ended as National Guard style forces pretty much took over the duties of Militias for homeland defense. A home guard style of force did exist during World War 1. But ultimately it would be folded in favor of the National Guard.
In the context of Team Yankee, Irregular Militia Groups are meant to represent partisan groups operation in the US (and Canada) fighting against the Soviet Occupation. Going further, the unit in question is meant to reference the Wolverines from the film Red Dawn.

==In Team Yankee==
Irregular Militia Groups are a bit odd for American (and Canadian) lists. Their stats are near identical to the standard Soviet Infantryman. They do have the option to take Mortars, if that is your thing. They also have Pick Up Trucks for transport, for all that is worth. All in all, they are cheap troops. So why take them at all?
Well, that's where the rule Resistance comes into play. They aren't deployed normally, but rather during the reserves part of the starting step. With the right roll, these guys come in as if from ambush in either No Man's Land or in the Opposing Deployment Zone. What's more, they don't count against your units held in reserve. Makes them a neat little unit to send in after Artillery or Anti-Air. The only real problem is they can't be deployed next to objectives. You also only get two of the units to use. Their viability on the field is probably situational at best, but that may change once the book drops.

==IRL==
Politics and history aside, Militia usage on the continental US has not been a thing since the 20th Century. Which makes sense given that the US has three barriers known as The Atlantic Ocean, The Pacific Ocean and 1.64 Trillion in defense spending. Even if an invading force made its way onto the continental US, there is still the presence of the National Guard.

That being said, the idea of regular Americans rising up to the defend their home has been taken into account by most foreign armies. While often misattributed, the idea of a "Rifle Behind Every Blade of Grass" is very much a valid one. And in the event of an emergency severe enough where National Guardsmen are sent to the front lines, its likely that volunteer forces at home would be hastily organized, if only to take over the Guard's other duties of disaster response and riot control. Did we mention that the US has [[Dakka|more firearms than the entire population of the continent of Australia?]]

Another thing to take into account is the presence of armed groups in the US. While it's easy to think most partisan groups during a possible invasion are wholesome patriots, the reality is a lot less nice. Groups ranging from gangs to religious fundamentalists would also be present to fight back against, though many of the heavily-armed survivalist groups are more concerned with protecting their own farm from societal collapse / the man than they are with proactively fighting off a foreign invader and are at best going to be difficult to contact since they tend to live waaaaay off the grid. If you want a real life example, just look up the Basij. When given a common enemy, differences tend to be placed aside. Or you could look at the French Resistance, which was composed of a huge number of ideologically diverse cells that would fight one another until British Intelligence managed to get a handle on things and coordinated them into a more effective group. Or hell for a modern example: literally everyone in Ukraine strong enough to carry a .22.

This unit might also be an attempt to replicate an "International Brigade/Legion" formation. During multiple conflicts with major ideological components such as the Spanish Civil War or the ongoing Ukraine/Russian you might get many thousands of volunteer fighters, which while of dubious quality are still useful and better than nothing.

Still all that brings the question: why the heck is this an American unit?

'''They're the Cuban Democratic Revolutionary Front.'''

After Fidel took over Cuba, the US recruited a bunch of Cuban refugees to liberate the country and restore it to the mafia-owned banana republic tax haven it'd been for decades. A couple thousand Cubans were given crash training in which end of a gun to point at the enemy and sent off to storm the beaches with the promise that the whole USAF would be flying overhead shooting anything that got in their way.

They got as far as far as storming the beaches, looking up at a bright sunny Caribbean sky with no planes in it.
{{clear}}

{{US Forces in Team Yankee}}

[[Category:Team Yankee]]

Radium Weaponry

2022-12-25T11:12:14Z

2601:1C0:4500:A540:0:0:0:8ACF:

{{topquote|Vulkan: "There will be no Rad or Phosphex in my legion. We shall fight wars humanely. Some things should be left in the dark age."<br>[[Ferrus Manus|Ferrus]]: "Oh cool, when are you going to stop burning people to death?"<br>Vulkan: "I don't understand the question.|A conversation between the X and XVIII Primarchs}}

[[File:Rad Weapons.jpg|thumb|right|290px|They're actually nothing like this AT ALL.<br><br>In fact this is probably the most inappropriate and tone-deaf illustration on this entire wiki.]]
Radium or '''Rad Weapons''' are deadly and highly dangerous weapons that are used exclusively by the forces of the [[Skitarii]] Legions of the [[Adeptus Mechanicus]]. [[Awesome|Think of them as nuclear rifles.]] [[Grimdark|Radium Weapons are so volatile that they eventually kill their wielders.]] Although quite frankly, having a gun that just ends up killing you seems to venture more into [[Derp|Grimderp territory more than anything else.]] Made worse that the Imperium does have extremely potent small arms scale radiation protection in both material and energy field form. Most likely the Skitarii don’t use the protection because Skitarii are blatantly disposable. Their baroque beauty belies a singularly vile function; not only to strike, but to render the battlefield as deadly as the rad-wastes of Mars. Each weapon's bullet cylinder is so thoroughly bathed in radium that a volley can cause a localized rad-storm. Those inside such a storm soon find their flesh blackening and sloughing away.

So what do they actually... DO? Simply saying "they shoot radiation" isn't descriptive enough; lasguns and melta weapons "shoot radiation" (in visible and infrared respectively). Even plasma, volkite, and projectile weapons generate Bremsstrahlung radiation. That's all photons and charged electrons. What Rad Weapons do is shoot neutron radiation. Lots of it. Somewhere between "peeking into the core of Chernobyl" and "man-shaped shadow on a wall at Hiroshima" levels of neutron radiation.

Nuclear disaster guns are all sorts of grimderp, to the point of being hard to defend even in-context. Anything that pumps out enough neutrons to burn flesh is more than enough to turn pretty much anything else (vehicles, buildings, earth, bones, etc) into short lived radiation sources, meaning that a battlefield with rad weapons will very quickly become deadly and uesless to virtually everyone. Vulkan hated them even though his legion was better adapted to eating radiation than any other. There are two cavet's to this point: 1) The battlefield being useless to everyone is a good thing if your executing a scorched earth stratagem, and 2) we don't actually know the half life of Radium Weapons so it could be the battle feild return's to 'you can live here safe~ish in a few decades, see the people living in Chernobyl.

On tabletop, generally speaking, Rad Weapons have a low strength of 3 and no AP, but a to-wound of 6 causes two damage, although stats do differ depending on what type you're using. In 30k 6s to wound do two auto-wounds saved separately. A ten man squad without special weapons requires about thirty dice rolls. Normally Ork troops would have that much. While having shootouts with the Tau and can even win. But that's how the [[Adeptus Mechanicus]] rolls.

Radium Rifles and Pistols both existed before Warhammer in John Carter of Mars, though in both cases they were far less lethal to the user unless their ammunition was exposed to sunlight. Which makes even less sense but given a pass because the internet didn't exist back then and John Carter's first book actually predates actual nuclear technology.
==Imperial Variants==

===Radium Pistol===
[[File:RadiumPistol.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Radium Pistol]]
A small pistol (Small!? It’s bigger than an arm!) that uses scaled down radium technology, usually used by [[Skitarii Vanguard]] and Ranger Alphas. These nuclear armed hand cannons are unfortunately not as rad (Hah! See what I did there?) as one might think. You're better off ponying up the points for the [[Phosphor Blast Pistol]] instead, unless you *have* to have radium. But really you're better off just not taking a pistol on your Alpha.

On 8th Edition, this little nuclear powerhouse is a single shot pistol with the abovementioned base stats. If you choose this pistol, you are essentially replacing a Skitarii Alpha's main weapon. Their base weapon does in a turn what this pistol does in two or three. If you choose to drop your main gun for a pistol, there are better alternatives...although this one is free.

<gallery>
image:RadiumPistolBit.jpg|<center>Side View</center>
image:RadiumPistol1.jpg|<center>Front View</center>
</gallery>

===Radium Serpenta===
[[File:Radium_Serpenta.PNG|200px|right|thumb|Radium Serpenta]]
Like the [[Phosphor Serpenta]], the Radium Serpenta is a baroque-style revolver pistol that increases its range beyond that of a typical sidearm. Except, rather than shooting out space white phosphorous, you're shooting out irradiated plutonium.

Compared to the typical Radium Pistol, the Radium Serpenta is far more superior in its craftsmanship as well as having the aforementioned better range. As such, they are only wielded by the high-ranked [[Skitarii Marshal]]s as their primary ranged weapon. [[FATAL|Still has the shoddy side affects of acute radiation poisoning, unfortunately, so whilst pretty to look at, it is best to stay as far away as possible.]]

On the tabletop, the Radium Serpenta is actually counted as an assault, not a pistol. It is a 18" ranged S3, AP0, D1 radium weapon, not too shabby for a sidearm.

===Radium Carbine===
[[File:RadiumCarbine.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Radium Carbine]]

The basic weapon of the Skitarii Vanguard. The Radium Carbine rapid firing weapon capable of a punishing rate of fire, it is the main armament of Skitarii Vanguard. The Carbine is noted for its amazing fire rate, sometimes bordering on the absurd; it's entirely possible for this S3, AP0 weapon to destroy vehicles by sheer [[Dakka]].

If you want to roleplay as [[Fallout]] in WH40K, this is the gun for you. Speaking of Fallout, this gun closely resembles the Fallout 4's similarly named Radium Rifle in both design and function. On the table, at 18" range and Assault 3 [[Awesome|allowing Vanguard to cover lots of ground and still hit on 4+]], the Radium Carbine usually means lots of hits at short-mid range.

<gallery>
image:SkitariiRadiumCarbine.png|<center>Side View</center>
RadiuMCarbineAim.jpg|<center>Bottom View</center>
</gallery>

===Radium Jezzail===
[[File:RadiumJezzail.jpg|250px|right|thumb|Radium Jezzail]]

[[Awesome|A motherfucking nuclear sniper rifle.]] The Radium Jezzail is a long sniper-like weapon that is sometimes used by [[Sydonian Dragoon|Sydonian Dragoons]] instead of a Taser Lance. On the table, it's a two shot sniper version as a weapon choice for the Dragoon, in place of its Taser Lance, for free.

Seriously, it has more power than other armies' sniper rifles, beginning at [[Cheese|S5 Heavy 2]], it would be more accurate to call it an anti-materiel rifle than a sniper rifle. It is offset for its relatively short range (For a sniper rifle) of 30". It could also Wound at 6's, which causes an extra mortal wound, just to make sure that poor sod is right and proper dead.

Basically, if you're going to be taking these on Dragoons you will have to commit to it; as in they're all gonna be sniping.

<gallery>
RadiumJezzailSide.jpg|<center>Side View</center>
image:SydonianRadiumJezzail.png|<center>Top View</center>
</gallery>

{{clear}}

===Irradiation Projector===
[[File:Irrad.jpg|right|thumb|200px|Irradiation Projector]]
Dating back to the [[Great Crusade]] and working much like an oversized [[Flamer]] rather than a light machine gun firing pure Uranium. An Irradiation Projector, also known as a Rad-Cleanser or Irad-Cleanser, are specialized Adeptus Mechanicus weapons. A potent anti-infantry relic of the Dark Age of Technology, the weapon itself is a dish-like projector connected to a bulky generator which unleashes a powerful blast of cross-spectrum radiation.

Victims caught in the blast suffer horrendous deaths as they are boiled alive from within and blasted apart on a cellular level (think microwave combined with particle bombardment, kinda like an unfocused Necron weapon). Though less effective against vehicles or targets with heavy armor, the target will likely die a short time later from late-term effects of acute radiation sickness (compare [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiation-induced_cognitive_decline#War_fighting "Walking-Ghost-phase"]).

The biggest users are [[Thallax|Thallaxes]] whose enclosed cybernetic harness means that they are less susceptible to radiation poisoning.

<gallery>
MagosRadCleanser.jpg|<center>Magos Dominus</center>
image:MechanicumRadiumEngine.png|<center>Myrmidon Destructor</center>
</gallery>

{{clear}}

===Rad Grenade Launcher===
[[File:Rad_Grenade_Launcher.PNG|right|thumb|200px|Rad Grenade Launcher]]
The Rad Grenade Launcher or sometimes known as the '''Angel's Tears Grenade Launcher''' was a type of [[Grenade Launcher]] used by the [[Blood Angels]] [[Angel's Tears]] during the [[Great Crusade]] and [[Horus Heresy]].

Like the slightly bigger Rad Missile Launcher, these Rad Weapons were spawned from the [[Unification Wars]] and [[Age of Strife]] and proved itself well-suited to the Angel's Tears role as purgers. These were ''heavy'' Grenade Launchers, the type to be fired against dudes in power armour, not cannon fodder. These drum-fed Grenade Launchers like their missile launching counerpart, fired specialised radioactive grenades filled with ionising irradiated materials to completely lay waste in an area, turning them into dirty bombs in the process.

As a Grenade Launcher, it has less range than the Rad Missile Launcher, but it is able to rapid fire and act as a form of light artillery.

Crunchwise, these are S4, AP4, 24" Assault 3 Rad Weapons with Rad-phage and Fleshbane, very, ''very'' nasty weapons against GEQs and MEQs alike. Although Terminators and Vehicles can tank them.

===Rad Missile Launcher===
[[File:Rad_Missile_Launcher.JPG|200px|right|thumb|Rad Missile Launcher]]

The big cheese of the Imperium's Rad Weapons.
Rad Missile Launchers were a type of Rad Weapon deployed during the [[Great Crusade]] and [[Horus Heresy]]. These Terran-derived missiles are a horror of the genetic wars waged during the Age of Strife, using custom loaded-warheads which combine high explosive fragmentation charges lined with radioactive isotopes.

The effect is to create an intensely toxic radiation weapon that inflicts a hideous death on its victim no matter their resilience. Because of its contaminating and hideous nature, it was deployed sparingly, most commonly by [[Destroyer_Squad|Destroyer Space Marines]]. The effects of these weapons were so horrific that they were only used against Xenos. Even the worst among the Legion Astartes had very little trust for those would dare use them. Exceptions being the [[Death Guard]] and the Dreadwing of the [[Dark Angels]]. The effects of Rad Missiles would force Destroyer Marines to replace their limbs with cybernetics. As the ammunition fired by the launcher itself caused aggressive forms of cancer that can deter Space Marines. The outbreak of the [[Horus Heresy]] turned Rad Missiles Launchers and Destroyers into a necessary evil for both sides. This is the first pre-Grey Knight answer against [[Daemon|Chaos Daemons]] or [[Dark Eldar|anyone dumb enough to not wear]] or [[Cultist|too broke ass to afford]] [[Power Armor]].

[[Tl;dr]], it's a missile launching dirty bomb.

<gallery>
image:RadMissileFront.jpg|<center>Front View</center>
image:RadMissileBack.jpg|<center>Back View</center>
</gallery>

===Rad Cannon===
[[File:Rad_Cannon.JPG|200px|right|thumb|Rad Cannon]]
Rad Cannons are a type of Rad Weapon and the big daddy of the lot. They are known to be used by House Van Saar gangers on [[Necromunda]]. These are extremely bulky weapons that essentially shits out Chernobyl-levels of radiation at the particular vicinity.

They are extremely powerful, albeit unwieldy and deadly weapons (for both the enemy target and its user). It should not surprise us that users of Rad Cannons often could count their lifespan in months from constant usage, due to the radiation backwash. For some unknown reasons, the AdMech nor the destroyer squads of the space marines never seem to utilize these dangerous ordinances, despite the fact that they would probably in all likelihood, ''should''. Though their version would be much less shitty and look like a larger Irradiation Projector.

On the Necromunda tabletop, this is a 5” and 32” range blast weapons. For House Van Saar which sorely lacks blasts, this weapon could be a god send. However, [[Wat|the weak-ass Strength of 2]] means that you are not hitting above your weight. As such, [[Skub|it is a pretty mix-bag weapon, quite situational honestly.]]
<gallery>
Rad_Cannon_model.JPG
</gallery>
{{Template:40k-Imperial-Weapons}}

== Tau Variants ==

The [[Tau Empire]] only utilize one type of rad weapon in which only the Vespids are known to use.

=== Neutron Blaster ===

[[File:NeutronBlaster.JPG|200px|right|thumb|Neutron Blaster]]

The primary weapon of the [[Vespid|giant cockroaches]]. Neutron Blasters are some type of rad weapon that fires irradiated neutrons. The Neutron Blaster is one of the most bizarre and impractical weapons ever conceived by Games Workshop. [[What|This is due to the fact that in order to fire it, you need a constant, ultrasonic tone emitted only by the vibrations of the Vespid wing casings which perfectly modulate the energies contained within the crystals.]] Whilst some may claim that this allows ''only'' the Vespids to utilize these weapons which is a great enemy denial tool. It also presents the problems of the usefulness of this weapon in closed, cramp spaces, or the hard vacuum of outer space which may render the weapon quite useless....whoops....

The Neutron Blaster in a sense, is a hybrid of Vespid and Tau technology, the bulk of a Neutron Blaster is of Tau manufacture as the Vespid have not yet attained the technical facility to fabricate it themselves. Mounted at the barrel of the weapon is a highly energetic and unstable crystal harvested from the lowest levels of the largest stalactite islands of the Vespid homeworld in the deepest reaches of Vespid's cloud seas. At such depths, the atmospheric pressures create all manner of exotic, bizarre and unique crystal formations, and it is only the larger female Vespid, those who form the leader class of the species, who have the constitution to descend to such depths and harvest the purest crystals.

Neutron Blasters are capable of emitting short-ranged but deadly streams of neutron radiation that are able to pass straight through all but the sturdiest of ray-shielded enemy armor to reduce biological matter or delicate machine circuitry to cinders.

For ''some'' reason, the Neutron it fires is a [[Derp|sickly green]] despite the fact that neutrons aren't known to come in green.

<gallery>
image:NeutronBlasterSmall.jpg|<center>Standard Variant</center>
image:VespidNeutron.png|<center>Sergeant Variant</center>
</gallery>

{{clear}}

[[Category: Warhammer 40,000]]

[[Category: Imperial]]

[[Category: Adeptus Mechanicus]]

[[Category: Space Marines]]

[[Category: Xenos]]

[[Category: Tau]]

[[Category: Weapons]]

[[Category: Warhammer Weapons]]

{{Template:40k-Tau-Weapons}}

Lotara Sarrin

2022-12-24T08:05:40Z

2601:1C0:4500:A540:0:0:0:8ACF: /* Gallery */

{{Heresy}}
[[File:Lotara Sarrin by Ilya Gromov.jpg|thumb|Scarred Lotara is best Lotara]]
{{Topquote|Fire the Ursus Claw!|Lotara Sarrin, at any chance she gets in a void battle.}}
{{Topquote|No one runs from the Conqueror!|Lotara Sarrin, before shooting down a ship full of defecting World Eaters and crew.}}

So what happens if you give a thirty-something woman - surrounded by [[World Eaters|psychotic murderers]] - full authority of a [[Gloriana-class Battleship|fuck-off huge starship]] during one of the biggest [[Horus Heresy|cluster fucks]] known to human kind? She commits murder - but not just any murder, ''oh [[Khorne]] no.'' The woman we speak of is none other than '''Lotara Sarrin''', who would go on to [[RIP AND TEAR|commit such an absurd amount of Warp-murder]] that she receives a mark of honour from [[Kharn|that swell guy]] and earns some level of respect from [[Angron|that other guy]].

Naturally, her status as a [[Mary Sue|bad-ass]] easily makes her good [[waifu]] material - that is if you like your 'waifus' [[Sisters of Battle|cold, aggressive and dominant]] <s>(which luckily I do)</s>, and don't mind the [[Heresy]].

'''TL;DR''': She's a low effort ripoff of Admiral Daala from the [[Star Wars]] books.

== History ==
[[File:Preheresy-world-eaters.jpg|thumb|Don't let her size fool you: Lotara Sarrin was badass enough to earn the respect of [[Angron|these two]] [[Khârn|swell guys]]! While also gaining [[Wat|way darker hair and skin]].]]
The commanding officer of the World Eaters flagship Conqueror since she was 30, Lotara was one of the youngest ship officers in the Imperium. Despite her regular human status Lotara had a degree of respect within the World Eaters, wearing their bloody hand honor emblem and being on somewhat amicable terms with Angron himself. After Lotara complained about Remembrancers aboard her ship, [[Mod|Angron immediately had them expelled]]. During the Horus Heresy, Lotara stayed committed to Angron and commanded the Conqueror during the Shadow Crusade.

During said Shadow Crusade, Lotara balanced her own lust for void-murder and giving Angron lip for wanting to fight [[Lorgar|his whiny brother]]. During the battle of Armatura, with the safety of distance between herself and the murder machine, she gave him the verbal sneer of the millennium:

:'''Angron:''' ''"How's my ship doing?"''
:'''Lotara:''' ''"You mean'' my ''ship. And we're doing just fine."''

During the same battle, the [[Ultramarines|Smurfs]] made a boarding attempt on the ''Conqueror'' and that's when Lotara realized the World Eaters supposed to deal with them had gone to join the fun on the planet below. Her reaction?
:Step 1: wake up all remaining Dreadnoughts on board, then join them in going to town on blue power-armored ass with her naval armsmen.
:Step 2: Shoot the captain of the defenders when he came back smack between his helmet's eyeplates with her laspistol. Then chew him out twice as hard because not only did he dare desert his post, on top of that he dared return fire at a superior officer reprimanding him.
It is rather telling said Astartes captain agreed to be confined to his quarters for a while rather than keep up being on the receiving end of the temper of this mere mortal woman.

Around this time, Lotara also noticed Angron was deteriorating. After some investigation and pointed questions with the local [[Adeptus Mechanicus|cog boys]] on her ship, she learned the Nails were killing Angron. How she remained calm and didn't shoot them in the face like she did to the captain of the boarding specialist Astartes squads, is <s>still unknown</s> because they were faced with a duty they simply could not perform. Which is ''very'' different from <u>wilfully deserting your post</u>: in any other military Delvarus would have been in for at the very best a court-martial and demotion, if not much worse! (Then again, she did force the AdMech to focus on repairing the [[Titan (Warhammer 40,000)|Ember Wolves Titan Legion]] division, so she still had quite a pickle with them.)

After Nuceria, the subsequent loss of her card playing companion [[Dreadnought#Contemptor Pattern|Lhorke]] and Angron's ascension into [[Daemon Prince|daemonhood]], [[Not As Planned|shit began to go fuckways]] because [[Chaos]]. Dropping out of the [[Warp]] due to human error left the Conqueror mostly isolated. The [[Word Bearers]] either did not notice or simply did not care about the World Eaters' flagship dropping out of transit, and even some World Eaters vessels did not drop from transit with them. From this point on, Lotara steered the World Eaters fleet (or what remained of it) from planet to planet to satiate [[RIP AND TEAR|the need for murder]] and replenish supplies.

On their way to the [[Siege of Terra|party of the century]], Lotara began to feel like the [[Machine Spirit|ship was trying to kill them]]. The usual [[Khorne]] fuckery ensued: Blood from the showers and taps, lice leeching blood from the people's scalps, constant infighting, murderous rampaging World Eaters, and of course the thing Angron had become turning half the ship into a [[RIP AND TEAR|fleshy, bloody mess]]. Captain Sarrin did the unthinkable and plotted a mutiny/abandonment-of-ship with a few sane World Eaters. But at the very last moment, when the insubordinate crew fled and that swell guy Kharn confronted one of his own, it was revealed that Lotara wasn't going anywhere and she proceeded to gun down the fleeing vessels while speaking one line: [[Awesome|''"No one runs from the Conqueror."'']]

That said, Lotara's loyalty could only be pushed that far: when Angron finally went completely batshit insane after being refused the honour of leading the attack on Terra by [[Horus]] and started rampaging through the ship, she pretty much conned Khârn into making a deal with [[Night Lords|Gendor Skraivok]] to have Angron locked up in the maze [[Perturabo|Perty]] built to contain [[Vulkan]] until it was go time.

It is still unknown what Lotara's fate is, but it is common fanon that she is part of the Conqueror like some Titan pilots fuse with their God-Machines, or perhaps if she herself has ascended to daemonhood and effectively became the ship's new machine spirit.

This was confirmed in Echoes of Eternity, where her physical body has been merged with the command throne and became some of form of cannibalistic vampire thing while her spirit is hanging around the bridge in misery.

== In Novels ==
Notable novel appearances go here.
Betrayer, her first apperance.
Lost and the Damned. She and Kharn work together with the Night Lords to lock Angron up in Curze's Vulkan maze.

In ADB's Echoes of Eternity, Sarrin tries to command a run-down Conqueror. Most of the crew is too busy being flesh-blobs merged with the walls than actually keep the ship afloat. In a desperate video call with Horus, it is revealed that the Lotara Sarrin in this story is an AI construct created by the Conqueror's Machine Spirit, made to command the ship's different stations. The real Sarrin is most likely fused with the ship like the other human crew.

== On The Tabletop ==
She doesn't have any official rules, but this category being here means someone is cooking up some homebrew.

== In Video Games ==
Lotara is represented in the Horus Heresy Legions mobile TCG. Disappointingly enough, she doesn't belong to the World Eaters legion and comes as a Neutral warlord as Imperial Army, thus barring her from access to legion cards, but in hindsight putting her in with the World Eaters legion might make them stupidly OP due to her ability. Her ability places a 2/3 Front Line with Flank in play for a mere 2 energy, so you can always cover what you're about to put on the field and throw them at what your opponent plays on their turn. Lotara decks are somewhat decent in the 1000 - 1500 rating bracket once you have access to cards such as Mount Pharos to generate some Astartes cards. What is unique however is that Lotara starts with a special card like the Primarchs and Valdor do, this one-off card stuns all enemies for free, perfect to shut down your opponent and protect an important card.

== Gallery ==
Waifu imagery goes here. It is interesting to note that while in the books she is blonde, almost all the fanart (and the theoretically official image used in the Legions TCG) of her presents her as a brunette.

<center>
<gallery>
Lotara1.jpg
Lotara2.jpg
Lotara3.jpg
Ursusclaw.jpg
Lotaranews.png
Lotara4.jpg
LotaraCard.png| Lotara's card in the Horus Heresy Legions TCG
File:Lotara Sarrin Anime Style.jpg
</gallery>
</center>

== See Also ==

* [[World Eaters]]

* [[Gloriana-class Battleship]]

* [[Horus Heresy]]

[[Category: Warhammer 40,000]]

[[Category: Chaos]][[Category:World_Eaters]]

Bronze Age

2022-12-21T19:02:57Z

2601:1C0:4500:A540:0:0:0:8ACF: /* Notes */

[[File:Mesopotamian farmers.jpg|250px|thumb|left|When you get the basics of farming down and your food supply is secure...]]
The '''Bronze Age''' is a period usually marked out by the development of Bronze, an alloy of copper and tin and a period in which human civilization really got going. In the late [[Stone Age]] basic agriculture had been worked out and a few farming communities had emerged, small permanent and semi-perminant villages and towns with a few workshops and storehouses surrounded by farmsteads. By the Bronze Age these had developed into fairly substantial and sophisticated societies with a high degree of specialization and stratification, complex governments, laws in place of customs and widespread trade networks reaching for thousands of kilometers. Writing and mathematics were developed as tools of governments and were used to build large scale projects. At this time cities' populations grew into the tens of thousands, first as independent city states and later as empires.

Beyond these early centers of civilization newer if smaller scale agrarian societies would emerge and rise while nomadic pastoral peoples would develop along their own lines and would trade and fight with both the growing city states, the small scale farming clans and the remaining hunter/gatherers. The more developed civilizations soon came to see them as [[Barbarian]]s.
[[File:Babylon.JPG|250px|thumb|Right|...you can aspire to greatness.]]
Technically the Bronze Age was preceded by the '''Copper Age''' in which the basics of metalworking were worked out and first applied and which developments in other areas were made such as construction and ceramics, but for sake of simplicity on this site it's getting lumped in with the Bronze Age. Copper smelting began 8,000 years ago. Bronze Smelting began around 5,700 years ago in the Fertile Crescent and China about the same time and would spread from those two points although in 2013 tin bronze foil was discovered in the Balkans and dated to 4650 BCE indicating that bronze may have been discovered independently in a much wider area. It should also be noted that Bronze took some time to fully replace copper to tool use.

Generally speaking, the Bronze Age ended in the Fertile Crescent region after the Bronze Age collapse, in which several old civilizations fell or were devastated as ferrous metallurgy began to catch on. When civilization recovered and rebuilt, [[Classical Period|new ones rose in their place]]. In China the end of the Bronze Age was more gradual and less dramatic, iron working showed up and superseded Bronze without too much fuss between 900 BCE to 500 BCE. Several Native American civilizations (such as the Incas and the Aztecs) would reach a Bronze Age level of development before the arrival of more advanced Europeans. Their development was hampered by a lack of large domestic mammals suitable for draft purposes or riding (and the lack of Poxes from those animals would cause an accidental genocide as the colonial forces, on top of already destroying the Aztecs (with local help as the Aztecs were arguably the biggest assholes in the Americas. Turns out human sacrifice of prisoners makes one resented) pretty much unwittingly committed the largest act of biological warfare in history). The Andeans had llamas, which was better than nothing but was no horse or ox.

== The Fertile Crescent ==
The Earliest agrarian societies on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea and what is now Iraq, which saw the emergence of the first and the most successful bronze age civilizations.
=== Mesopotamia ===
Located in the Tigris and Euphrates river valleys, Mesopotamia is often called the Birthplace of Civilization. It was the site of the first agrarian communities in the neolithic period and latter saw the emergence of city states as we would understand them. Numerous cities would rise along the banks of these rivers, using it for transport and more importantly irrigation. This was a place with little rain and the rivers were rather unreliable. To make it productive, a lot of channels and ditches were required and you'd also want reserves of food set aside in granaries and water in reservoirs. Doing so was both labor intensive and required a lot of coordination. That said, properly managed it could support cities with tens of thousands of people. Possibly more than a hundred thousand.

There were numerous city states in Mesopotamia, which would wax and wane in power. In particular there was Uruk, Akkad and most famous Babylon. Power would shift between Priest Kings to more military monarchs. In particular, this gave rise to the notion of The Rule of Law with legal codes such as that of Hammurabi, which was set in stone in steles in public places for all to see. While it was rather brutal ("An Eye for an Eye") it laid out the notion that there is one set of laws for everyone, even (in theory at least) to the King. It was filled with double and triple standards of course, but it was certainly better than the near literal no standards from before.

There were several cultures which neighbored Mesopotamia. To the east in what was now Iran there various bronze age cultures emerging shortly after Mesopotamia and following it's lead. It was home to overland trade-routes with India. To the west in what is now Turkey was a set of similar cultures, most notable of which were the Hittites that rose towards the end of the Bronze Age.

=== Egypt ===
Ancient Egypt is probably the most famous archetypal Bronze Age civilization. Modern Egyptology started with [[Industrial Revolution|Napoleon]], who took an interest in the pyramids such and hired artists, reporters and scholars to study the ruins (most notably finding the Rosetta Stone that let them decode their written language) and report back to France and has been going strong ever since. It helps that Egypt is a very desiccated place and we have a lot of records buried in the sand.

Like Mesopotamia, Egypt is based around a river which ran through a desert. Unlike Mesopotamia, the River was easy to work with. Between May and August the Nile would flood. Once it receded, the flood plain was both wet and fertile from freshly deposited sediment. In practical terms this meant that Egyptian Agriculture was on easy mode. High yields with little work and during inundation people had a lot of free time on their hands, which they often spent building Pyramids. There was little point for Egypt in making war; all the surrounding lands were barren desert, and most of their neighbors depended on trade with Egypt for food anyway. This meant the Pharaohs could easily afford enough men, horses, and chariots to keep anyone else from getting ideas (at least until the Greeks and Romans showed up).

A really outstanding fact about Egypt is that it was remarkably stable. From roughly 3150 BCE to 525 BCE Egypt existed as a political entity without much internal societal upheaval. There were periods of disruption and instability, but they were always fairly brief with people returning to the status quo with Pharaohs, priesthoods, nomearchs and so forth. Similarly there was a lot of continuity of culture. A few new technologies were introduced (Bronzeworking and chariots) but the overall impact on people's day to day lives was highly limited. It's easy to identify what dynasty an Imperial Chinese porcelain plate was made in based on it's style or what century a picture of a medieval knight was made in based on his armor. In contrast you would be hard pressed to find the stylistic difference between an Egyptian statue of a Pharaoh from 2600 BCE and one from 26 BCE of Caesar. Hell, Augustus's Pharaonic statues from around 10 CE look barely different from Narmer's palettes from around 3000 BCE.

===Canaan/Israel===
Of particular note because of how much of the legends and histories of this particular region has shaped Western culture and fantasy, Canaan/Israel is probably the second-most famous Bronze Age civilization after Egypt. While debate continues as to whether the legends passed down in the Hebrew Bible date from the Bronze or Iron Age, it is nonetheless some of the earliest documented history, if such a term be applicable, of the Fertile Crescent available to modern audiences. Modern conceptions of angels, sin, sacrifices, and other theological practices as well as the ideas of ancient progenitor bloodlines and the manner of Bronze Age customs, especially before the archeological renaissance of the 1800s, can be traced to the ancient Isrealite/Canaanite culture and lore.

== East Asia ==

[[File:Bronze Age Zhou China.jpg|250px|thumb|left|We may not have huge stone buildings, but our Feng-shui is auspicious af.]]
The first use of bronze in China is dated at around 3100-2700 BCE although more concrete delineation is a bit difficult due to aforementioned smooth transition to the Iron Age and bronze being in continuous use since it was seen as a fancy material alongside jade. Chinese historians roughly equate ''early Bronze Age'' with the Shang Dynasty and ''late Bronze Age'' with Zhou Dynasty. In terms of cultural and social sophistication it was basically ˝China-lite˝ as the various elements that will come to define China were just getting started though as the picture on the left shows they were as advanced as the Egyptians and Sumerians.

Korea had begun using bronze by 1000-800 BCE which they adopted from the neighbouring Liaoning and Manchu cultures though they developed their unique style and culture. The Bronze Age in Korea corresponds generally with the Mumun period during which their societies progressed from isolated villages of pit-houses in the classical part to sprawling settlements numbering hundreds of houses secured by several ditch enclosures along with megalithic burial sites. During the late Mumun there was apparently an increase of conflict as the amount of settlements decreased and many transformed into hilltop forts with even more elaborate ditches, at this time iron also started entering use as well.

[[File:Japan Bronze Age.jpg|250px|thumb|Right|May not look like much, but we grow through the ages, watch this space with care.]]
Japanese Bronze Age corresponds roughly to the Yayoi period at around 300 BCE when it was brought by settlers from Korea to northern Kyushu and then spread out north-west. This period was also marked by a complex interplay of migrants from the Korean peninsula and the more native Yomon - the former being displaced by the more chinese-like northerners, there is however little evidence of conflict and the two cultures apparently merged and bolstered Japan with new tech and culture (sounds kinda familiar, hmmm...).

== Americas ==
Agriculture started up a bit latter in the Americas than in Eurasia or Africa starting with Squash in Mexico and [[Potato]]es in the Andes 10,000 years ago and taking until about 6,000 years ago to come into it's own as new cultivars were domesticated. By 2000 BCE Gold Smelting had begun in the Andes followed by copper smelting by 1100 BCE and limited bronze-working was under way by 500 BCE. In Mexico, metalworking had begun by 800 CE with copper and gold, but even with limited metallurgy both regions did produce sophisticated civilizations which had evolved along their own courses in isolation from Eurasia.

In the rainforests of the Yucatan Peninsula, the Maya people gradually rose and really came into their own around 250 CE. They were not a single nation, but a collection of city states, some of which would make alliances or conquer their neighbors from time to time. But despite their lack of beasts of burden or metal tools, the Maya did build some sizeable cities with large pyramidal monuments, raincathers and worked out a system of writing and some fairly advanced mathematics and astronomy. Unfortunately they went into decline around 900, never quite collapsing but they were definitely diminished. Exactly why this happens [[skub|is unknown and disputed]], though a new power would rise to the West.

Around 1250 or so, a bunch of people called the Aztecs moved south. As the story goes, these migrants were looking for a place to settle following a prophecy that they'd find it when the say an eagle eating a snake on a prickly pair cactus. Eventually they found the sign, on a small island in the middle of a lake. Despite everything they built their city of Tenochtitlan in that lake along with a bunch of farms on reed mats. By 1428 the Aztecs got into some alliances and went a conquering, becoming an Empire. They were a Feudal Society with lords and hereditary warrior classes and they could field vast armies which they used to extract tribute from their rivals, including captives to either work as slaves or be sacrificed. Their city never really died; ancient Tenochtitlan today sits at the very center of Mexico City, and many colonial era buildings were built from Aztec ruins.

[[File:Pachacuti.jpg|250px|thumb|left|Pachacuti, Sapa Inca]]
To the South, things went in their own unique way. See the Andes are the second tallest mountains on earth and so even though they straddle the equator it can still get cold up there in the thin mountain air. It also varies a lot with Rain-forests, glaciers, cool peaks, grassland, scrubland and desert all packed up real tight. There were a bunch of cultures rising and falling and generally doing their own thing. One these was the Kingdom of Cusco, ruled by a dynasty that claimed to be the children of the Sun God Inti. In 1438 got a new leader called [[The Emperor|Pachacuti (Reformer of the World)]] who pulled off a successful [[Great Crusade]], forging ''Tawantinsuyu'' ("The Four Parts Combined") or more commonly known as the Inca Empire.

The Inca Empire was freaking huge, covering 2,000,000 km² linked together by a vast network of roads and way stations. If you bordered them, the Inca would offer you gifts and promise you that you'd keep your old position of power and get access to stored wealth of the Empire in exchange for having to contribute to Tawantisuyu. If you refuse the Inca would send forty thousand men with maces, bows and spears to murderize you and put someone better in charge. Most people went with the former. They did not have a system of writing but they did have something roughly similar for keeping records called a Quipu, basically a set of strings with a code of knots tied into them.

Unfortunately for the Maya, Aztecs and the Incas, First Contact with Europeans was disastrous. Diseases ravaged their population, soldiers with horses, guns and steel armor and weapons could best their armies with obsidian swords and bronze star-head maces and they caused a lot of political instability and exploited it to dominate.

== Notes ==
* [[Money]] did not really exist back then. Peasants would give each other gifts and would do stuff for each other as they could (you give me some pots and I'll fix your roof when I can), governments paid people wages of food and goods and merchants haggled various goods with local officials, regular people and each other as they went. There were a few things that merchants preferred to deal in which were easier to deal with (bolts of cloth, ingots of metal, cowrie shells) but it was still an informal matter. This would vanish later, and China, Greece, Egypt and Philistines had all established currency a hundreds of years before 1000 B.C. (possibly earlier). That said, the earliest forms of money were contrived as aides to accounting by bronze age bureaucrats, since shifting large amounts of grain about from hold to hold is hard work with a Shekel being pegged at a bushel of barley.
**despite the general lack of money there was a lot of trade, Often at great distance. To make bronze you need copper (common) and tin which is pretty rare actually. Most of the tin used in the Mediterranean is believed to be from England of all places.
* The shift to agriculture meant that humans started needing supplemental dietary salt to live, as well as to preserve meat. [[Dune|Salt trade]] with areas able to mine or harvest it in useful quantities would become the first major form of commerce between empires.
* Pastoral Peoples emerged during this time. They had herds of livestock which they moved around with for food and fiber, sometimes engaging in a bit of agriculture on the side. Since they were always on the move, they lived light with stuff they could transport and they often played an important role in trade between city states. Often there would be clashes with Pastoral people and Agrarian nomads. Though they would decline as more areas turned to agriculture would often be the case until fairly recently (like 1500 years ago). The Mongols were the last great Hurrah! of pastorals.
* Many of the more developed Bronze Age societies had many aspects of society organized by the government. The government told peasants what to grow, collected taxes of food and similar from them, took them to central warehouses, gave artisans wages of stuff for making tools and weapons which they would use to pay people and distribute to people who needed them. All of which managed by castes of scribes and nobles. Basically think of the [[Imperial Tithe]] minus most of the Grimdark.
* Chariots! Animal domestication lead to animals that could pull carts, which were then weaponized. In places where flat land was plentiful, it was very hard to engage in a combat against a wheeled cart that was shooting arrows at you, and even harder if there was a full formation of the things. Cart, animals, trained soldiers, and weapons got expensive in a hurry, especially for chariots which need two animals. As such they were replaced by cavalry once we bred horses to be big enough to take a human rider by it self, drastically reducing the price and support resources.
* A lot of what we think of as being part of the Classical Era has its roots in the Bronze Age. For example, the Egyptians have an extremely long history that stretches from the dawn of civilization to the rise of the Hellenic empire, much, much later. And the most famous Greek stories we know of by Homer, were written prior to the Classical age in what we know as “Archaic Greece,” and he was talking about a Greece even older than that that was effectively lost to its own Dark Ages. Much of what we know about this time period comes to us indirectly from the oral traditions of classical poets and historians, especially if the writing system of those societies became lost.

== The appeal of the Bronze Age ==
The Bronze Age is the earliest period that we have accounts of, even if they are scant, fragmentary and incomplete. It is in this time that the earliest forms of civilization are gradually taking shape, and we know more of the shapes it took in those formative years than about the specifics of any particular band or tribe of stone age people. From big things like the Codes of Hammurabi to the fact that some fellow in Mesopotamia around 5,200 years ago was named Iry-Hor.

To the eye of the romantic, priest-kings reign over populations of devoted followers who demand that their legacy be set in stone with great monuments and by fire and blood as they clash for power and prominence. Ranks of spearmen and bowmen march into battle led by charioteers which clash on burning sands with the winners taking the losers as spoils of war. The heroes might be favored faithful servants to their city and their king and the new world that is rising or barbarian warriors seeking glory, freedom and plunder on the frontiers. Their deeds to be remembered in epic poetry, or inscribed into clay tablets by scribes.

If we want to get more fantastic, this period has produced complex mythologies with pantheons of squabbling gods and epic tales such as the story of Gilgamesh and the Trojan Wars. All of which are ripe material for a fantasy writer to mine. This is the time period for the [[Sword and Sorcery]] genre, as most of the myths that we know of from the classical period take place in this epoch. This gives the Bronze Age an air of mystique and grand adventure, where larger-than-life heroes fought against monsters and gods. Something that’s generally not possible with the even earlier Stone Age as the culture of that time period is too primitive to tell such grandiose stories, and where survival is really all that’s possible.

In addition to the above, the Bronze Age is also one of the main influences that gave us the "Lost Ancient Ruins"-trope. We have only very vague ideas of why the Bronze Age ended, and what followed was a long, barbaric time where things regressed hard. Unlike the fall of the Roman Empire and many of the Chinese Dynasties, the Bronze Age gives off this sense of complete mystery; who were these ancient people? How come they dissappeared, and how could they have been so advanced? In popular fiction culture, those lost civilizations are often eventually revealed to have been decadent priesthoods who built insanely huge monuments and made outstanding crafts (relics and macguffins our heroes and villains can fight over), but had some large flaw that was their downfall. Apart from the relics of incredible power, the Bronze Age has all these features.

The people of the bronze age had a very tangible relationship with their deities, constructing temples and shrines on scales seemingly beyond the means available to them... and begging the question whether forces beyond the knowledge of history played a part. Fantasies of aliens visiting Earth in the distant past and being received as gods by primitive humans are lent an air of credulity by the enormity of the monuments the ancient empires left behind. Not the part where all pyramids look the same though. The only thing that lends credulity towards is the fact that that is simply the best way to lay down a huge structure without concrete or steel.

In the Bronze Age, a rough template for a social order for agrarian societies would be outlined. There would be city states and kingdoms who's population would be divided up into various largely hereditary classes of kings, nobles, priests, scribes, warriors, artisans, merchants, peasants and slaves. Most of whom were rural supporting a few urban centers, wealth was mostly calculated in terms of food and agricultural productivity, most people never travel more than 20km from the place of their birth, work would be done mostly by hand with some applications of animal power and a few instances of utilizing wind and running water (boats with sails and traveling down river). While there would be exceptions, significant changes within these parameters and a lot of variations on the theme, this set up would predominate until the [[Industrial Revolution]].

== Bronze Age inspired Games, Factions and Settings ==
* [[Conan the Barbarian]]
* [[Tomb Kings]]
* Stargate
* [[Mythic Vistas]] - This series of [[splatbook]]s by [[Green Ronin]] started with "Testament", a fairly beefy splatbook centered around Bronze Age [[Historical Fantasy]] using the "Biblical Era" as its starting region.

{{Time Periods}}
[[Category: History]]

Reiver

2022-12-19T09:39:03Z

2601:1C0:4500:A540:0:0:0:8ACF: /* On The Tabletop and why are Reivers so odd? */

[[File:99120101186_SpaceMarineRievers01.jpg|290px|right|thumb|We have [[Sly Marbo]] Marines now! Piss yourself Chaos scum!]]

{{topquote|All Space Marines are experts of the rapid strike, but Reivers take these skills to the next level. They are specially trained and equipped to launch brutally effective and unexpected assaults. They do this with a sudden fury and shocking violence, for the Reivers fulfil the role of terror troops that sow fear and confusion amongst their foes.|Games Workshop}}
{{topquote|Boo|A Reiver}}

Our [[Primaris Marines|Super Super Marines]] have [[Catachan Jungle Fighters]] [[FATAL|in power armor now.]] A '''Reiver''' (named after 16th Century English-Scottish border raider clans), who is usually part of a Reiver Squad, is a new type of combat specialist unique to formations of Primaris Space Marines who is tasked for rapid infiltration and lightning assaults. Where the [[Intercessor|Intercessors]] are the defensive battle line heavy infantry of the Primaris Astartes, the Reivers are elite assault specialists given special training and wargear. The [[Raven Guard]] and [[White Scars]] are known to favor their use to supplement their own fast attack doctrines.

The Reiver squad is armed with over-sized combat knives glimmering with disruption fields, heavy bolt pistols that are more effective against armor, and "shock grenades" that prevent opponents from firing on them in overwatch and penalizing their hit rolls. Their helms are death’s heads, with their left pauldrons enlarged to provide better protection in melee.

Their [[Mark X: Phobos Pattern Armour|armor]] is stripped down to be eerily silent, adapted for stealth work (and they watch veeery carefully for twigs). Reivers are a specialized infiltration and close-combat unit. Essentially, they are Primaris [[Reasonable Marines]]. They are also totally not Night Lords, even though they wear skull helmets, are used to "terrorize" enemy units, and have a bad habit of leaving enemies flayed and out in the open—this is represented by reducing opponents' Ld by 1 simply by being 3" away, stacking up to Ld-3 if multiple units are in range.

And another interesting tidbit. The skull helmets apparently incorporate weaponized loudspeakers (Possibly [[Blood Ravens|'graciously gifted']] by the [[Howling Banshees]] during Cawl's time with the Ynnari). Reivers "disrupt the hearing of the enemy with vox-amplified war cries and audio-sonic weaponry", which assumes both that combat is happening in atmosphere and that the enemy is capable of hearing/didn't bring ear protection, but what can you do.

== Equipment ==

Reivers are all equipped with [[Special Issue Bolt Pistol]]s, the Bolt Pistol version of the Bolt Rifle, with many also wielding a long-bladed combat knife or compact Bolt Carbine. Reivers can also stun enemy infantry with the [[Grenades & Explosives#Shock Grenade|Shock Grenade]] stratagem or deploy deep behind hostile lines via grapnel launchers and grav-chutes.

On a side note the “[[Special Issue Bolt Pistol]]” (formerly known as the Heavy Bolt Pistol) is in a weird state of canonicity. The lead designer for the Primaris range claims it was only added for balances sake, and codexes/BL seem to be inconsistent on wether it exists or not. (See; Vox Cast 1, the fact the absolver exists and the fact they use a normal bolt pistol model) (the Reiver Bolt Pistol looks quite different compared to regular Primaris Bolt Pistols if one look closely).

For additional range, they can also swap their Combat Knife with the trusty [[Bolt Carbine]] which sits comfortably between the Bolt Rifle and the Bolt Pistol, and comes with the snazzy little foregrip kitbashers have been adding to Bolters for years

The [[Space Wolves|Space Yiffs]] have their own [[Mary Sue|special variant]] of Reivers known as the '''Hounds of Morkai''', who are anti-[[Psyker|psyker]] hunting teams protected against the [[Warp]] by [[Rune Priest|runic wards]] and come with a slew of abilities that help in [[Rape|fucking their shit up]]. They come equipped with special issue bolt pistols which are [[Mary Sue|better heavy bolt pistols with -2AP]] and carry '''Runic Totems''' that [[Khorne|prevent them from being targeted by enemy psychic powers as long as they are not the closest target to whoever manifesting that power]], as well as [[RAGE|granting a 4+ save to any wounds inflicted on them during the Psychic phase]] (though it actually counts as an ability rather than a wargear). In addition, the typical Reiver's aura of fear was replaced with one that inflicts a penalty for any casting - and this is magnified since they have a second, smaller aura that makes those penalties even worse, meaning that their barking was specially trained to annoy the living hell out of any space wizards. However, [[GW]] doesn't seem to have any new models for them, and the image preview accompanying their rules [[Derp|looks like a kitbash between a standard Reiver squad and the Space Wolves Primaris upgrade kit]].

== Reivers and Phobos in General? ==

For those who go out of their way to learn about Phobos Marines (if you are reading this page surely you hold some care of interest in this Primaris type). You all might have noticed a certain trend of being "against" Phobos Marines in general. This was due to when a majority of Primaris releases were just Phobos Marines for a time which led to many being worried Gothic was being thrown out to appeal to the "Call Of Duty Tacticool" Crowd, because skull masks in Warhammer 40k ''somehow'' mean Ghost from Call of Duty is in the setting.

With the launch of 9th Edition many of these worries have been quelled. However, the distaste of Phobos still lingers with our screaming skull bois being the 1st thing many hate when it comes to nu-marines (on top of the phobos line also having really odd knees). It mostly comes down to personal taste you either want your Space Marines grim gothic knights or tacticool task force 141 mountain dew COD quick scoperzz.

Another thing is many consider Reivers to be one of the most poorly selling/overproduced Primaris Kits currently. As many question why Reivers are constantly bundled and or pushed with whatever new space marine release. This might even extend to the other Phobos Marines as well since for the 2020 Battle Force Boxes the Space Marine box was a full Phobos Force which was met with the typical sighs and complaints and did not instantly sell out oddly much like other battle forces.

== On The Tabletop and why are Reivers so odd? ==

Reivers are also considered one of the worst units in all of Warhammer 40k right now. While this may be a classic over-reaction Reivers have a lot of odd things holding them back from being a rather neat backline disruptor objective grabber. For Starters, Reivers while having the [PHOBOS] keyword for some reason [[Derp|do not have the concealed positions special rule]]. [[Wat|Apparently the super stealth commandos can't hide in a bush]]. This contradicts with Reivers in the fluff as they are said to be devastating melee troops who sow terror and death behind enemy lines. So yeah 'devastating' melee super troopers with.....[[Fail|AP 0 D 1 Combat knives]] (keep in mind, fucking ''INCURSORS'' have AP -1 combat knives). Oddly enough a major thing going for Reivers is their Special Issue Bolt Pistols (S4 AP-2 D1) can reach AP-4 if you use specific chapters and Doctrine buffs effectively making their bolt carbine option rather useless.

Reivers have 2 war gear options that being a Grav chute that lets you deep strike, and grapnel launchers. [[Grapnel Launcher]]s are very weird in that unless you are playing on a table with Infinity tier terrain you wont get a lot of use out of them unless you like outflanking, because yah grapnels let you outflank. The grav chutes are the typical deep strike fair and will be the loadout you wanna rock.

Reivers did get some slight changes when it came to 9th edition. Their "Terror Troops" Aura has been morphed into a rather interesting 2 CP Strat which effectively will remove all objective secured and any special rules regarding holding an objective agasint enemy units. This is freaking <u>MAJOR</u> for 9th edition and the focus on objectives. Also, their leadership debuff was changed, with any reiver within 3' of an enemy unit must roll 2d6 if the outcome is higher than the enemy unit's leadership once the target fails all actions. However, again most people suggest you run a single Reiver Lt. Over an entire squad if you really wanna get the most of the rule and many consider the rule will not be that game changing as it sounds.

The Shock Grenades remain the same for 1 CP that it prevents Overwatch AND gives the opponent -1 to hit in combat.

Overall, an odd unit that has some odd rules holding it back however you are still playing space marines so it's not all that bad unless you wanna be really competitive. Most Comp players suggest using that single Reiver Lt. however if you like the models themselves they are not horrible you just gotta play to their strengths.

That all being said however the Reiver kit it self gets a tentative recommendation for those of you who like kit bashing models. Reiver's can take either bolt carbines or knives and pistols, but the carbines require two hands, meaning if you get one reiver kit you get 20 set's of arms, including tacti-cool bolters, to put on other marine's of your choice.

[[Category: Warhammer 40,000]]

[[Category: Imperial]]

[[Category: Space Marines]]

[[Category: Primaris Marines]]

{{Primaris Marine-Forces}}

Reiver

2022-12-19T09:38:51Z

2601:1C0:4500:A540:0:0:0:8ACF: /* On The Tabletop and why are Reivers so odd? */

[[File:99120101186_SpaceMarineRievers01.jpg|290px|right|thumb|We have [[Sly Marbo]] Marines now! Piss yourself Chaos scum!]]

{{topquote|All Space Marines are experts of the rapid strike, but Reivers take these skills to the next level. They are specially trained and equipped to launch brutally effective and unexpected assaults. They do this with a sudden fury and shocking violence, for the Reivers fulfil the role of terror troops that sow fear and confusion amongst their foes.|Games Workshop}}
{{topquote|Boo|A Reiver}}

Our [[Primaris Marines|Super Super Marines]] have [[Catachan Jungle Fighters]] [[FATAL|in power armor now.]] A '''Reiver''' (named after 16th Century English-Scottish border raider clans), who is usually part of a Reiver Squad, is a new type of combat specialist unique to formations of Primaris Space Marines who is tasked for rapid infiltration and lightning assaults. Where the [[Intercessor|Intercessors]] are the defensive battle line heavy infantry of the Primaris Astartes, the Reivers are elite assault specialists given special training and wargear. The [[Raven Guard]] and [[White Scars]] are known to favor their use to supplement their own fast attack doctrines.

The Reiver squad is armed with over-sized combat knives glimmering with disruption fields, heavy bolt pistols that are more effective against armor, and "shock grenades" that prevent opponents from firing on them in overwatch and penalizing their hit rolls. Their helms are death’s heads, with their left pauldrons enlarged to provide better protection in melee.

Their [[Mark X: Phobos Pattern Armour|armor]] is stripped down to be eerily silent, adapted for stealth work (and they watch veeery carefully for twigs). Reivers are a specialized infiltration and close-combat unit. Essentially, they are Primaris [[Reasonable Marines]]. They are also totally not Night Lords, even though they wear skull helmets, are used to "terrorize" enemy units, and have a bad habit of leaving enemies flayed and out in the open—this is represented by reducing opponents' Ld by 1 simply by being 3" away, stacking up to Ld-3 if multiple units are in range.

And another interesting tidbit. The skull helmets apparently incorporate weaponized loudspeakers (Possibly [[Blood Ravens|'graciously gifted']] by the [[Howling Banshees]] during Cawl's time with the Ynnari). Reivers "disrupt the hearing of the enemy with vox-amplified war cries and audio-sonic weaponry", which assumes both that combat is happening in atmosphere and that the enemy is capable of hearing/didn't bring ear protection, but what can you do.

== Equipment ==

Reivers are all equipped with [[Special Issue Bolt Pistol]]s, the Bolt Pistol version of the Bolt Rifle, with many also wielding a long-bladed combat knife or compact Bolt Carbine. Reivers can also stun enemy infantry with the [[Grenades & Explosives#Shock Grenade|Shock Grenade]] stratagem or deploy deep behind hostile lines via grapnel launchers and grav-chutes.

On a side note the “[[Special Issue Bolt Pistol]]” (formerly known as the Heavy Bolt Pistol) is in a weird state of canonicity. The lead designer for the Primaris range claims it was only added for balances sake, and codexes/BL seem to be inconsistent on wether it exists or not. (See; Vox Cast 1, the fact the absolver exists and the fact they use a normal bolt pistol model) (the Reiver Bolt Pistol looks quite different compared to regular Primaris Bolt Pistols if one look closely).

For additional range, they can also swap their Combat Knife with the trusty [[Bolt Carbine]] which sits comfortably between the Bolt Rifle and the Bolt Pistol, and comes with the snazzy little foregrip kitbashers have been adding to Bolters for years

The [[Space Wolves|Space Yiffs]] have their own [[Mary Sue|special variant]] of Reivers known as the '''Hounds of Morkai''', who are anti-[[Psyker|psyker]] hunting teams protected against the [[Warp]] by [[Rune Priest|runic wards]] and come with a slew of abilities that help in [[Rape|fucking their shit up]]. They come equipped with special issue bolt pistols which are [[Mary Sue|better heavy bolt pistols with -2AP]] and carry '''Runic Totems''' that [[Khorne|prevent them from being targeted by enemy psychic powers as long as they are not the closest target to whoever manifesting that power]], as well as [[RAGE|granting a 4+ save to any wounds inflicted on them during the Psychic phase]] (though it actually counts as an ability rather than a wargear). In addition, the typical Reiver's aura of fear was replaced with one that inflicts a penalty for any casting - and this is magnified since they have a second, smaller aura that makes those penalties even worse, meaning that their barking was specially trained to annoy the living hell out of any space wizards. However, [[GW]] doesn't seem to have any new models for them, and the image preview accompanying their rules [[Derp|looks like a kitbash between a standard Reiver squad and the Space Wolves Primaris upgrade kit]].

== Reivers and Phobos in General? ==

For those who go out of their way to learn about Phobos Marines (if you are reading this page surely you hold some care of interest in this Primaris type). You all might have noticed a certain trend of being "against" Phobos Marines in general. This was due to when a majority of Primaris releases were just Phobos Marines for a time which led to many being worried Gothic was being thrown out to appeal to the "Call Of Duty Tacticool" Crowd, because skull masks in Warhammer 40k ''somehow'' mean Ghost from Call of Duty is in the setting.

With the launch of 9th Edition many of these worries have been quelled. However, the distaste of Phobos still lingers with our screaming skull bois being the 1st thing many hate when it comes to nu-marines (on top of the phobos line also having really odd knees). It mostly comes down to personal taste you either want your Space Marines grim gothic knights or tacticool task force 141 mountain dew COD quick scoperzz.

Another thing is many consider Reivers to be one of the most poorly selling/overproduced Primaris Kits currently. As many question why Reivers are constantly bundled and or pushed with whatever new space marine release. This might even extend to the other Phobos Marines as well since for the 2020 Battle Force Boxes the Space Marine box was a full Phobos Force which was met with the typical sighs and complaints and did not instantly sell out oddly much like other battle forces.

== On The Tabletop and why are Reivers so odd? ==

Reivers are also considered one of the worst units in all of Warhammer 40k right now. While this may be a classic over-reaction Reivers have a lot of odd things holding them back from being a rather neat backline disruptor objective grabber. For Starters, Reivers while having the [PHOBOS] keyword for some reason [[Derp|do not have the concealed positions special rule]]. [[Wat|Apparently the super stealth commandos can't hide in a bush]]. This contradicts with Reivers in the fluff as they are said to be devastating melee troops who sow terror and death behind enemy lines. So yeah 'devastating' melee super troopers with.....[[Fail|AP 0 D 1 Combat knives]] (keep in mind, fucking ''INCURSORS'' have AP -1 combat knives). Oddly enough a major thing going for Reivers is their Special Issue Bolt Pistols (S4 AP-2 D1) can reach AP-4 if you use specific chapters and Doctrine buffs effectively making their bolt carbine option rather useless.

Reivers have 2 war gear options that being a Grav chute that lets you deep strike, and grapnel launchers. [[Grapnel Launcher]]s are very weird in that unless you are playing on a table with Infinity tier terrain you wont get a lot of use out of them unless you like outflanking, because yah grapnels let you outflank. The grav chutes are the typical deep strike fair and will be the loadout you wanna rock.

Reivers did get some slight changes when it came to 9th edition. Their "Terror Troops" Aura has been morphed into a rather interesting 2 CP Strat which effectively will remove all objective secured and any special rules regarding holding an objective agasint enemy units. This is freaking <u>MAJOR</u> for 9th edition and the focus on objectives. Also, their leadership debuff was changed, with any reiver within 3' of an enemy unit must roll 2d6 if the outcome is higher than the enemy unit's leadership once the target fails all actions. However, again most people suggest you run a single Reiver Lt. Over an entire squad if you really wanna get the most of the rule and many consider the rule will not be that game changing as it sounds.

The Shock Grenades remain the same for 1 CP that it prevents Overwatch AND gives the opponent -1 to hit in combat.

Overall, an odd unit that has some odd rules holding it back however you are still playing space marines so it's not all that bad unless you wanna be really competitive. Most Comp players suggest using that single Reiver Lt. however if you like the models themselves they are not horrible you just gotta play to their strengths.

That all being said however the Reiver kit it self gets a tentative recommendation for those of you who like kit bashing models. Reiver's can take either bolt carbines or knives and pistols, but the carbines require two hands, meaning if you get one reiver kit you get 20 set's of arms, including tacti-cool bolters, to put on other marine's of your choice. For example blades

[[Category: Warhammer 40,000]]

[[Category: Imperial]]

[[Category: Space Marines]]

[[Category: Primaris Marines]]

{{Primaris Marine-Forces}}

Irregular Militia Group

2022-12-04T06:51:02Z

2601:1C0:4500:A540:0:0:0:8ACF: /* IRL */

{{topquote|WOLVERINES!|Robert Morris}}

Since the formation of the US, the image of the militia man has been an enduring part of the Cultural Identity of American. During the Revolutionary War, Minute Men were used by the Continental forces as something of a rapid response force. During the Civil War, both the North and South used militia style forces during the early years to bolster their numbers. Militias even served as late as the Spanish-American War.
But by the 20th century, the usage of Militias by the US government pretty much ended as National Guard style forces pretty much took over the duties of Militias for homeland defense. A home guard style of force did exist during World War 1. But ultimately it would be folded in favor of the National Guard.
In the context of Team Yankee, Irregular Militia Groups are meant to represent partisan groups operation in the US (and Canada) fighting against the Soviet Occupation. Going further, the unit in question is meant to reference the Wolverines from the film Red Dawn.

==In Team Yankee==
Irregular Militia Groups are a bit odd for American (and Canadian) lists. Their stats are near identical to the standard Soviet Infantryman. They do have the option to take Mortars, if that is your thing. They also have Pick Up Trucks for transport, for all that is worth. All in all, they are cheap troops. So why take them at all?
Well, that's where the rule Resistance comes into play. They aren't deployed normally, but rather during the reserves part of the starting step. With the right roll, these guys come in as if from ambush in either No Man's Land or in the Opposing Deployment Zone. What's more, they don't count against your units held in reserve. Makes them a neat little unit to send in after Artillery or Anti-Air. The only real problem is they can't be deployed next to objectives. You also only get two of the units to use. Their viability on the field is probably situational at best, but that may change once the book drops.

==IRL==
Politics and history aside, Militia usage on the continental US has not been a thing since the 20th Century. Which makes sense given that the US has two barriers known as The Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Even if an invading force made its way onto the continental US, there is still the presence of the National Guard.

That being said, the idea of regular Americans rising up to the defend their home has been taken into account by most foreign armies. While often misattributed, the idea of a "Rifle Behind Every Blade of Grass" is very much a valid one. And in the event of an emergency severe enough where National Guardsmen are sent to the front lines, its likely that volunteer forces at home would be hastily organized, if only to take over the Guard's other duties of disaster response and riot control. Did we mention that the US has [[Dakka|more firearms than the entire population of the continent of Australia?]]

Another thing to take into account is the presence of armed groups in the US. While it's easy to think most partisan groups during a possible invasion are wholesome patriots, the reality is a lot less nice. Groups ranging from gangs to religious fundamentalists would also be present to fight back against, though many of the heavily-armed survivalist groups are more concerned with protecting their own farm from societal collapse / the man than they are with proactively fighting off a foreign invader and are at best going to be difficult to contact since they tend to live waaaaay off the grid. If you want a real life example, just look up the Basij. When given a common enemy, differences tend to be placed aside. Or you could look at the French Resistance, which was composed of a huge number of ideologically diverse cells that would fight one another until British Intelligence managed to get a handle on things and coordinated them into a more effective group. Or hell for a modern example: everyone in Ukraine giving the Russian's heck.

This unit might also be an attempt to replicate an "International Brigade/Legion" formation. During multiple conflicts with major ideological components such as the Spanish Civil War or the ongoing Ukraine/Russian you might get many thousands of volunteer fighters, which while of dubious quality are still useful and better then nothing.

Still all that brings the question: why the heck is this an American unit?

'''They're the Cuban Democratic Revolutionary Front.'''

After Fidel took over Cuba, the US recruited a bunch of Cuban refugees to liberate the country and restore it to the mafia-owned banana republic tax haven it'd been for decades. A couple thousand Cubans were given crash training in which end of a gun to point at the enemy and sent off to storm the beaches with the promise that the whole USAF would be flying overhead shooting anything that got in their way.

They got as far as far as storming the beaches, looking up at a bright sunny Caribbean sky with no planes in it.
{{clear}}

{{US Forces in Team Yankee}}

[[Category:Team Yankee]]

Pickup Trucks

2022-12-04T06:47:11Z

2601:1C0:4500:A540:0:0:0:8ACF: /* IRL */

[[File:Toyota Landcruiser.jpg|thumb|right|Get in loser, we're going hunting!]]

{{topquote|Regrettably, the Toyota Land Cruiser and Hilux have effectively become almost part of the ISIS brand!|Mark Wallace}}

The Pickup Truck, also known as a Technical, is perhaps one of the greatest weapons of war ever fielded by mankind. And as much as we want to say that is a joke, there is a reason there is a literal war called the "Toyota War".

Yeah when it comes militia vehicles, the Pickup Truck is a tried and tested design. Despite this, you have to remember that for all the memes about the Toyota Hilux the Pickup Truck is literally just that. A civilian Pickup Truck

==In [[Team Yankee]]==

The Pickup Truck is an option for Irregular Militia Groups. And by option, we do mean it's a 1 pt option (2 if you want Machine Guns). The vehicle can help get your militia into position, but bare in mind the rule Resistance. You can already deploy Militia anywhere on the board, so movement isn't that much of a concern. Now granted once the Militia have destroyed their target, they can mount the Pickups to move one. So in that case there may be some advantage to having these things in the unit. But outside of road movement, the Pickup is just barely better than walking.
Before you start suggesting using Pickups as a cheap harassing unit, you have to remember the rules Unit Transport and Passenger Fired. Unit Transport basically means your pickup's leader has to stay near the militia leader if you don't want to lose it. Passenger Fired meanwhile means that unless this vehicle is transporting something, you can't fire the MG. Like the Militia, this unit may be situational. But that can change once the book drops.

===IRL===
Ok, where to begin. The idea of creating a fast moving ranged attack unit has pretty much been a thing since war existed. Some of the first complex weapons invented were Chariot's as mobile archer and fighting platforms. But for the sake of simplicity, we will say that the first use of improvising a civilian vehicle into a military vehicle began with the use of Tachanka. The Tachanka was a horse drawn carriage used in WW1 with a machiengun on the back of it. The general idea was to mount a machinegun onto a "Vehicle" that permitted quick movement and response. With the Dawn of the Automobile, it was only inevitable that mankind would start mounting guns on the things like the Orks we are.

While WW2 had instances of Guns being mounted onto trucks, the image of the Technical wouldn't be a thing until the Bush Wars of Africa. And from here, the glory of the Toyota Hilux would be known. The vehicle would become something of the AK47 of combat vehicles. Rugged, simple to maintain, cheap, are all words that can be used to describe the Technical
So why don't actual armies use the thing?

Well, if you want to be technical (don't laugh) they do. The HMMWV is in essence a pickup truck with a machinegun. A Jeep is a pickup with a machinegun. A BTR is pretty much a pickup with a machinegun. But the thing is these and other vehicles are designed for combat. They have things like dedicated weapon mounts, armor, part familiarity, fuel specifications, ETC. Pickup truck meanwhile are meant to transport things like lumber or food produce. While they can be used for combat, that's not their main focus.
[[File:Mortar_Technical.jpg|right|thumb|300px|Mortars are such a good fit for trucks even actual armies use them.]]
So why then are these things so popular with militias? Well as stated earlier, these things are Rugged, simple to maintain, and generally cheap. They are also available. A Warlord may not have access to things like a M113, BTR, or even a Deuce-and-a-Half. But they might have a pickup. And if they need to transport their buddies around the battlefield, the truck is more than adequate.

The term "Technical" for these kind of improvised fighting vehicles has a couple possible origins. One oft repeated source is that in the 80's Human right groups operating in conflict regions were disallowed from hiring private security as protection, so instead they hired locals gunmen and marking there payment as for "Technical assistance".

Ironically, in the case of Team Yankee, the Pickup can have a place in a US army list. The US military has a vehicle called the CUCV. Its literally a military pickup. It's meant more as a vehicle for when you need to transport small amounts of cargo (especially since CUCV stands for Commercial Utility Cargo Vehicle). Still, it's not impossible for a Commander to provide a local militia with these things in exchange for support.

Now when it comes to armaments, well, you're pretty much only limited by what will fit in the back and how strongly you can bolt something down to the chassis and not have it shake apart on firing. Machineguns may be the most popular choice, but they're by no means the only ones. Mortars? [[Dana_SpGH|It's hard to beat a truck for shoot'n'scoot.]] Want anti-armor? An SPG-9 or M40 recoilless rifle will do the trick. Want air defense? ZU-23-2s will just barely fit on back. Want to spam rockets? Ukraine proves that S-5 Rocket Pods will work (though you'll need to come up with a fire control mechanism since those are intended for aircraft). Got some wealthy nation backing you in a proxy war? You can stick a MILAN or BGM-71 TOW Missile launcher on the back to make those tanks think twice (training not included).

{{clear}}

{{US Forces in Team Yankee}}

[[Category:Team Yankee]]
[[Category:Vehicles]]

Nazi Equipment

2022-12-04T06:36:07Z

2601:1C0:4500:A540:0:0:0:8ACF: /* Tank Destroyers/Assault Guns */

[[Nazi|Nazis]]. History's most stylish villains. They're famous as much for their cool equipment as for their total evilness, and because of its distinctive aesthetic and reputation- they did develop some of the most technologically advanced weapons of the 1940s, after all- it gets a lot of use in games, both traditional and otherwise. Here's a hilariously non-brief overview. As a general rule of thumb (with the exception of the Karabiner 98 which predated the Nazis by decades) Nazi equipment was [[plasma|very advanced in concept and potentially quite strong, but overly complicated and unreliable to the point of being dangerous to its user.]]

The vast majority of what you see below fall into four categories, staples of Nazi engineering:
* Decent design, but too little too late,
* Decent design, but too advanced for the technology available to be of any real use on a battlefield where ease of use and reliability are major contributors to success (case in point: the hybrid drive of the [[Elefant|Ferdinand]]),
* High Command squandered the potential because they either weren't using it to full capacity or for purposes it wasn't designed for,
* Completely and obviously fucking retarded, but if I don't follow orders I'm getting shot, sorry test pilot (and everyone else involved)!

===Small Arms===
====Rifles and SMGs====
[[File:Karabiner 98k.jpg|300px|thumb|left|Kar 98k: German for "boring, but practical". ]]
* '''''[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkBrh1euWg0 Karabiner 98 kurz]'':''' ("Carbine 1898 short" in German, also called simply ''Gewehr 98'', "rifle of [18]98") The standard German infantry rifle during WWII from the old Mauser family. It was beginning to become dated in WWII, given that it was essentially just a shorter version of the venerable Gewehr 98 which armed most German soldiers in WWI. It used 7.92×57mm Mauser ammunition (often shortened to "8mm Mauser"). Probably the least "Nazi equipment" example on this list while also one of the most manufactured, the rifle's strengths were that it was fairly cheap, very accurate, and reliable. But its drawbacks were that it had a slow rate of fire and only a five-round magazine (typical for early and mid WW2 but struggled against late war Garand and SVT). The easiest weapon to compare it to in WWII would be the Soviet Mosin Nagant, which was cheaper to make, but the 98 was much more accurate. It fell short compared to the British SMLE rifle, which had a ten-round magazine and had a good rate of fire for a bolt action, though it has a substantial advantage due to 8mm Mauser being rimless while .303 British is not. Worse yet, the Karabiner 98k also went up against the semi-automatic American M1 Garand (which General Patton had called "the greatest weapon ever devised") which vastly outperformed it in spitting bullets down range. (All of the above are roughly the same range of calibre—.30 [inches] or 7 to 8mm—one which remains in use today by almost every major military as well as many civilian uses, although today's fashion is for smaller calibre, higher velocity rounds for infantry.) Even then, the gun was generally quite well regarded for what it was and there was plenty of them to go around. It was also the go-to weapon for German snipers who affixed a scope to it. The gun is still in production today (albeit with modern style furniture), it is still the German army's drill rifle, some states still use versions of it as a sniper rifle and it's sometimes found in Iraq and other third world nations where it acts as a cheap marksman's rifle. Of course, it's also an excellent hunting rifle in civilian hands.

* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUjPeAgvf3U '''''Gewehr 43'']:''' "Rifle 1943". the German army's semi-automatic rifle. This weapon was developed in response to their invasion of the Soviet Union, where the Germans were shocked to find Soviet troops brandishing semi-automatic rifles (the SVT-40, primarily), drastically out-gunning their troops in firefights. The result was a fairly decent semi-automatic rifle/carbine chambered for the same rounds as the Kar98k, which derived many of it's concepts, while not being an outright clone of, the SVT-40. The rifle's magazine was also not built-in in that its detachable (allowing for quick reloads) but still had the option of allowing the shooter to rapidly use stripper-clips when reloading (either attaching them directly to the weapon from above, or using them to push several bullets at once into a magazine which attached to the rifle below.) Much like the Kar98k, it worked well as a marksman/sniper's weapon when affixed with a scope. Unfortunately, mechanically it was far from perfect as it was overgassed (not surprising, as the gas pressure that was tapped from the barrel to cycle the semi-automatic action proved to be too strong for the rifle's quite complicated mechanism, especially when made by unskilled workers from lower-quality steel). This resulted in (comparatively) frequent breakdowns and shattered parts, in addition to requiring more maintenance. Copying overmuch from the SVT-40 may have also contributed to this problem, as the 7.62x54mmR cartridge in the SVT-40 produces a lower gas pressure than the 7.92x57mm Mauser. For this reason, the G43 wasn't a very popular weapon among German troops, though its firepower was still welcome. The G43 has an interesting legacy that lasts to this day, however. Engineers discovered that, on occasion, the roller lock could fire fully automatic, careful adjustments to the mechanics provided. This discovery lead to the Development of the '''Gerät 06''' or '''StG 45 (M)''' which was the ancestor of the roller-delayed blowback systems used in guns like the MP5 or the G3.

* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdQhO8FtY7c '''''Maschinenpistole 38/40'']:''' "Machine pistol 1938/1940", the iconic MP 40 is a slightly updated variant more suitable for mass-production. The most common German submachine gun through the war used mainly by squad leaders and troops fighting in urban areas. It was also the go-to weapon of specialist units like paratroopers and the SS. Uses a 32-round magazine chambered for 9x19mm rounds and typically comes with a folding wire stock. In general pretty good for the time but only a million of them were produced, compared to the millions of SMGs made by the British, Americans and Soviets. [[Derp|The primary weapon of the Nazis, according to Hollywood at least, where every single German grunt has one.]] Known for its rather simplistic design; the weapon had only one fire setting (automatic), though its cyclical rate was much lower than equivalent Allied SMGs, allowing aimed single shots at the cost of some room-clearing power. Was a major influence that can still be seen in SMG development. There was also a MP 41, combining the core MP 40 with the proper wooden stock and fire selector of the MP 28. While very popular with the SS patent bullshit got in the way and they had to end production after just under 27,000 guns.

[[File:STG 44.jpg|300px|thumb|right|Few guns end up naming a whole class of weapons, the STG 44 is one of them]]
* [https://www.forgottenweapons.com/evolution-of-the-sturmgewehr-mp431-mp43-mp44-and-stg44/ '''''Sturmgewehr 44'']:''' The "Assault rifle 1944" or '''StG 44''' was the first assault rifle adopted on a large scale. Fun fact - the name was suggested by Hitler and was pure propaganda. Chambered for the new 7.92x33mm Kurz cartridge, it gave a rifleman the power and accuracy of a rifle with the rate of fire of a submachine gun. As its name suggests, it entered the war very late, even though it is only an updated version of the MKB42, which, as the name suggests, came into the war mid-early 1942. In a rare demonstration of common sense, Hitler vetoed its mass deployment early on due to logistics (replacing over 10 million '98k' rifles with a new model that used different ammo couldn't be done overnight, or cheaply), though he approved of the idea and changed his mind later in the war when it became clear a limited impact would be better than none at all. This, combined with the fact that producing the Stg44 required the industry to adapt their tooling, and recurrent shortages of resources later in the war, heavily limited the scale at which they were produced. It was not that difficult to make though, being to Kar98 what Panther was to Panzer IV - roughly 120% of resources for superior result. It also had some mechanical issues, including a fragile feed mechanism which could jam if the rifle was knocked over. Anecdote: one of its optional attachments was the ''Krummlauf'', a curved barrel and periscope for firing around corners or from inside a vehicle hatch. Yes, it worked, but the bullets often shattered as they skittered along the curve of the barrel, causing a shotgun-like spread, and the barrels wore out quickly. In any case, the troops who received the regular StG44 loved them because it gave the firepower of a submachine gun at about three times the effective range—and it was particularly interesting to the Russians, with contest for new "avtomat" design starting in 1943, even before StG 44 entered official mass production. Due to effectively already winning a war, USSR's Ministry of Defense decided that, instead of taking what they could in 1944, all designs should be perfected as neither suited demands perfectly (especially the one about the same weight as the Stg44 was deemed to be too heavy) - and we all know what the final result was after some young Red Army engineer named Mikhail Kalashnikov got his hands on a few. Some StG 44s remained in service in the East German ''Nationale Volksarmee'' until the 1960s.

* '''''Fallschirmjägergewehr 42'':''' "Paratrooper rifle 1942", and if a K98k and a MG42 could have a baby together this battle rifle would be it. Created in limited numbers for the exclusive use of German paratroopers. The high-ups realized that the K98k was too long for paratroopers, and the MP40 wasn't suitable outside of urban combat, so they wanted something that handled like a carbine but could fire like a machine gun. Beyond that Hermann Goring wanted his Luftwaffe airborne troops to have something a cut above what the regular Heer grunts to fortify his personal fiefdom in the Reich. The FG 42 was designed as a shorter, automatic battle rifle to give paratroops superior firepower, using a side-loading box magazine. Its high recoil made automatic fire inadvisable, as with later automatic high-caliber battle rifles such as the US M14. While it never really took off, it was quite the solid design, and is notable for influencing the design of the American M60 machine gun after the war.

*'''''[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knPDsJyCpjI Kriegsmodell]''''': as the war dragged on and as the Germans got their fascist asses kicked across Europe, and their factory's and homes began to be leveled by Allied Bombers, the Germans started to try and make there equipment faster and cheaper. Starting at first with small changes here and there as they dropped some superfluous features, to at the end of the war they were cutting corners like it was crunch time at the Circle factory.
**'''''Volkssturmgewehr''''': Literal garbage guns made from parts of broken or defective weapons, surplus barrels and wood that barely deserves to be called so. Part of the vain efforts to make the Volkssturm units into anything resembling an organized fighting force and to make a quick and extremely cheap produced gun to defend what was left of Germany by 1945 and like the German war effort, utterly failed due to being too complicated. Yeah, the last ditch weapons that look like an Ork Mek would think they are too crude for his taste use in fact a fairly elaborate mechanism that put their price tag slightly above that of an StG 44.

*'''''MP-3008''''': Literally a British STEN Gun with the Mag rotated 90 degrees. The STEN was designed early in the war to be as cheap and easy to make as possible, the Germans captured a few of them over the course of the war, so the Germans decided to copy the damn thing late in the war as a desperation measure. A few thousand of them were made before the Nazi regime died.

* [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zielgerät_1229 '''Zielgerät "Vampir"''']: Night vision rifle. Produced too late too few. Per usual Nazi gimmicks, quite capable, powerful, but not produced enough because the industrial base and time wasn't enough. Caused distress to Soviets briefly.

====Pistols====

[[File:Lugar Pistol.jpg|300px|thumb|left|The quintessential Bad Guy pistol]]

* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIX1EL1hTmE '''''Pistole Parabellum 1908'']:''' "Pistol Parabellum 1908". The Nazis used a bunch of pistols in truth, but none are as iconic of the Third Reich as the P08 Luger with its joint armed breech. It could load an eight-round box magazine or a thirty-two-round drum. The 9x19mm Parabellum cartridge was initially designed for this pistol and is still one of the most common pistol calibers in the world. It was eventually phased out in favor of the P38 as being a standard-issue sidearm due to the Luger being too expensive to manufacture for the entire German army, although the Luger was still available for the troops and officers who could afford it. The Luger was also somewhat unique at the time in that it could still double as a pistol carbine by affixing a stock and a 32-round drum-magazine to it, when carbine-convertible pistols had started falling out of fashion years before. The exotic toggle-lock mechanism of the gun meant it had shitty reliability in field conditions, but the gun was made at a time when sidearms were typically issued to specialists, officers, and policemen, who were typically away from conditions that could foul up the gun. WW2 era produced Lugers go for several thousand dollars *today* as collectibles.

* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXAMma6mUq8 '''Walther ''Pistole 38'']:''' "Walther Pistol 1938". The Walther P38 replaced the Luger P08 as the Wermacht service pistol just before World War II due to it being cheaper to produce. It loaded a 9x19mm eight-round detachable box magazine. Nerds will recognize this as G1 Megatron's alt-mode, and attentive [[James Bond]] fans will recall it seeing some use in ''Goldfinger''. MUCH more common than the Luger despite what Hollywood would tell you, and a decent pistol, if a bit annoying due to its hard-to-pull trigger. The Italians cloned its internals in the M1951, meaning the Beretta 92 is the P38's grandchild.

* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vkU3CIPdMk '''Mauser ''Construktion 96'']:''' "Construction 1896". Popularly known as the "Boxcannon" (by the Chinese) and "Broomhandle" (by most everyone else); it loaded ten rounds from a stripper clip into an internal magazine, although there was also an option for a 20-round magazine that had the added bonus of the entire magazine being detachable instead of being built-into the weapon. The C96 was typically chambered for either the newer 9x19mm or the original 7.63x25mm rounds (which were so high velocity for a pistol cartridge of the time that they were only surpassed with the later development of the .357 Magnum). The C96 was not typically issued to the main German army during WW2—only the Luftwaffe were known users of the weapon during the war, as sidearms for their pilots. It was also one of the first and most iconic of the pistol carbine designs, innovating the wooden holster that could double as a detachable stock, making it (and Spanish and Chinese knockoffs) extremely popular in areas like China where proper longarms might be either too expensive or banned from import. However, by the 30s and 40s, this feature had fallen out of fashion in the West and wasn't included in newer production models, with only a few being modified to restore the functionality. Nerds will recognize this as Han Solo's DL-44 blaster pistol from the original ''Star Wars'' trilogy, with some gubbins glued to it to make it more sci-fi.

* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4COZpIw9UMI '''Walther Polizeipistole/Polizeipistole Kurz''']: "Police Pistol/Police Pistol short". You know this one, it's the gun made popular by Ian Fleming and [[James Bond]] super-spy character. The Walther PP is a compact pistol that was typically issued to German police units (Kripo, Gestapo, Gefepo and Feldgendarmerie), but also as a sidearm to military officers and [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Rz-jKH_V04 senior party members]. The PPK variant was an even smaller version of the PP, designed for concealed carry in mind (in fact it was so small that it can typically fit into the sleeves of most longcoats, making it useful for infiltrators). It could come chambered for either 7.65mm (.32 ACP to Americans) or 9x17mm (.380 Auto) rounds. The Cold War era Soviet Makarov pistol would largely be based on the PP pistols, though in a (slightly) more powerful cartridge known as 9x18 or 9mm Makarov (which is actually thicker than the now ubiquitous 9x17/9mm Parabellum, since Soviets measured width from a different part of the cartridge). The PPK and cheaper clones (such as the Bersa Thunder, in .380 ACP or 9mm Kurz "Short") are readily available today and basically never stopped production. If you're looking to buy one in the states, be aware that there have been several license holders: Interarms (1978-1999, truest to the original design), S&W (2002-on, have had some recalls over serious defects), and Black Creek (1999-2001, very limited numbers).

====Machine Guns====

* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfJkU4Sah8I '''''Maschinengewehr 42'']:''' "Machine gun 1942". German military doctrine during WWII was built around the machine gun and, as such, the Germans developed an exceptional machine gun in the MG 42 (basically an improved but functionally identical version of the earlier MG 34). It was lightweight at 11.7 kg, was belt fed unlike the magazine fed LMGs it usually went against, and it could nominally fire 1,200 rounds per minute (although, in practice, it was actually even faster) while most other machine guns could barely reach 600. That much [[dakka]] causes a lot of heat, so the gun was designed for easy swapping of barrels; although even with the barrels being regularly changed it was not uncommon for these guns to fire so fast that a cartridge would ignite before being fully loaded, completely breaking the gun and potentially injuring the gun's crew. Its terrifying rate of fire and distinctive report earned it the nickname "Hitler's Buzzsaw". The core idea of the MG42 was the universal machine gun. the German army would not have Heavy Machines, light machine guns or medium machine guns or anti air machine gun, it would just have the one machine gun. That stupidly high rate of fire was so in a situation it had to shoot at enemy air craft it would be able to put enough lead in the air to make it possible to hit something, quick change barrels let it put a high sustained fire out without being water cooled, and it was light enough to be man portable: it did it all. The MG 42 was the basis for numerous other weapons throughout the Cold War (and is still used in NATO-forces today as MG3, they only changed to NATO-standard-caliber and reduced the firing rate to actually be 1200 rounds per minute, as opposed to the 1500 rpm of the original MG42). The MG3 is still widely exported and its production licensed to NATO and allies. A ''double barrel'' variant of the MG3 was also produced as a ''low cost Minigun alternative''.

* '''''Maschinengewehr 34'':''' The predecessor to the MG 42, it was still in wide use at the start of the war. It had a lower, more controllable rate of fire of around 800-900 RPM, and had a single-shot mode that was removed in the MG 42. Its production went on parallel to the MG 42 because its swing-down barrel-swap method was more compatible with vehicle ball mounts than MG 42's slide-open method, so all MGs seen on German tanks even late in the war were still MG 34's.

*'''''Maschinengewehr 08/15''''': A mid-WW1 improvement on the regular MG 08 of the Imperial German army. It was developed as an answer to the problem that infantry in the field often had problems in the field to assault positions with no support from automatic weapons and the standard MG 08 being too heavy and too cumbersome to carry around. The result saw the mounting of the MG 08 being replaced by a bipod and the coolant jacket being reduced in size and volume, bringing down its weight from almost 40 kilos down to a more comfortable 20, and the addition of a shoulder stock also made it possible to use it like a more modern LMG.By modern standards, still way too heavy to reliably use it in that particular role, but it worked well enough for the Germans that they continued to improve on it, leading to its late (and due to the end of WW1 ultimately ineffective) , fully air-cooled version of the LMG 08/18, which did away with water cooling entirely, reducing its weight down to 16 kilos, actually making it comparable to guns like the Lewis Gun (Also the reason why Drum-fed LMGs never catched on in the German military, as Germany was forbidden to develop any new automatic weapons under the Versailles treaty conditions). The 08/15 remained the standard MG for the Reichswehr and even the early Wehrmacht. Loads of them remained in stockpile well into the war, where they were issued to rear and police units for what the Nazis called "Anti-Partisan action", with reports of the weapons being used tracking all the way into late 1941 and 1942. Fun fact: The gun was so ubiquotous and regular training tasks on it so tedious, that the word "nullachtfünfzehn" (Zero-Eight-Fifteen) entered the German language as a derogatory term for something mediocre, uninspired and boring.

====Anti-Tank Infantry Weapons====

* '''''Hafthohlladung'':''' In English, "Attachable Shaped Charge" (get used to this very literal naming scheme, it continues below). Very soon into the war, the Germans realized they would never have enough tanks and AT guns to go around, so they developed weapons that would allow an infantryman to (in theory, at least) deal with a tank. The Hafthohlladung was such an early attempt. A big AT grenade with three magnets that allowed it to stick to any metallic surface, it would make a nice hole into any tank it was attached to... Which makes the weapon's main drawback immediately clear: [[Tankbustas|running up to an operational tank to slap a bomb to its flank wasn't exactly safe]]. In theory, you could also try to [[Genestealer#Genestealer_Cults|wait and hide in ambush]] for the tank to pass close by since visibility from inside a tank wasn't that great, but that would require being able to anticipate the path of the tank (without accidentally getting run over), and tanks were often supported by infantry anyway. At the very least, they were less suicidal than the Japanese "lunge mine." (A mine on a stick to be used [[Tankbustas]]-stlye) The Hafthohlladung wasn't really a successful weapon and saw only limited use, but it paved the way for the next item on the list:

* '''''Panzerfaust'':''' "Armor fist", or, more literally, "tank fist". A disposable one-shot anti-armor weapon for use against tanks and entrenched positions. Really cheap to produce, lightweight, and able to do a lot of damage to tanks at close range (maximum range being at most 150 meters for the later models). And it was really easy to use: hold in crook of the arm, flip a switch up that becomes an iron sight (and also arms the weapon), aim, squeeze the firing lever, and enjoy the fireworks. The basic idea of how they were used was to give one guy in every squad (or more) one of them so that if a tank ever did get close, there was a chance they'd be able to take it out or do some damage. This, among other things, made allied generals wary about sending tanks to clear out German infantry forces, especially among the ambush-friendly hedgerows of northern Europe. That said, Panzerfausts were useless for trying to snipe at tanks from a distance (with an effective range of about 60m of the most produced versions) and could not be reloaded with another rocket, preventing most troops from carrying more than one shot on their person. In the last days of the war, the Nazis gave these to grannies and kids on the off-chance that they could destroy an allied tank when they rolled into town. In fact, it was so cheap to produce every member of late Volkssturm was generally issued one, while every third was lucky enough to be issued a rifle. Looked like a fist in a tube, hence the name. Its general design was later copied by the Russians, eventually used in the RPG-2 and RPG-7 rocket launchers. The concept of the Panzerfaust is still very much alive in the form of many "Light Anti-tank Weapons" (M72, AT4, MATADOR,...) in use today.

* '''''Panzerschreck'':''' "Armor terror", or "tank fright". A reusable anti-tank rocket launcher based off captured American bazookas, and you can almost imagine the Nazi scientist getting one and saying "[[Ork|Bigga is Betta!]]"! (Although the actual reaction was probably also: "VHY DIDN'T VE ZHINK OF ZHAT!!!", see next item on the list.) The Panzerschreck was larger than the Bazooka, with an 88mm muzzle size (where the first Bazooka was only 60mm)—in fact, it is still larger than most rocket launchers and mortars in use today. Like the Bazooka, but unlike the Panzerfaust, it could be reloaded, and had a longer range than the Faust bar the latest version. The Panzerschreck has a distinctive steel blast shield in front, which has to do with the larger rocket blowing hot exhaust into the users face. Early models without the shield ended up requiring the operator to wear a gasmask and protective poncho (which must have sucked for the first person to test it, before they figured that out). The Panzershreck was more useful as an offensive weapon than the Panzerfaust, since it was capable of easily penetrating the armor of any tank they faced (and at better ranges) thanks to the bigger rocket. But on the other hand, it was very much a temperamental weapon that required trained operators, so its use was restricted to dedicated tank hunter teams (unlike the Panzerfaust, which was simple enough that a 10-year old kid could handle it).

*'''''Sturmpistole'':''' An early attempt at making a lightweight anti-tank weapon, the sturmpistole was little more than a modified flare gun equipped with a stock and sighting system, and fired oversized warheads out of the muzzle like the Panzerfaust. Unlike the panzerfaust, it didn't see much success due to the small size of the warhead.

*'''''Raketenwerfer 43'':''' At the time Germany [[Blood Ravens|acquired]] the Bazooka and refined it into Panzerschreks, they had there own version of a two-man team rocket based anti-tank weapon: the Raketenwerfer 43 a.k.a. the "Puppchen" or "Little Doll". Why such a weird nickname? Because it was, for all purposes and intent, a miniature artillery piece: wheeled and towed and working from a a closed breech exactly like the rest of the German field guns and howitzers (except it fired rockets). Despite its better range and accuracy it was more expensive and harder to make then the Panzerschreck or Bazooka, so not nearly as many of them were made as compared to 'schrecks.

*'''''Panzerwurfmine'':''' "Mine to be thrown at tanks" (don't say we didn't warn you about the names). Another attempt at allowing infantrymen to deal with a tank, this is basically a shaped charge with deployable stabilizing cloth fins that was thrown overhand to land on the top a tank and blow a nice, big hole through it. Cheap to produce and very efficient, but it required lots of practice to use, so it was only given to trained "[[Tankbustas|tank-hunter]]" teams. The Russians captured some of those, were duly impressed, and promptly refined the German concept into their own "RPG-6" AT hand grenade that was just as cheap and efficient but way easier to use, and so good it was still part of their arsenal when the Soviet Union fell and can still be found all over the world in relatively low-intensity conflicts. Sure, it won't kill a modern tank, but it sure as hell will kill third-world militia in up-gunned Toyotas.

*'''Various AT-Rifles''': Germany utilized a lot of AT-Rifles at the very beginning of the war, just like every other major power at the time did, and just like their counterparts, they became obsolete really, really quickly, with only the USSR really committing to their use thorughout the entirety of the war. Here are some of the AT-Rifles the Germans used.
**'''''Tankgewehr M1918''''': The daddy of the AT-Rifle and, in a sense, most anti-materiel rifles to this day. Developed near the end of WW1 by the German Empire in search of an reliable alternative to light or medium field guns in the role of anti-tank weaponry. It essentially is a Mauser Gewehr 98 on steroids firing a massive 13mm round that could penetrate up 20 millimeters of armour on ranges of 100 meters and below. It needed a lot of training to make it work right; the recoil was reported to be strong enough to dislocate a mans shoulder if used incorrectly and even if done right, the marksman would become nauseous after just 2 or 3 shots at maximum. To put it in perspective: Imagine firing a gun, whose recoil feels like a seasoned boxer just hit you in the nuts. The Wehrmacht used some of them that were still lying around in arsenals all over Germany and some they took from the Polish army.
**'''''Panzerbüchse 39''''': Or "Tank Rifle Model 39". Whereas other nations like the British and the Soviets tried to improve their AT-Rifles by using larger calibers with bigger powder charges (the British used a .55 cartridge, the Soviets 14,5 by 114 millimeters), the Germans actually made their bullets smaller, using a 7,92mm by 94 cartridge. The idea was basically to increase the kinetic force of the bullet through speed instead of mass and it sorta worked, the PzB 39 was comparable to most other AT-Rifles of the time. It's shortcomings main came from (as is tradition) overengineering; the PzB 39 was a breech-loading rifle (like an artillery gun) and the action was expensive and labour-intensive to produce. Additionally, unlike most of its comtemporaries and even some of the other AT-Rifles the Germans used, it was single shot only (The Boys AT Rifle had a 5 round magazine, as did the Soviet PTRS-41). The rifle proved barely effective already in Poland and France and was subsequently either phased out or coverted into grenade launchers.
**'''''Panzerbüchse SS41''''': An insanely complicated, impractical marvel of engineering developed specifically for SS troops. The need for alternative weapons for the Waffen-SS divisions arose when Himmler wanted to use the SS alongside traditional Wehrmacht units; however the Wehrmacht Generals disliked the idea of a paramilitary force loyal only to the Nazi party, yet alone an army of glorified thugs and some political lobbying lead to the Wehrmacht keeping its monopoly on all weapons produced by the german arms industry, a priviledge the SS didn't have, so Himmler sourced weapons from all over Europe and took whatever he could get his filthy hands on (In spite of what /pol/lacks and Wehraboos might tell you, most SS units were poorly equipped and used a huge variety of surplus or obsolete rifles, submachineguns and looted guns). The SS41 differs in this regard as it was developed in secret specifically for the SS in Czechia from prototypes the Czechs developed on their own before their annexation into the Greater German Reich. Cycling this monstrous contraption requires the soldier operating it to slide the entire forward assembly forwards and backwards, a process that looks as awesome as it was tedious. Speaking of looks, this gun is really a beauty, you gonna hand it to them, and a Bullpup design on top of that. It fired the same 7.92 by 94mm cartridge the PzB 39 used, so it's fair to say that it didn't take long to become obsolete and surviving examples are exceedingly rare.
**'''''Solothurn S18/1000''''': A ludicrously massive gun more akin to a cannon than anything else. Developed as part of the German schemes to gain access to modern firearms in spite of the conditions of the Versailles treaty in the late 20s. It was in fact so large that the Swiss put wheels on it and called it a cannon. It fired a FUCKHUEG 20mm round and needed 3 men or operate and carry it and built the basis of nearly all automatic cannons the German military developed and used through out the war.

====Misc====

* [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M30_Luftwaffe_drilling '''''M30 Luftwaffe Drilling'']:''' The Germans had never been too keen on combat shotguns for various reasons (during WWI Kaiser Wilhelm was famously mocked for his protests that the American use of pump-action shotguns constituted a war crime), but the emergent Luftwaffe air force saw the need for equipping their pilots with survival weapons, in the event that they were shot down far from friendly forces and needed to hunt or defend themselves. They decided on a drilling combination gun (a double-barreled shotgun with a single-shot rifle barrel) as the ideal solution. However, the Luftwaffe's commander Hermann Goering had a propensity for being vain and flashy instead of practical, and chose the fancy high-end hunting rifles that aristocrats would purchase, instead of putting out an order for [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M6_Aircrew_Survival_Weapon cheap, mass-produced weapons that would get the job done] at a fraction of the cost. As a result, the few surviving M30 drillings are extremely collectible and valueable.

*'''''[[Looted|Captured Weapons]]''''': Due to necessity and practicality, German troops also commonly used enemy equipment from all sides, predominantly Soviet weapons due to their large sweeps during the first stage of the invasion of Russia. To ease supply concerns, some weapons were converted to use standard German ammunition like the ''PPSh-41 submachine-gun'' (which was converted from 7.62x25mm to 9x19mm), while others actually had new Soviet-style ammunition made for them in converted factories.

*Camouflage pattern battledress for infantrymen. Well, okay, the Italians came up with the idea in the 1920s, but it was the Germans who mass produced it and issued it on a large scale.

*'''''Fliegerfaust''''': The very first MANPAD ever developed to be used against airplanes. Originally an offshoot of the Panzerschreck development program, the Fliegerfaust was supposed to offer decent firepower against low-altitude CAS aircraft for the lowly infantryman. In essence, it worked like an 8-barreled Panzerschreck, where the closing of an electric circuit fired a bundle of small, 2-cm charges up to 300 meters into the air like a shotgun, causing a small cloud of explosions and shrapnel to envelop the target for a brief amount of time. It was never used in any capacity whatsoever, as it was very late to arrive to the party (development started in mid 1944, with serial production planned to begin in March 1945). Only about 80 prototypes from field trials were captured by the end of the war by the allies and influenced modern MANPADS like the FIM-92 Stinger to a great degree.

===Artillery pieces and AT-Guns===

*'''''Granatwerfer 36''''': Leave it to the Germans to overengineer a simple tube that spits out explosives. This little critter was supposed to serve as light, indirect fire support on the squad level and a bunch of gizmos tacked onto it that made aiming with it a hell of a lot easier - too bad the small caliber (5cm) limited its range and effectiveness in its intended role. Production was terminated in 1941, the reason given that the thing was too complex and too heavy, which in hindsight is a real headscratcher, as to why the High Command didn't come to this conclusion sooner (especially since the thing offered no significant advantage over rifle Grenades) , although it remained in use throughout the rest of the war.
*'''''Leichtes Infantriegeschütz 18''''': The LeIG 18 was an evolution of the proven and reliable "Leichter Minenwerfer 18", the German answer to the Stokes Mortar that the British used. The idea was to give out a light field artillery piece to take out targets that sat in the niche of targets that were too insignificant to justify a full barrage or tank assault, too strongly defended or entrenched to just assault them solely with infantry. Think isolated pillboxes or MG-Nests holding a minor strongpoint. The odd naming stems from the conditions of the Versailles treaty, to give the Reichswehr plausible deniability for any curious allied noses poking in to German arms research.
*'''''8-cm Granatwerfer 34''''': A carbon copy of the Stokes Mortar. Yes, really.
*'''''15-cm Schweres Infanterie Geschütz 33''''': The largest gun that any given Infantry battallion had on offer. Fired 38 kilograms of explosives over considerable distances, and also served as the main armament of the Sturmpanzer IV.
*'''''Leichte Feldhaubitze (LeFH) 18''''': Another oddly named design, this 'Light Field Howitzer' was the most common field gun of the German army. Efficient enough early in the war thanks to its 105mm caliber, it was eventually held back by considerable downsides that became apparent too late (too heavy, too difficult to move around and rather short range of around 10 km). When it became clear that the LeFH 18 really couldn't compare with Allied artillery pieces (like the Soviet 152 mm ML-20 howitzer, American M114 155 mm howitzer, which delivered heavier payloads or the British QF-25-Pounder, which fired much quicker), various improvements over the course of the war were attempted to keep it relevant. But ultimately it was outdated by 1941, and never could close the gap again.
*'''''3,7-cm PaK 36''''': Probably the most advanced AT-Gun in the interwar period, but often gets a bad rep from reports of German soldiers, who had to fire the thing at Churchills, T-34s and other more modern tanks, earning it the moniker "Heeresanklopfkanone", or "The Heer's (German armed forces) door knocking cannon". Its major boons however were its very light weight and the perfected design of its mounting, making it very easy to transport and move. Seeing how much the German army invested in this gun before the war (over 9000 being built when the war started and an additional 5500 until 1941) they tried their damndest to keep the thing relevant even when it was very clear it could no longer keep up. Still, a remarkable and groundbreaking design for the early thirties, with 6000 being sold abroad and Japan, the USSR and even the United States outright copying the design with few modifications.
*'''''5-cm PaK 38''''': Practically identical to the 5-cm gun of the Panzer III. The PaK 38s bigger, beefier brother, intended to fight off bigger tanks the light 3,7-cm couldn't handle - with very mediocre results. That is, until Germans made APCR for them in 1942, at which point they accounted for most [[T-34]]s and [[KV]]s losses of the time. However, those APCR required tungsten, and Third Reich didn't have much of it, sooo...
*[[PaK-40_Anti-Tank_Gun|'''''7,5-cm PaK 40''''']]: ...this masterpiece was made. The first design that came onto the scene with WW2 in mind. Introduced in 1942, it was very effective design that in the latter half of the war ultimately became the most AT-Gun the Germans used. Retained relevance all the way to 1945, with Soviets and Britts making heavy tanks that could comfortably take it out only in 1944, and even then those weren't impervious. With its' high penetration and low profile, the only problem PaK-40 had was the ungodly kick that literally dug ground spades in after every shot, making it difficult to maneuver if outflanked. Modified versions of it became the main armament of a lot of German Tanks and Tank destroyers, the most notable of it being the Panther and the Jagdpanzer IV.
*'''''8-cm PAW 600''''': Hilariously obscure as far as this list goes, the ''Panzerabwehrwerfer 600''/8H63 was developed as the war progressed and Germany was finding its anti-tank weapons got to be stuck with the dichotomy of either being too immobile to adapt to battlefield conditions with its biggest AT guns or having too short-range to properly handle a regiment's anti-tank defense in full with its Panzerschrecks. Thus, the PAW 600 was designed to be lighter than other AT guns by the use of [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High–low_system the High-low system] leading to a smoothbore gun that fired high explosive anti-tank rounds. The design was even atypically made with consideration for logistics by basing its rounds off of the Granatwerfer 34 mortars' to make continued use of existing manufacturing tooling and it theoretically could have fired any other ammunition that would go into a Granatwerfer 34 (such as high-explosive or smoke rounds) which would have been noteworthy at the time since usual AT-guns firing high-explosive rounds really didn't do much since not much explosive filler fit into the thick walls of high-velocity rounds...but as mentioned, the thing was hilariously obscure and only 260 of them ever got built, so accounts of them actually having been used at all is very sparse - there was a statement from a Major in 15th/19th The King's Royal Hussars that they were used against the regiment near the River Aller on April 14th, 1945 to provide some evidence that the weapon had any effect on a battle in the war at all.
*[[PaK-43|'''''8,8-cm PaK 43''''']]: A modified version of the infamous 8,8-cm Flak gun, stripped down to its essentials and with a longer barrel, wheeled carriage and gunshield to act as an AT-gun. Other than that, they're basically identical.
*'''''12,8-cm PaK 44''''': The biggest, baddest AT-gun any side ever devised. One could argue that it was probably overkill, as it was so impractical and heavy that any use outside of fortified positions would be pointless. Given that the gun was designed when the war effort started to really go south and Germany found itself in a defensive war, probably a negligible downside, but then again, it didn't really seem to make any difference in the end. Some were used as part of the Siegfried Line and the Defense of Berlin, but they were very rare and the only examples that remain today are the ones built into the surviving Jagdtigers and the Maus.

===Vehicles===
====Tanks====
German tanks were in general well designed, but in hindsight were overengineered and prone to breakdowns in the field. For example, take their ''Schachtellaufwerk'' (interleaved roadwheels system for tracks). The idea was: more roadwheels = weight distributed more evenly over track = less ground pressure = less bogging down and/or a higher maximum load. It was also supposed to lessen tank shaking and allow to fire (relatively) accurately on the move. Great idea on paper, and a pretty good one when testing prototypes at home... but an absolute hell on the Eastern front, where the almost supernaturally awful mud (or ''rasputitza'') infiltrated between the wheels before freezing and breaking everything. Cue hour after hour of work for the maintenance teams, removing the track and wheels for cleaning before mounting them again [[FAIL|each and every time the goddamn tank sortied]], where a more traditional slack-track system would have required much less cleaning. And those were just added on top of the already quite large list of ''traditional'' mechanical breakdowns that plagued any and all vehicle pool of the epoch...

Another big weakpoint in the German Panzerwaffe was the lack of standardization between the individual tank models. The Allies, more or less made the variations of their Tanks (which were standardized for every company and factory making them) from existing Models and fitted them with weapons they deemed appropriate for the task at hand([[Leman Russ (tank)|just like the Leman Russ in fact]]), which eased supply and maintenance whereas the Germans designed entirely new vehicles for every purpose across multiple manufacturers with their own specifications, tooling and production lines. In practice, this meant that parts between German vehicle types were mostly incompatible with each other (i.e. a gear made for a Panzer IV "A" could not go into a Panzer IV "J", compared to T-34s being basically entirely compatible.) and it quickly became a logistical nightmare to sufficiently supply all tank units with spare parts or even fuel (The Germans never could make their minds up if they preferred Gasoline or Diesel). That's not to say that they didn't know or realize this (thoughts in this direction lead into the E-Series of design studies, planned to be a series of tank models that more or less shared all parts with each other except armament and chassis) but by 1944 Germany lacked the industrial capacity and resources to switch to a more economical model of production. Furthermore, the German model of tank production didn't help too; all of the German tanks were hand-crafted, using expensive and elaborate methods with strict tolerances to produce the best results they could offer which becomes redundant when you compare it to the production streets of the T-34 and the Sherman that were put out by the dozens. The "5 to 1 ratio" of allied vs German Tanks is as much the result of the Modus Operandi of the German war industry as it is of failed planning, overly complicated designs, fascist inefficiency and having the SHIT bombed out of them.

In the end, the true selling point of the ''Panzerwaffe'' was not the tanks themselves, but instead, primarily, the tactics of using them, the crew members manning them, the mechanics supporting them, and the radios installed in every tank that allowed for a level of coordination between tanks, infantry, and artillery not seen before the start of WWII (which formed the core of ''Blitzkrieg'' tactics). This, along with some powerful late-war designs, occasionally gave German tanks an edge over Allied tanks until production problems, stability issues and most of all fuel shortages became overwhelming.

German tanks are called "''Panzer''", which when directly translated means "''armor''", and more specifically is the shortened version of "''Panzerkampfwagen''" (Armored Fighting Vehicle). The name is often abbreviated to just "PzKpfw" or even "Pz". The habit of naming tanks, airplanes and other pieces of equipment, like the V3 gun after animals, mostly predators, was introduced after a suggestion by Goebbels in 1944 to increase the propagandistic value of the vehicles. This is why earlier vehicles have none of these names and were named "at face value". At no point in time did these nicknames show up in official records of the Wehrmacht aside from anecdotal mentions in field reports. The official records of the Heereswaffenamt (Army armory office) used the ''Sonderkraftfahrzeug'' ("Special purpose vehicle", Sd.Kfz. in short) system of designations instead.
* '''Panzer I:''' Designed and produced in defiance of the Treaty of Versailles, the ''Panzerkampfwagen I'' was the first Nazi tank. It was small, weighing only 5.4 tonnes, and was armed only with two MG-13 machine guns. Some 1,493 were made, and were most notable in that they allowed tank crews to be trained, and (after being sent to Spain) let tank doctrines be developed that later allowed the Nazis to take over Poland. They saw some use at the beginning of WWII, but were pretty soon deemed to be out of date even on scouting missions. Until they were deemed totally obsolete, they were continuously upgraded and specialized, and had several variants including a potential recon paratrooper-tank. Primary Nazi tank of the Condor legion in the Spanish Civil War. [[File:Panzer I.PNG|thumb|right|300px|Mein Herr! Can't ve get somezing better zan zis Panzer I?]] As with a lot of Nazi tanks that became obsolete, the old PzKpfw I's were sometimes stripped to the chassis and repurposed for things such as artillery and tank-destroyer roles, though this was relatively rare. Should also be noted the Panzer I is the textbook example on a tankette rather then a full tank, though since early WW2 would define the important strategic difference of tankettes vs tanks its no surprising it became the primary armoured vehicle before the war.
* [[Panzer_II|'''Panzer II:''']] The ''Panzerkampfwagen II'' was designed using the experience gained in the Spanish Civil War. Heavier than the Panzer I at 8.9 tonnes, it was designed as a stopgap, as the Panzer III and IV were experiencing delays in production. It was armed with a dinky automatic 20mm cannon that was little better than an anti-tank rifle. Common during the early war, it was made obsolete by the arrival of the Panzer III and IV, and relegated to reconnaissance duties, training, or conversion into open-topped tank destroyers. Much like it's younger brother, it too was pushed through several variants; however, instead of trying to upgrade it to stay in main-line action, it was turned into a better scout tank so that the Panzer III could take over the main-line role. Primary Nazi tank for the invasion of Poland and France.
** '''Panzer II Ausf. L "Luchs"''': The final version of the Panzer II with a redesigned turret housing the same 2cm-autocannon in a new turret and a modified chassis. Speedy little bugger (it could reach up to 60 kph under optimal conditions) that served as a scouting verhicle for the tank divisions, with 100 being built.
* [[Panzer_III|'''Panzer III:''']] One of the two main German tanks of the war, the ''Panzerkampfwagen III'' was about when Germany really got the hang of this whole tank design thing. Introduced in 1939, it weighed 23 tonnes, carried a 37mm anti tank gun, and notably had a turret big enough for three guys (which is actually more important than you might think, as it allows the crew to share the workload, e.g., the Loader's only task would be to load the gun with correct ammo in as short time as possible, the Gunner focuses on aiming and firing the gun, while the Commander can retain situational awareness and, well, give orders). Contemporary tanks usually had two- or even one-man turrets, forcing the crew to share responsibilities, thus lowering combat efficiency. The Panzer III was designed from the ground up to engage enemy tanks, rather than the infantry and light vehicles of earlier models. In Poland, France, and North Africa it did well, even though some French vehicles still outgunned them. Against Soviet T-34s, however, it was completely insufficient, unless upgraded to a 50mm gun and firing APDS. Thankfully, unlike the French and Russians, the Panzer III were all equipped with radios, allowing them to out-maneuver the un-radioed yet otherwise better tanks. Production stopped in 1942, but since they had built 5,774 of them, they stayed in service until the end of the war. The chassis was used to produce the StuG assault cannon (although "Geschütz" is hard to translate to English: it's neither a mere gun, nor a cannon, being more of a tank destroyer, i.e., a "sniper"-style tank), which would be the most widely produced German vehicle of the war. Switched roles with Panzer IV to become the infantry support tank with short barrelled howitzer, though this was soon also replaced with a dual-purpose gun. Primary Nazi tank for the invasion of Soviet Union.
* [[Panzer_IV|'''Panzer IV:''']] Ultimately the most common German made tank, with nearly 9,000 units being built over the course of the war (now compare numbers with those nearly 50,000 Shermans and 61,000 T-34s), the ''Panzerkampfwagen IV'' was the Panzer III's big brother. The Panzer IV was originally intended to be used against infantry and was armed with a low-velocity 75mm gun for blowing stuff up with explosive shells. After the invasion of Russia they switched to a 50mm anti-tank gun, and later a 75mm high-velocity cannon while also being up-armored to an absolute weight limit of a chassis. After that upgrade, it was generally on par with the T-34 and M4 Sherman (on average, at least — they had a less powerful engine, but better optics). Unlike early Soviet tanks, every Panzer IV generally had a working a radio receiver. It's chassis became the foundation of many German vehicles of all classifications. Primary Nazi tank from 1942 to the end of the war in 1945.
* [[Panther|'''Panzer V Panther:''']] The Panther was introduced in 1943 and is often argued to be the the best tank of the war. It copied many features of the T-34 and improved on them. It was listed as a "medium tank," despite weighing in at 44.8 tonnes (due to the Germans attributing a class with the intended use in mind, not weight). Its 75mm/L70 gun was one of the most powerful tank guns of the war, and could destroy any Allied tank. Quite mobile for its weight, its frontal armor was more effective than that of the Tiger's thanks to sloping. It truly was a swift and hard as nails death machine... when it was in working order, that is. The Panther was rushed into service and had even more mechanical problems than the Tiger did due to its rushed design. The transmission, for example, broke down on averag after just 250 kilometers (that's 155 miles for you yanks) of use, leading to a lot of abandoned tanks. On the plus side, the Panther was only about 20% more expensive to produce than the Panzer IV, and the Germans managed to produce 6,000 of them, though switching over did cost them in terms of other production due to the necessary retooling time. Along with the Tiger, the Panther was enough of a threat for the Western Allies to up-gun their Shermans (the 'Firefly' with the British 17-pounder gun and the multiple American (76) variants sporting a more powerful 76 mm gun) and the Soviets to make up-armored and up-gunned T-34-85's (with, you guessed it, a 85 mm gun in the turret). Along with the aforementioned US and Soviet tanks, the Panther eventually became one inspiration for the post-war "Main Battle Tank" concept, the other being the British Centurion. An upgraded Panther II was planned, but never entered production. [[File:Panther_Tank.jpg|thumb|left|300px|Zis vill do nicely! Danke!... Gott im Himmel, zat's a lot of Shermans!]]In recent years the tank has been associated with a phenomenon known as the "Panther Paradox" based on its general consensus as one of the wars best tanks. Essentially the tank itself, on paper, should vastly outclass the Sherman and T-34 in combat and isn't much more expensive to build compared to the Panzer IV, yet when looking at the actual performance the Panther performed horribly. The actual answer comes in the form of "hard" values and "soft" values."Hard" values are the typical stuff...Armor, speed, fire-power..."Soft" values are things like price, crew comfort, maintenance etc. While the Panther got top marks in the former, it was pretty terrible in the latter. The moral of the story kids is that what makes an effective weapon can't be narrowed down to a bunch of values you can put on the back of a cereal box.
* [[Tiger_1|'''Panzer VI Tiger:''']] Even before invading Russia and France, the generals of the Wehrmacht sent requests for a tank that could be called "heavy", that would be used in a "schwerpunkt" to crash any resistance and allow its' smaller brothers to exploit the breakthrough. The work on heavy tanks begun in 1937, but first prototypes were a far cry from a monster Nazis rolled out in 1942. The so-called "Durchbruchwagen" (Breakthrough tank), or DW for short, had many iterations, with many problems, such as faulty transmission, overloaded and unreliable chassis and failed unification with Pz.III (yes, that Pz.III, the medium tank, that was also developed in 1937-1938) lengthening the project significantly. It culminated in Typ 100 Leopard, a tank with a 100mm armor and 88mm gun, a project of which was completed in March 1941. However, the shock of encountering previously unknown Soviet KV-1s and T-34s spurred the actual implementation of heavy tanks as perceived German tank superiority was shattered. The Nazi top brass took this as a challenge to refine existing prototypes into the ultimate heavy tanks, and the result of said project were "the Big Cats". The first of these was the Panzerkampfwagen VI Tiger heavy tank, built essentially around Typ 100 turret and gun, which entered service in 1942 (yes, the Pz. V actually came out after the VI did). "Heavy" definitely described the Tiger: it weighed 54 tonnes, had a 690 hp engine, had up to 100mm of armor, could reach its 40 kph in good conditions to keep with the little guys and was armed with a hueg 88mm cannon that could take out a T-34 or Sherman from 2 kilometers with ease. In fact, it could do this to ''any tank the Allies would have at any point of the war'' from one kilometer away, barring IS-2s and Churchill VIIs. Despite this, the Tiger was over-engineered mechanically and somewhat under-designed chassis-wise. It was expensive, a drain on strategical resources and labor intensive to build, had reliability issues, and was [https://youtu.be/CVDDtbiGDxA?t=148 horribly maintenance-intensive one in the field]. Since the groundwork for the Tiger was laid out pre-Barbarossa, it did not implement the sloped armor concept of the T-34, which made the Tiger heavier and slower than it could have been for the same armor effectiveness. In short, it was essentially an upgraded Pz. IV and therefore a [[Metal Boxes|metal box]]. Only 1,347 Tigers were built, but they did have an effect on Allied morale. In one instance a single Tiger destroyed most of the 22nd Armoured Brigade and forced them to retreat (Battle of Villers-Bocage). The Tiger is without a doubt the most famous tank of WWII, known even to those illiterates who think WWII was only fought between America and Germany, and if most video games are to be believed, every Nazi tank was a Tiger. That is, however, somewhat understandable given just how often allied tankers yelled 'Tiger' whenever they lost a tank, even to a regular Pz IV (which could be mistaken for a Tiger at a distance). The Tiger and Panther tanks, like a used car, came with an owner's manual (the Tigerfibel and Pantherfibel, respectively), and Heinz Guderian (great German general with an ego that would make MacArthur seem modest, who wrote memoirs that are both very good as a literature and very bad as a primary source) wanted every tank crew to read the manual. But even back then, people understood just how few guys actually read the instruction manual for anything. So it was written as a fun book to read, with humor, poetry, and naked girls alongside the information about how to use two of the most famous heavy tanks to be fielded in WWII.
* [[Tiger_II|'''Tiger II:''']] The Tiger II, sometimes known as the King Tiger (from an incorrect translation of ''Königstiger'', meaning "Bengal Tiger", but which literally translates to "Royal Tiger"), was the ultimate German tank, and introduced in 1944 as a successor to the Tiger. It weighed 68.5 tonnes (more than most modern tanks) and had 150mm of frontal armor, which was even sloped (a huge step forward from the boxy Tiger I)! Even so, between limited resources and an increasingly bombed-out industrial base, only 492 of these behemoths rolled off the assembly line before the war ended. These tanks were considered to be just as temperamental as the Tiger I, but for different reasons. The designers learned how to fix some of the problems with the Tiger I, and promptly over-built the Tiger II even more after patching the holes, because they thought they had wiggle room or something. It was damn near unkillable, but a fuel guzzler to the extreme, barely maneuvable and prone to mechanical failures of almost any kind. Some historians argue that the King Tiger only had an effective use as a propaganda piece and little else since the added size and weight often made maintaining the tank a nightmare and reliability aside (which as mention were already terrible). In the best conditions there was often a 50/50 chance they would even show up to fight, and in bad conditions you would be lucky if any made it. Interesting fact: since Nazis were famous for constantly overcompensating, the first proposal of mounting a monstrous 8.8 cm Flak with a barrel 71 calibre long, that was ultimately made into 8.8 cm KwK 43 (the one Tiger II rocks), on a tank dates back to 21st of June, 1941, even before the invasion of the Soviet Union!
*'''Anything they could steal:''' From French [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Char_B1#Operational_history B1 heavy tanks] to Soviet [http://www.achtungpanzer.com/panzerkampfwagen-t-34r-soviet-t-34-in-german-service.htm T-34's] to American [http://beutepanzer.ru/Beutepanzer/us/M4_sherman/m4-75-sherman-01.htm Shermans], the Nazis used everything they could get their hands on like Orks in clean uniforms (not that the Allies were any different: Soviets, for example, had several companies armed with Panzers V used as tank destroyers). This became so chronic that the British had a strong rule in place that said any tank which could not be repaired or salvaged was to be destroyed, so the Germans wouldn't pinch it. They deployed stolen tanks pretty much everywhere, and of every type; hell, even Renault FT-17s were used in police roles in some areas.
**[['''Panzer 38(t)|Panzer 35(t) and 38(t):''']] the most famous tanks the Nazi <s>stole</s> were supplied with by puppet governments all across Europe were the PZ 35(t) and 38(t). Light tanks, both were Czech designs (hence the (t) for ''tschechisch'') Germany acquired when they took over first the Sudetenland, and then the rest of Czechoslovakia. While very useful early in the war, the designs were rendered obsolete by 1942 (they simply couldn't compete against a T-34), and the chassis was instead used to produce Marder 2 and Hetzer tank destroyers. A version of the 38(t), called the Stridsvagn m/41, was also used by Sweden. [[Katanas are Underpowered in d20|The vehicle's Czech steel was lower-quality than German stock.]]

====Tank Destroyers/Assault Guns====
Between the First and Second World Wars, various nations were still trying to figure out what good designs were for armored vehicles and how to use them in general. The Germans were the most successful, creating "Panzer divisions", a small armies in of themselves, but everyone knows about those. However, Nazi military theorists realized that lowly grunts also required some armored support. Enter the brainchild of Erich von Manstein (at least officially), the Assault Guns. In 1936, he wrote a letter to the top brass about the need of ''Begleitartillerie'', accompanying artillery, moving into battle in infantry formations and sending 6 kg shells at any machine or field gun that may interrupt the advance. The initial concept was to stick a huge gun (too big to put in a proper turret with then available technology) onto a Pz III chassis with a fixed casemate and open top (this was later changed) to allow the heavy gun to be moved around easily. Think like the [[Vindicator]]. The idea was approved, and the work on ''Panzerselbstfahrlafette III'' (quite a mouthful) begun with gusto. While primarily designed to bust fortifications, demands for Pz.Sfl. III specified the ability to take on all types of existing armor at the distance of 500m. After being officially approved for production, they received the name of [[Stug_III|StuG III]]. During the battle they usually engaged the enemy from the second line, where their limited firing arc wasn't such a big problem, and were universally praised both by infantrymen and their own crews. It all changed in 1941 with the encounter of [[T-34]]. The need to stop well-armoured tanks assaulting in mass shifted from theoretical into practical problem. StuGs had to be upgunned, uparmored, and other, dedicated anti-tank vehicles had to be designed and built. The main difference between Assault Guns and Tank Destroyers was their affiliation: the former belonged to the artillery, the latter were part of the Panzer corps, which sometimes lead to political disputes like Guderian's temper tantrum about getting Hetzers. Starting with lighter Panzerjäger tank destroyers as a stopgap measure, later in the war, Germany replaced them with big heavy tank destroyers, with thick armor and guns big enough to make an ork blush with envy, and labeled the class "''Jagdpanzer''" (hunter-tank). Panzerjäger of both types had the advantage of being cheaper and simpler to make than turreted tanks, and having lower silhouettes that allowed for easier ambushes. Plus it was easy to convert an otherwise out of date, under-gunned tank into a destroyer. The disadvantage was, of course, that they had no turrets, so they could be outflanked and had no way to point their guns at any targets that did not drive in front of them short of turning the entire tank around. Performance of StuGs and its' descendants was such a huge success the Nazis actually pondered the idea of making them the mainstream of Panzer divisions even in 1943 (however, Panzer IV/70 (A) which was indented for this role was labeled "unfit for frontline service"). Nevertheless, the turretless constructions meant that they were sacrificing much needed flexibility in the field, especially during bad weather or in difficult terrain, and the advantage of being able to built more tanks quickly becomes irrelevant if you're not losing them in the thousands yearly, so every major power in the post-45 world order didn't want to bother with it, especially since the British Centurion MBT showed the world for the first time that a tank could reliably perform all roles that were previously assigned to a variety of models. Only Germany kept some Tank Destroyers around after the war (the [[Kanonenjagdpanzer]]) and even that was thoroughly outclassed once self-directing ammunition like TOW missiles became available.
*'''Panzerjäger I''': Remember that little note in the Panzer 1's description on how it was repurposed? Well, this is the end result. What basically amounts to a Panzer I with its turret taken off and a casemate installed instead, it had a nice 4.7cm anti-tank gun but was relatively weak otherwise. There were no vision slits in the casemate, meaning that in order to aim, the crew had to peek over the top and get themselves shot in the head (a pressing issue in particular for Anti-Tank battalion 643).
*'''Marder:''' The Marder 1, 2, and 3 were all very similar tank destroyers, hence why they share a listing. The Marder 1 is based on the chassis of the French Lorraine 37L tractor, the Marder 2 is based off the Panzer II chassis, and the Marder III is based of off the Panzer 38(t) (the "T" means it was Czech in origin, not that it weighed 38 tons). All three were open topped and armed with either 7.5 cm cannons or converted Soviet 76 mm cannons they stole early in their invasion of USSR. At the start of Operation Barbarossa, German tanks were again under-gunned and -armed compared to their enemies, especially when compared to the T-34 (which one German field marshal quipped was the best tank in the world in 1941). But, like the battle for France, the Germans alone in the world had an actual understanding how to use tanks most effectively and were thus able to make massive advances anyway through superior tactical coordination. Still, a better anti-tank weapon was needed, so the Marders were created and armed with 7.5 cm weapons (although there were never enough of them, so they would revert to using Russian guns).
*'''Wespe''' and '''Hummel''': The Wasp and Bumblebee, respectively, and both with a nasty sting. Both were re-purposed tank chassis, but sporting artillery howitzers instead of AT guns (Which makes them technically self-propelled artillery instead of assault guns, but in the end it's a huge gun on tracks so fuck that noise!) the Wespe was based off the Panzer II and sported a 105mm 'light' howitzer; the Hummel was based on a modified Panzer III chassis and sported a 150mm howitzer. They're the real-life equivalents of (and probably the inspiration behind) the Imperial Guard's [[Basilisk Artillery Gun]].
*'''Hetzer''': Repurposed Panzer 38(t) with a casemate-mounted 75mm gun. A nice late-war re-design and a dangerous opponent since its small chassis and decent speed made it easy to get in position for a good ambush, and its gun was strong enough to take on any allied medium tank. Notorious for being an absolutely awful thing to be in, the interior was cramped to the point of farce and ergonomics were very poor. The chassis was overworked too, so mechanical breaks were constant. The Hetzer had some armour, but couldn't slug it out with the late-war tanks. Despite all this, it was adored by German grunts, because having an artillery gun at your side is always better than not having it.
*'''Nashorn''': Also called '''Hornisse''', this was a Marder-like tank-destroyer, with a chassis specially designed to mount the fearsome "Acht-acht" 88mm gun. Just like the Marders it was open-topped, but the huge range of its gun made it a dangerous opponent. The Germans later experimented with even bigger guns (105mm and 128mm) mounted like this, but those vehicles proved simply too heavy and impractical to use, so they did not evolve beyond a couple of prototypes.
*'''StuG III & IV''': By far the most widely produced German vehicle of WWII, the Stug was easily one of the most versatile combat platforms fielded in the war(And famous in Panzer General series for easily knocking out Russian tanks). StuG's, or "''Sturmgeschütz''" or "''assault artillery''", were built to combat a problem Germany learned from the first world war: that infantry lacked the ability to take on fortifications, and the artillery was too slow to keep up to allow direct fire on these targets. The StuG was the solution: by mounting a 7.5 cm <s>howitzer</s> [https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sturmgesch%C3%BCtz_III gun] in a fixed casemate on a Panzer III chassis, they allowed the vehicle to roll up with the infantry and blow any fortifications in the way to rubble. Of course during the invasion of the Soviet Union the Germans ran into tanks much better than their existing vehicles, namely KV-1s and T-34. In order to quickly counter these threats, the StuG was "up-gunned" (quote marks are there because the guns caliber did not change), to mount a high-velocity 7.5 cm anti-tank gun. In 1943, the StuG chassis was changed from a Panzer III's to a Panzer IV's, otherwise no changes were made. StuG's, despite looking like and being compared to tanks, were not considered tanks, and were crewed by artillery men. StuG's are estimated to have destroyed 20,000 enemy tanks in the course of the war, impressive when you consider that just over 10,000 were made, and not all of those were armed with actual anti-tank weapons. After the war, the Soviets gave a number of captured tanks to Syria where they were used up to 1960s. In a funny twist of irony, some of those ended up in Israeli hands during the Six-Day-War and remain on display in Tel Aviv today. (There was a self-propelled-gun with a an actual howitzer, too: the StuH 42.)
*'''Sturmpanzer:''' Known commonly to the Allies as the ''Brummbär'' (Grouch), this infantry support gun was based on the Panzer IV chassis. It mounted a 15cm mortar-sized direct-fire cannon, which fired a combined shell-charge weighing in at over 100lbs, designed to make infantry and buildings explode.
*'''Ferdinand/Elefant''': To put the Ferdinand into perspective, this is a tank that even Hitler though was too complex, too unreliable, and too theoretically advanced to use. The Ferdinand is the result of a contest between two of Nazi Germany's top companies, Porsche and Henschel (both of which still exist today), to produce a heavy tank that could use the 8.8 cm gun. The initial plan was to produce both tanks simultaneously, with contracts to make a "small" series of 100 tanks for both participants signed with Krupp on the same day of 22th of July, 1941. Both Tigers (P) and (H) had A LOT of problems, but due to unclear reasons even before final tests conducted in November 1942 came the order to stop production of Porsche version. That's why, despite losing the contract, Porsche had 90 Porsche Tiger hulls laying around, though he couldn't make more as he lacked production lines of his own. It was decided to turn those unused Tiger P prototypes into tank destroyers, and so they bolted even more armor on and added a fixed super structure for the gun, and thus the Ferdinand (named humbly after Porsche himself) was born. The Ferdinand was a troubled vehicle: rather than one engine, its immense bulk required two, and thanks to poor ventilation they often overheated. Bizarrely, the two engines did not even connect to the drive train (possibly because of issues keeping the two engines synchronized without modern computer control), and were instead connected to a set of electric generators that in turn powered a pair of electric motors. That's right, in 1942, the Nazi's built a 65 ton gas-electric, hybrid-powered tank destroyer, good for the environment maybe (but not actually, because the primitive technology just made the combo even less efficient), but maintenance for the thing was a nightmare worse than the Tiger. The concept of Diesel-Electrical propulsion is not even as advanced for the time as many people think; the Soviets had developed such an engine for a locomotive in 1924, the German U-Boats used the same technology for their underwater propulsion system (Diesel Engines charging a large set of batteries that drove an electric motor when underwater) and Porsches own patent for this system date back as far as 1896. The only innovation was that it was the first time this concept was implemented in an armoured vehicle. And before we forget, it did not have a machine gun. To be honest, it wouldn't have been that much of a deal (StuG-IIIs didn't have a machine gun until December 1942, for example) if Guderian hadn't used them as heavy tanks (he even calls them "Porsches' Tigers" in his memoirs), and even then out of 39 Ferdinands lost during Battle of Kursk only 4 were confirmed to be burned down by Molotov cocktail, and in 3 cases they were damaged either by mines or artillery shells before that. It had one hell of a gun, however: 8.8 cm Pak 43 could destroy any Allied tank at distances exceeding 2000 meters. In 1943, all 48 remaining operational tanks were converted to have a machine gun, more armor, anti-magnetic zimmerite paste coatings, and a commander's cupola. The modified tanks were named Elefants. Overall, more Ferdinands were destroyed by their own crews after their tracks or suspensions were damaged by mines or artillery fire and tanks themselves could not be towed back to a repair base than were lost to enemy fire. Before we forget, the Elefants were also then sent to fight in Italy. The tank known for its serious engines issues. To a country known for its mountainous terrain. They did not last long. Maybe it is the inspiration for the Shadowsword Imperial Guard superheavy.
*'''Jagdpanzer IV''': A Panzer IV chassis mounting a long-barrelled 75mm gun in a casemate mount. Worked generally very well, the low silhoutette being a great advantage it had over comparable tanks, but had some notable downsides too: The inclusion of additional armour and the long 75mm KwK from the Panther strained the Panzer IV chassis to the absolute limit, limiting range and mechanical reliablity. The extra armour and long gun also the tank particularly nose heavy, making it a bitch to drive and limiting its manuverability, nevermind being almost unable to make steep descends without bumping the gun on something, a problem tanks with a similar nose-heavy loadout like the Russian T-34 and SU-85 also had.
*'''Jagdpanther''': A Panther chassis mounting a long-barrelled 88mm gun in a casemate mount. Arguably the best "Jagd-" model combining decent mobility, decent protection and a very powerful gun.
*'''Jagdtiger''': Tiger II chassis outfitted with a long-barrelled 128mm (!) naval gun. Pure overkill, and ultimately a poorly-performing design. To put it in perspective, the M1 ''Abrams'' TODAY has a smaller and shorter 120mm cannon, even if most of its armor busting power comes from the fact it fires modern (and far more deadly) sabot rounds. Even back then, two of the most effective AT guns of the war were the German ''Acht-Acht'' 88mm gun and the British 76.2mm ''17 pounder'' gun; both much smaller, lighter and with a better rate of fire than this 128mm monster. No warmachine used on the frontline called for such a massive gun to be dealt with in World War II (save perhaps for the Soviets's [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IS_tank_family IS heavy tanks], which were designed to be have armor good enough to stand up to 88mm AT gun fire, but ironically the Jagdtiger only served on the western front make it a moot point) and even the fact it could double up as artillery support in a pinch didn't make up for the fact it was just too big and unwieldy and slow-firing a gun to deal with tanks. Add to that, a tank with a 128mm main gun is especially stupid when your enemies on both sides favored zerg rushes of Sherman and T-34's medium tanks respectively, much lighter vehicles that could reliably be taken out by much smaller guns. While anticipating future enemy capabilities is important in wartime weapon development, pretty much no one was working on a vehicle sufficiently armored to warrant this firepower (excluding absurd Super-heavy design studies like the American T28/T30 and T95 or the British Tortoise), unless it was intended to fire on battleships from the shore—and firing from a stationary coastal-defense position probably would be for the best, because even at its crawling pace, going off-road tended to knock the gun out of alignment and require it to be recalibrated before firing again, so good luck with flanking maneuvers. The nicest thing that could be said about it was that it was great for shooting at enemy tanks hiding behind buildings, because it would shoot straight through building and tank alike. (Seriously, read Otto Carius' memoirs. His opinion on these is as first-hand as it is scathing.)
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On a sidenote:
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One could reasonably point out that the Russians weren't much better in that regard, since they too threw a couple of 'overcompensated' tanks/assault guns into the fray over the course of WWII: The KV-2 sported a 152mm howitzer in a gigantic (and horribly impractical) turret, and the SU-152 and ISU-152 were also equipped casemate-mounted 152mm howitzers (basically, the only difference is that the SU was based on the KV chassis and the ISU on the IS chassis). The difference here is that these vehicles had been designed for infantry support (and demolishing ''festungs''), making the huge gun just mobile enough to keep up with the grunts and chucking high explosive death at the enemy from medium/long range instead of blasting other tanks to smithereens. This doesn't mean they couldn't: indeed the ISU-152 was effective enough in that regard to be nicknamed the ''Zveroboy'' (''Beast Killer'' in Russian, which it inherited from the SU-152), but being able to blast a Tiger on its back was merely a handy bonus. Add to that the low-velocity 152mm howitzer was a good 30% lighter than the massive PaK 80; resulting in lighter, more compact, and more mobile vehicles overall once they realized trying to mount a huge howitzer in a turret wasn't such a good idea after all. All the Russians did was switch the unwieldy 152's for lighter 85's, 100's and 122's to make actual tank destroyers.
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*[[File:Sturmtiger.jpg|200px|thumb|right|Contrary to what it might looks like, this is not a mock-up of a 40k [[Vindicator]] but a real combat vehicle.]]'''Sturmtiger''': The Sturmtiger is one of the most striking example of Nazi "mad genius" given form, to the point that this assault gun could almost belong in the "Wunderwaffe" section. As you can see from the picture, it looks like a [[Vindicator]], which is not a coincidence: both vehicles' role is to rumble up to a strongpoint and obliterate it with extreme firepower. Very quickly, the Germans realized that fortifications were a major pain in their Aryan butts to deal with and that static artillery was too slow and vulnerable to keep up with their ''Blitzkrieg'' attacks. So at first they relied on airplanes and Pz.IVs and StuGs, but as their opponents started to contest the skies and howitzers on both tanks and self-proppeled artillery had to be replaced with AT guns to stem an endless tide of T-34s, the problem of bunker-busing raised its' head once again. The Sturmtiger... The Sturmtiger is what you get when the point where you should have stopped putting bigger, larger guns on tracks is long passed, yet one still keeps going... and somehow manages to make it work. Starting as a direct response to Soviet SU-152 (there's even an urban legend about some German general looking at it and going "I want this, but BIGGER") and based off of the Tiger 1 chassis, it sported a [[bolter|''380mm gun/rocket launcher'']] [[awesome|''adapted from a Kriegsmarine depth-charge launcher'']] as its main gun; [[wat|and only because the 210 mm howitzer they intended to use first wasn't available]]. Although it sported a gun that could obliterate anything in front of it, the Sturmtiger suffered the same problems as the Tiger itself. Overbuilt drivetrain, maintenance-intensive and prone to breakdown ''Schachtellaufwerk'' tracks to keep ground pressure tolerable, and an underpowered engine. On top of that, the rocket was so powerful that in order to not break the barrel of the gun or kill the crew, the exhaust gasses from launching the depth-charge rocket had to be vented out of a number of tubes that went back up the barrel.
*'''Flakpanzer IV''': Tanks whose main gun had been replaced with one (or more) anti-aircraft guns. With the Luftwaffe having been squandered by inability to adapt to changes (i.e. realize that ''maybe'' it should have switched priorities to defending the Fatherland before the latter half of 1943), the Germans came up with these SPAAGs in other to try to defend themselves from all those nasty american ''Jabos'' (German shorthand for fighter-bomber) making their lives hell. Didn't really work, because towards the end of the war the ground attack aircraft had become too fast to be engaged reliably by guns relying on human eyes to acquire and follow their target. They were, however, [[rape|murder on tracks]] when facing infantry and lightly armored ground targets. Four Variants were made, all based on the ever-reliable Panzer IV chassis:
**'''Möbelwagen''': Odd looking thing that more or less was an armoured AA-emplacement on a tank; when deployed, the crew would fold down the "walls" of the open topped fixed turret with a 3.7 cm AA-gun on top of it. Needless to say, it didn't offer any significant improvement over existing and far more simple AA-vehicles which consisted of little more than an armoured truck with the gun in a trailer.
**'''Wirbelwind''': Perhaps the most iconic of the four, it massively improved the design by adding an again open-topped turret that could be turned almost as fast as a regular AA-gun on its mounting. Armed with a quadruple 2-cm FlaK 38 and 105 being built, it was ultimately the most common variant of the Flakpanzer IV.
**'''Ostwind''': The last Flakpanzer IV to be put into serial production. The turret remained pretty much the same from the Wirbelwind, although the introduction of a single 3.7-cm FlaK 43 made one of the two loaders on the Wirbelwind obsolete and a hydraulic turning mechanism pumped its turning speed up to 60 per second. Its prototype partook in the Battle of the Bulge and returned back home undamaged. 47 were completed by the end of the war.
**'''Kugelblitz''': Similar deal to the Typ XXI U-boats, the Kugelblitz was the peak of military engineering for its time that remained unsurpassed until computer-guided tracking systems and heat-seeking missiles revolutionized ground-based Anti-Air weaponry. The Kugelblitz utilized a fully enclosed, roughly ball-shaped turret with two 3-cm-MK 103 borrowed from the Me 262 fighter plane that were fed by belt instead of magazines or clips like the FlaK guns before. The shape of the turret, combined with an improved version of the hydraulic turning mechanism of the Ostwind made for an incredibly deadly package that could cover the airspace above it completely and inspired many imitators after the war. That being said, the 37mm AA gun was really showing its age and post war AA guns went for either high caliber autocannons or rotary guns. Only 5 prototypes were made by the end of the war, one of which actually saw combat in Thuringia, where a direct hit by a bomb blasted its turret off into a forest, where it was recovered in 1999.

===Halftracks and Armoured Cars===
*'''Kfz 13''': One of the first projects of the German armament programs that started after Hitler started to outright ignore the conditions of the Versailles treaty. Very much a stopgap solution based on a civilian car, the Adler Standard 6. Some of them partook in the invasions of Poland and France and were relegated to training purposes shortly after.
*'''Einheits-PKW''': A German take on the US army jeep, general purpose cars meant for transporting officiers and reconnaissance. Existed in three weight classes. Became redundant after the introduction of the Kübelwagen, who could do everything an Einheits-PKW could do for cheaper and also could be made into an amphibic vehicle with only minor modifications. The heavy Einheits-PKW served as the basis for the wheeled armoured reconnaissance tank Sd.Kfz 221.
*'''Leichter Panzerspähwagen Sd.Kfz. 221/222/223''': The 221 was the standard reconnaissance vehicle of the Wehrmacht in the early days of the war. Open topped and armed with an MG 34, its weak armor of only 25 millimeters, as well as its armament proved insufficient during the French campaign. The vehicles would be refitted with the 2-cm autocannon from the Panzer II and designated as Sd.Kfz. 222. Leading vehicles would be equipped with high-capacity radios instead of any armament and designated as Leichter Funkwagen 223.
*'''Schwerer Panzerspähwagen Sd.Kfz 231/232/233''': The heavy alternative to the 222. A six (or eight)-wheeled tank whose development already started when the Weimar Republic was still alive and well. It was the primary reconnaisance vehicle for the tank divisions. The different designations refer to the armament, a 231 was armed with two MG 15 in a Panzer I turret, the 232 with a high-capacity radio and the 233 with the short-barreled 7.5-cm tank guns from the earlier versions of the Panzer IV and the StuG III.
*'''Schwerer Panzerspähwagen Sd.Kfz 234 "Puma"''': A completely new wheeled tank, where the major improvement over the older 231s and 222s was that they were designed around being tanks instead of armoured cars. The first serially produced version, the 234/2 was armed with the long 5 cm-tank gun from the Panzer III in the turret of the never realized Leopard reconnaissance tank, later versions were open topped due to material shortages. This gave the vehicles firepower unprecedented for such a light vehicle and often lead to crews to take the fight to the enemy instead of scouting, with mixed results.
*'''Mittlerer Schützenpanzerwagen Sd.Kfz. 251''': The standard APC of the Wehrmacht throughout the entire war. A design so flexible that it could easily be used in just about any role any commander wanted it to serve with tons of variants of it existing. In the standard configuration, it could carry 10 men plus equipment in an open topped chassis. An innovation over competing APCs of the time was that Soldiers could enter and leave the vehicle quickly through a door in the back. The 251 was originally supposed to form the backbone of the Panzergrenadier divisions to provide infantry support to tanks in a vehicle quick enough and armoured to deliver them directly into the fray, but the lack of industrial capacity as well as the complicated Schachtellaufwerk of its tracks limited their production rates. The later years of the war saw the 251 relegated to an absurd number of combat roles, from light SPAAG with a 2-cm-FlaK 36, AT gun carrier and even Infrared night vision reconnaissance. One of the more successful vehicles of the German Army in general, with 15.000 of them being built throughout the entirety of the war.

===Airplanes===
* '''Messerschmitt Bf 109:''' The Luftwaffe's mainstay fighter through WWII. Work began on the project shortly after Hitler came to power in 1933, the first prototype flew in 1935 and it entered service in 1937, seeing action in the Spanish Civil War. It is also the most produced fighter of all time, with nearly 34,000. The variants of the 109 and the Spitfire competed with each other throughout the war for the title of "World's Best Fighter" as they were both continually upgraded. The 109 was small, very fast, a good turner (early on), a god tier climber, and was inexpensive to produce and maintain. The 109's speed and climb rate made it a top tier energy fighter in the early stages of the war. That said it was also short ranged and as the war progressed it gradually showed it's age, gradually loosing manuverability as it's engine power was increased.
[[File:Fw190d9jv 1.jpg|thumb|right|250px|When the Nazis applied their sense of style to aerospace engineering, the result was the Fw 190D-9, the second sexiest son of a bitch in the sky, second only to the SR-71]]
* '''Messerchmitt Bf 110:''' The archetype of the Luftwaffe's "destroyer" concept, and a flying monument to hubris and doubling down on bad decisions. In the late 1930s, German engineers believed that the limitations of engine technology gave multi-engine bombers an unbeatable speed advantage over single-engine fighters. Thus, this beast: a fast, twin-engined air superiority fighter armed with heavy cannons and defensive machine guns. "Destroyers" never worked particularly well in their intended role, being handily outmaneuvered by even early-war Allied fighters. Although the very concept was flawed, Bf 110s and other "destroyers" soldiered on throughout the war, in large part because Hermann Goering had a massive hard-on for them. It also helped that the planes' large airframes were well-suited to other roles besides air superiority; "destroyers" could be converted into effective tactical bombers or night-fighters, when equipped with early radar sets.
* '''Junkers Ju 87:''' Probably the airplane used by the Nazis any random person is going to know about due to [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQzv-8pJSqY the highly-distinctive sound of its ram-air sirens called Jericho trumpets produced] as it dived in for an attack run - whether intentionally or not depending on how stringently the media this person watched actually portrays the Ju 87 or if they're just using its cool sound. The Ju 87 or "Stuka" as it was also known as (short for ''Sturzkampfflugzeug'' which is the German word for dive bomber) was a dive bomber that quickly became a symbol of German air power in the beginning of the war and was a key part of Germany's initial Blitzkrieg victories. A novel design, it was equipped with automatic pull-up dive brakes to ensure the aircraft recovered from its attack dive even if its pilot blacked out and wouldn't have been a feasible concept at all if its cabin wasn't pressurized and without a lot of other pilot protection advancements since only 2 g (Stuka pilots going in and out of a dive went through 8 or 9 g) could have killed a pilot in an unpressurized cabin. The Stuka proved to be so iconic that its nickname was lend to another piece of German military hardware - the Wurfrahmen 40 multiple rocket launcher became known as the "Walking Stuka". However, as the war went on and Allied air superiority became the rule of almost every battle, the Stuka wasn't really produced any more by the end of the war as it was absolutely helpless against the many Allied fighters filling the air (though there were occasions that the Stuka got to bomb things like it was 1939 again when the Allied ground units outpaced the airfield requirements of their air support).
** By the way, the Jericho trumpets were attached to the plane for psychological warfare purposes and while it ''was'' pretty certain that ground units hearing the Jericho trumpets did indeed shit themselves and dived for cover, the usefulness of them were debatable considering they produced drag on the aircraft and provided an advance warning sound for ground troops to get down (and the helpfulness of getting down was why [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_On_Target Time On Target] artillery coordination was developed) - though if nothing else, the trumpets provided audible feedback on the plane's speed for its pilot.
* '''Focke-Wulf Fw 190''': When first introduced, the Fw 190 was hands-down the best fighter on the planet, due mostly to its very powerful radial engine. The 190A-3 was rocking 1,700 horsepower at a time when the Spitfire V had 1,450. As the war dragged on, BMW failed miserably to improve the engine and the 190 dropped in effectiveness until it was given a completely new engine in the Dora variant. The 190 was horrifically fast at low altitude, had extremely powerful armament, outstanding high speed handling, and had the best roll rate of any plane in the war. However, it was a very poor turner. This set of attributes made the 190 one of the best "boom and zoom" fighters, going toe to toe with Mustangs and Thunderbolts but once again falling victim to shit production, just as the Russians started getting [[Dakka|P-39 Airacobras]] from America that could take on anything the Nazis had as long as the fight was below 12,000'.
* '''Fieseler Fi 156 Storch''': A product of the early, successful parts of the war, the Storch was a dedicated observation plane for forward air control. It was unique for its '''EXTREMELY''' low stall speed of 31 mph which even in the 21st century is still impressive for a two seater and almost 25% lower than the American equivalent (the Piper Cub). The design continued in production well into the 60's in France and the USSR; modern replicas using even lighter, stronger materials are capable of flight with a takeoff run of as little as 30 meters. Its capabilities for close support were illustrated best during the final days of the war, when famed pilot Hanna Reitsch landed one on a building-lined street in Berlin and then successfully got it airborne again.
[[File:HE111Z.JPG|thumb|left|150px|One of Germany's attempts at packing enough dakka in explosive form]]
*'''Heinkel He 111''': The main German bomber from beginning to end, it was developed in the 1930s; the Nazis called it a high speed passenger aircraft to get around the Treaty of Versailles. It was first put to its real use in the Spanish Civil War. The He 111 was a twin engine medium bomber, cheap to make and maintain and able to carry up to 3,600 kilos of bombs. Early on it performed very well and was one of the most effective bombers in the world but after 1941 the British and Americans began building larger and longer ranged four engine bombers like the Lancaster and the Flying Fortress in large quantities. The german engineers had a plan to counter these with an enhanced version of the HE 111 called the HE 111-Z that consisted of two 111 fuselages fused together on a central wing (which is just as retardedly awesome and awesomely retarded as it sounds) therefore gathering twice the bombs and weaponry of a regular bomber while being powered by 5 engines. They did manage to make it fly but it remained a prototype. Note: Actually it was suppose to be used as a glider tug for the massive Messerschmitt ME-321 Gigant cargo glider and the proposed Junkers JU-322 Mammut.

*'''Heinkel He 177 "Greif"''': The only heavy bomber the Germans were fielding and the perfect counterexample for people who cannot stop blabbering about supposed German technical superiority. An obvious idiotic design, that attempted to combine the concepts of a heavy long-range bomber similar to the British Halifax or the American B-17 with the dive-bomb-capabilities of the Stuka. To that end, the plane was made deliberately heavier and had for two engines, that were actually four that drove two propellers. Even though it became obvious very quickly that the concept of a heavy-dive-bomber was impossible, the Germans kept building them, which only revealed much more pressing concerns with de design, the notable of which was that the engine cooling system never worked right and guzzled coolant at very high rates. When the coolant ran out, the engines spontaneously combusted. German pilots loathed the damn thing so much, they gave it grim nicknames like "Burning coffin" and "Imperial Torch". When it didn't burst into flames, it was an alright plane, but mostly used for short-range reconnaissance flights, supplying the trapped 6th army in Stalingrad, naval bombing, and eventually retired in 1944, when fuel shortages meant that they could no longer take off.

* '''Messerschmitt ME-163 Komet''': Before the Nazis mastered jet engines, they toyed around with rocket-based fighters instead. The Komet was a tiny, zippy little fighter plane, and the first plane to travel faster than 1000 kph. It was also the first and last rocket-powered fighter, as they only succeeded to shoot down about eighteen allied craft at the cost of ten crashed Komets. This was because despite being far faster than anything the allies could field, the komet proved very temperamental: it was difficult to control while building speed, its fuel dangerous to handle, its landing gear could bounce off and smack the plane, its cannons were too slow to keep up, and it was vulnerable as it glided back to earth. Still, for its time, it was the only fighter capable of threatening the allies' high-altitude bombers, until the ME-262 came about. The fuel, being hypergolic, had a nasty tendency to melt the test pilots, the plane itself, and pretty much everything it touched. Which, oddly enough, was still less of a OSHA hazard that what follows...
[[File:ME 262.jpg|thumb|left|200px|The ME-262: Nazi Germany's state of the art sky shark]]
* '''Ba 349 Natter''': The meaning of "double down" if Luftwaffe logistics was a poker game. Even crazier than the Komet, Natter was little more than a [[Grot Bomm Launcha]] with unguided rocket batteries up the nose. Adding to the madness was that it's designed to be built from unskilled labor, and wood. Yes, wood. Yes: the British Mosquito was made of wood, but the Mosquito was built by professionals with great care, and was not '''rocket powered!''' What's worse, its fuel was [https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/things-i-won-t-work-peroxide-peroxides T-Stoff] (a highly caustic solution of hydrogen peroxide and a stabilizing chemical) mixed with C-Stoff (a hydrazine hydrate/methanol/water mixture), combustion was spontaneous so extreme care was required to handle both chemicals; leave it to Nazis to use fuel made out of the second most dangerous and villainous compounds (See N-Stoff bellow for the stuff even they thought was crazy). The Walter motor generated about 1,700 kg (3,740 lb) of thrust but a loaded Ba 349A weighed more than 1,818 kg (4,000 lb) so liftoff required more power, like a rail launcher or catapult. Simply put, the design was fuck-nut retarded from scratch, killing every test pilot and canceled before it was used, not that a plane nearing the speed of sound made out of shitty wood firing unguided rockets wouldn't hit fuck-all.
* '''Messerschmitt ME-262''': The Me 262 was the world's first operational jet fighter and possibly the most advanced aircraft of all in WWII. It was very fast, able to achieve a speed of 900km/h (in comparison, a P51 Mustang had a top speed of about 700km/h) and carried four 30mm cannons. The latter was its most important feature because around that time, a single HE autocannon hit meant "instant death" for any aircraft facing them, forcing them to exploit 262's slow turning speed. Quality suffered due to a lack of high quality steel, which severely limited the shelf life of their engines to twelve hours. Even so, it was an effective against bombers. Much like every other advanced Nazi weapon, it arrived too late (in part due to delays involving the Nazi top brass-thank God for Hitler on not deciding whether it should be a tactical bomber or a fighter-) and in too few numbers to influence the course of the war, though it spurred development of jet aircraft on both sides of the Iron Curtain postwar. The Japanese built a rather similar jet fighter in the Nakajima Kikka, but that never got beyond prototype.
[[File:Heinkel He 162 CASM 2012 5.jpg|thumb|right|200px|The "Volksjäger" aka. "Spatz" or "Salamander". Tiny. Deadly.]]
*'''He-162''': With a max speed of 900 kph, 2 centerline 20mm cannons, and a 39 lbs/ft^2 wingloading, the He-162 was almost invincible in combat. Where the 262 was an interceptor, the He-162 was designed as a cheap, easy to build and fly air superiority fighter. It was also designed to be piloted by children. Developed as a Volksjäger (”people's fighter”) the He-162 was a last ditch design meant to be piloted by the high school aged Hitler Youth as Nazi Germany had almost completely run out of regular pilots at the time. Amazingly enough despite the incredibly short time between design and full production, it turned out to be a solid design; both cheap and easy to build (most of the frame was made of wood) and a dangerous opponent (allied testing after the war showed that a large number of them would have been a major pain in the rear to deal with). The only point where the "Spatz" didn't deliver was the 'easy to fly' part; like all early jet airplanes it required an experienced pilot at the stick and being able to bench press to just turn the damn thing (which was a problem to everyone until the lessons of the Korean War).

===Ships===
As a general rule, Hitler dumped most of money into the ''Heer'' (army) and ''Luftwaffe'' (air force), leaving the ''Kriegsmarine'' (navy) out in the cold, so to speak, so they were not overly fond of him. (Although Hitler realised he wouldn't be able to build up a navy to rival the English quickly so he prioritised planes and tanks over ships to seize land and industrial capacity at first, which kind of made sense, at least in his delusional dreams where Great Britain wouldn'thave dared to come to kick him in the balls if a war was to break out.) Hitler actually liked the Idea of a huge navy and passed Plan Z in 1937 which would have built a truly massive fleet to fight the Royal Navy in about 1945, as the building up to that point was designed to fight France, and predated the Nazi's rise to power.

Like so many of der Furher's calls, it is a controvertial matter and bound to create much [[skub| Skub]]: on one hand, german submarines proved to be a deadly asset in the Atlantic, wrecking havoc among the convoys directed to Britain and sinking more ships than all the Kriegsmarine's surface units combined, apparently giving credit to Admiral Dönitz idea of winning the war through the U-Boots, but on the other the felt lack of success from the aforementioned surface fleet was almost exclusively HIS fault and his fault alone as, for starters, he moved too fast with his plans of invasion like an impatient child on Christmas' morning and started the war before the navy had enough surface units ready to deploy, then [[What|he ordered the resources that were being poured into the construction of said ships to be directed towards other projects, including building tanks and airplanes]], ordering the construction to be halted and leaving Raeder with a severe shortage of materials and not enough ships to fight the british on equal terms or provide escorts to his capital ships (to give you an example of what a stupid idea that was, he ordered to stop working on the aircraft carrier Graf Zeppelin when it was about 85% complete, [[fail|and that could have saved a certain flagship's ass if it had been put into service]]) and then, for fear of losing the few ships he had, ordered the entire surface fleet to stay in port and not go out on sorties, and to put icing to the cake, he seemingly forgot all of the above and declared the surface fleet a complete failure because they weren't sinking enemy ships...without considering the fact that [[fail|HE and his orders were the reasons why his ships couldn't do anything]].

Overall, the utter incompetence and lack of knowledge about naval warfare of Hitler doomed the Kriegsmarine and left nobody happy: Dönitz ended up not having enough submarines to fight the long war and Raeder ended up with not enough ships to meet the Royal Navy head on, although the few ships that saw combat inflicted heavy blows to the enemy and left one hell of a mark in history, fighting against impossible odds and always at a disadvantage, but refusing to surrender or go down without putting on a remarkable resistance. Admittedly, it's easier to speak in favor of the Kriegsmarine due to a lack of major atrocities beyond unrestricted submarine warfare (also engaged in by Allied forces) and slave labor at a low rate compared to other forces. Raeder and Dönitz were no saints. It is however fair to say that their obedience to Hitler really fucked the navy over, hard.

* '''U-Boote''': U-Boote, which are shortened the version of the word "''Unterseeboot''" or "underwater boat", are submarines. They were used in devastating effect to cut off Britain from supplies from the outside world by having "wolfpacks" of U-boats patrol around shipping lanes and sink down any enemy ship they found. Their other uses involved seeking and destroying enemy battleships, placing automated weather stations all over the world (helpful for Kriegsmarine ships) and dropping off a substantial number of spies in Britain and even America, most of which got caught-and subsequently replaced by Loyal British spy's (read about some of the ways the British Bamboozled the Nazi's in world war 2 some of it, like the moment the Germans gave a British agent the Iron cross, is just hilarious). As a consequence of all this, they worked very well in the first years of the war, sinking huge (and i mean HUGE) numbers of ships with very few boats (only about 15 boats, at most, were out at sea at any given time in the first year or so). Being such an absolute pain in the arse, the British thus invested a fuckton of money and manpower into hunting and killing said U-boats, and finally got very, very good at it, through a combination of new technology, a [[Wikipedia:Western Approaches Command|massive information network]] for coordinating defenses, and [https://www.google.com/amp/s/paxsims.wordpress.com/2016/12/08/the-wargaming-wrens-of-the-western-approaches-tactical-unit/amp/ navy wargamers] [[awesome|developing new strategies to counter the U-Boats]]. Right when more and more U-boats were being produced, as German high command realized their potential, the British began sinking ever more of them (Example: in all of 1941, 35 boats were lost, in 1943, 244 boats were sunk, with 41 in May alone). Admiral Karl Dönitz loved the U-boats, and built one of the largest structures on earth (at the time) to house them: the German U-boat pens in captured France. U-boats were invented in the first world war, and there unrestricted campaign of sinking any ship, even those with US citizens on them (even after the German government made a very public warning to the US that boarding a ship to England was a very bad idea), that approached England led to the neutral though leaning allied American to join the first world war and for them to be the last straw on the German back to end it.
**'''''Typ VII''''': The most common type and with 703 ships in total also the most built submarine model in history. Generally well regarded as a very good design, it was rather nimble for its tonnage, was able to dive extremely quickly, and much more deeper than even the designers anticipated (U-95, the famous submarine from ''Das Boot'', reportedly sunk as deep as 290 meters after being hit by water bombs, and even though it was quite taxing on the ship itself, the crew survived in full and made it back to port). Its major downfall (as seems to be the norm with many Nazi equipment) was that it wasn't used in its intended role; the Typ VIIc submarines in particular weren't designed to operate as long away from a home port as they were ordered to do, and their firepower against anything larger than a merchant vessel was negligable. They were, at best, Torpedo boats that could also dive, and only the Fall of France even made it even possible for them in the first place to operate in the mid-Atlantic as they did, even tho their main theater was supposed to be the German sea and the Channel. Incompetent leadership as well as the afromentioned efforts of the British in fighting them lead to the Typ VII becoming obsolecent already by 1942 and a major bleed of trained Seamen and Naval officiers.
**'''''Typ IX''''': The Typ VII's bigger sister, and the actual ocean-going submarine of the Kriegsmarine. Much more spacious than the Typ VII, and designed to operate as far away as the ''fucking Indian Ocean''. Quite a few of them remained a considerable threat due to their elusiveness and extreme range; multiple Typ IXs made it as far as New York City and sunk convoys there. As is tradition, incompetent leadership fucked this type and their crews; Dönitz was notoriously iron-fisted about keeping the Typ VII wolfpacks in use and very narrow-minded as far as new technology goes. The Typ IX was for the task at hand superior to its smaller cousin in every way, but materiel shortages and limited Dockyards meant it was damned to take a step back behind the Typ VII.
**'''''Typ XXI''''': A technological marvel that came at the very end of the war, and too late to be used by the Nazis themselves, but these babies were by far the most advanced type of submarine devised at the time. Primarily designed to operate almost entirely under water and as trials with the finished ships by the allies after the war showed, more than capable of that. Typ XXI marks a significant shift in submarine doctrins across the globe, as it proved that Submarines were more than capable of operating far away from a port without needing any assistance and almost completely invisible. The modern nuclear submarines of the US and USSR are direct decendants of the Typ XXI for that very reason. Unfortunately for the Nazis and fortunately for everyone else they had serious problems in their construction as Albert Speer decided [[wat|to farm out hull construction to a steel bridge company to speed up production]] and they never scored a kill.
* '''''Gorch Fock''''': The first of a series of five ships built very early in Germany's rearmament program, when the Nazis were still uncertain what might provoke the allies. Not in any way a warship, these were sail tallships, the last, largest, and finest ever made (although their engine systems were designed to train sailors for operating U-Boats). After the war all the ships of the class were seized as war trophies, notably the ''Horst Wessel'' which was taken by the United States becoming the ''USCGC Eagle''. The modern day ''Gorch Fock'' of the Bundesmarine is a new ship built from the same plans in 1958 and remains a training vessel to this day.
* '''''Deutschland Class Cruiser''''': The archetypal battlecruiser, the ''Deutschlands'' were the first new large ships designed by Germany after the Treaty of Versailles, and were carefully designed to get the most out of a very liberal interpretation of what the treaty permitted. Fast and heavily armed, they were ideal for commerce raiding and all three were used in this role. Of the class, the ''Admiral Scheer'' had the most successful career, sinking the most shipping tonnage of any ship in WW2, while the ''Graf Spee'' would get in a shootout with three British cruisers and be forced to scuttle in the harbor of Montevideo.
* '''''Admiral-Hipper-Class Cruiser''''': A result of the British-German Treaty of 1935, supposed to cross the gap between the Bismarck-class battleships and the lighter Deutschland class. The most famous of these was the ''Prinz Eugen'', that accompanied the Bismarck on her fateful journey and remaining the only heavy German Warship that survived the war intact. The planners of the Kriegsmarine called for a design that was exceptionally sturdy, and the result fulfilled these expectations more than they could have imagined; after the war, it was towed away by the US Navy who used in the series of nuclear tests in American-Samoa, [[Wat|where it survived all three Hydrogen bomb blasts with only minor damages]], but it was so irradiated that the US towed it off the coast of the Bikini-Atoll. Here it sank, after the propellers had dislodged as a result of the nuclear blasts in 1946. Its wreck is still above the surface, since the water on the beach where the Prinz Eugen sank isn't very deep.
* '''''Bismarck and Tirpitz''''': <s>A pair of battleships with guns as big as steers and shells as big as trees. As well as inspiration for a Kickass Sabaton song </s> Memes aside, those were the largest ships built by any european power and two of the biggest in the World; although not the biggest (Yamato was heavier and around ten meters longer), or the ones with the most illustrious career (Warspite served and kicked asses in both World Wars), they were by far the deadliest and best battleships around during the war, so powerful and dangerous to make Winston Churchill himself shit his pants. Much of the materials around regarding them as "technologically outdated", "useless" or inferior to their contemporaries are just results of the heavy discrediting campaign the Allies came up with during and after the war, so that everyone would think that "anything built by Nazi Germany = inferior to anything american and british and thus worthless", when that couldn't be farther from the truth: the Bismarck fought, with only the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen at his side, the battleship HMS Prince of Wales and the battlecruiser HMS Hood and [[awesome|literally one-shotted the Hood after just five minutes of combat by hitting her in the aft magazine, with subsequent explosion breaking the ship in half]] and killed everyone on her but 3, then pointed his guns on the Prince of Wales and mauled her badly enough to force her to withdraw; at that point, the Bismarck could have won the entire war for Germany. Alone. And that's for three simple reasons: A) Britain was already on the brink of starvation thanks to the german submarines and raiders, so a ship like the Bismarck left unchecked and free to hunt down convoys in the Atlantic for three months would have meant the UK would have been forced to surrender lest its population died for a lack of food; B) Hood had been always presented as the most powerful ship in the world and was the most loved ship of the Royal Navy; the fact that she had been sunk in an engagement where she technically had the upper hand in terms of power (since they were a battleship and a battlecruiser against a battleship and a heavy cruiser, even though the Bismarck and the Prinz Eugen were more modern) was an extremely heavy blow to the already strained british morale, that started raising questions on the ability of the Royal Navy to actually counter the germans ambitions at sea; C) the Royal Navy lacked a ship powerful enough to confront the Bismarck in battle, not without the numbers on its side. It should be no surprise then, that Churchill ordered every available ship to chase the Bismarck and destroy it with every possible mean, resulting in a fleet of more than 60 SHIPS searching the Atlantic to destroy him (and before you ask, yes, it is the biggest naval formation ever assembled to hunt down a single ship), that after three days of hunting managed to track him down, cripple him and then have a 5v1 engagement in which the Bismarck was shelled without mercy, [[awesome|yet still refused to sink]]. They tried torpedoes. [[awesome|And he still didn't sink]]. In the end it was the Bismarck's own crew to scuttle him, since they had no way of fighting back after the beating the ship had taken. All the while the Tirpitz proved to be another real bitch to kill, just like his big brother: after the Bismarck sinking, the Tirpitz received reinforced deck armor, even more advanced systems and a shitload more of AA guns to fight off enemy aircrafts and she was be considered so much of a threat that the british admiralty was forced to keep three King George V Class battleships at Scala Flow at any time and the americans had to send the Iowa, the Washington and the Alabama in case "The Beast", as Churchill called her, decided to move. After ship attacks failed to damage her, the RAF spent an entire year attacking her, but without results, forcing them to use almost [[what|6 tonnes bombs]] (the Tallboy) to destroy her, [[awesome|but the Tirpitz survived even these]], until november 1944, when one of said bombs hit one of the ship's magazines and finally sunk it. The only real "flaws" of the ships were the three propellers system that made them difficult to maneuver at low speed and impossible if one of the rudders was to be destroyed, and the fact they were so massive that there were very few facilities capable of hosting them; in truth, the Bismarck Class rapresented the very pinnacle of battleships' design, with a perfect balance of overwhelming firepower, incredibly efficient armor protection (seriously, [[what|40% of their weight was dedicated to the armor]] and their armored belt was around 170 meters long, meaning that most of the ships were protected by it) and speed and their flaws were far less dangerous in a combat situation that those found on every other modern battleship of the war: the King George Vs were slower and both them and the Richelieus were uselessly complicated and suffered from severe mechanical fails and hydraulic problems (not to mention they couldn't shoot backwards), the Yamatos were so big and heavy that they were impossible to maintain, furthermore their guns and shells were highly ineffective, their armor scheme was a total mess and their radar was much less advanced, the Iowas, while faster, with better technology and (only slightly) more powerful guns, had a terrible weakness in the form of extremely poor armor reliability to withstand both shells and torpedoes and that was discovered only months after the four battleships had been fully built abd thus was impossible to rectify, a flaw they shared with both the North Carolina Class and the South Dakota Class, only that those two were also slower than the Bismarck and the Littorios were completely unreliable, lacking radar systems, their guns were extremely inaccurate and also had a very short lifespan.

* '''''Graf Zepplin''''': The Nazi's sole attempt at building an aircraft carrier that was a weird carrier/cruiser hybrid. Not the best idea because having the heavy guns meant it could field less planes and having planes meant that it would punch below its' weight in shooting match with other surface assets, though this is theoretical. Never completed, due to the squabbling between Göring and the Admiralty whose department this ship belongs to and the ever decreasing need of an aircraft carrier in continental Europe. Despite never being ''officially'' cancelled until the end of the war, frequent changes to the design and the planes that were supposed to be used with it as well as severe materiel shortages made sure that construction was put on hold in 1943 and the, by that time about 85% complete ship was moved from port to port in the Baltic Sea. The Soviets captured it in 1945, used it for target practice and ultimately sunk it in 1947 off the coast of Danzig (or Gdansk in Polish), where its wreck was rediscovered in 2006.

===Wunderwaffen===
Wunderwaffen. One thing that caught the imagination of the world and started the "Superior German Engineering" meme. As a preface, civilian engineering is great in Germany. Military? Well... you'll see in a bit. This is the place any of the "Nazi Super science" stuff goes. You want lightning guns? Wunderwaffen. Super tanks? Wunderwaffen. Moon rockets? Wunderwaffen. Hitler in a giant robot spider powered by the souls of the damned? Wunderwaffen.

A lot of people can argue that things like the Wunderwaffe and to a lesser degree the Gen 3 heavy tanks like the Tiger and Panther were wastes of time, money and resources in a time where they desperately could not afford to spend all three. These same people argue that it would have been preferable to produce more panzer IV's and Stugs then produce expensive Tigers or Wunderwaffe. However the truth is, as usual, a lot more nuanced. Take a quick look at even a modern map of Europe and you quickly find the same truth the Nazi's ran into no matter how they ignored: Germany is small. They don't have the same kind of resources at there disposal that Russia or America have. Maybe They could match England or France one-on-one but both had global empires that when factored in meant that Germany was Dwarfed in the resource game (hence why trying to blockade England was such a Critical thing during both world wars). There is, frankly, no way Germany could ever produce enough tanks to match the American horde of Sherman or Soviet onslaught of T-34's, and there is no way for Germany to keep all those tanks fueled. It is with this mind set that one can understand the reason for the Wunderwaffen and Gen 3 heavy tanks. If there is no way to produce as many tanks as your enemy's, your only options is to pack so much power into each individual war machine that they can achieve favorable kill/death ratios to make up the difference. At the core it's space marine logic, a few stronger units outfighting many times their number.

When put that way it makes the Wunderwaffe sounds like a good idea in theory. In practice they turned out not to be, due to many different factors going from limitations that could not be overcome with tech from the forties to nepotism and human stupidity (more on this below). It is indeed true that the different wonder weapon projects were on the bleeding edge of their epoch's technology when envisioned, next generation devices which most of the scientists of other nations had been thinking about/started to toy with, but had yet to reach prototype much less combat stage. Yes, the Germans pioneered a lot of things that were afterwards [[Blood Ravens|acquired and adapted]] by the Allies and the Soviet Union. The problem was, at the start of the war, the technology to make said Wunderwaffe '''efficient''' weapons (a real guidance system for the V1 and V2, for instance, and a decent fuel valve for V-1's to avoid engine death after a hundred turns) simply wasn't there yet, and once the war got into full-swing and the attendant drain on fighting a multi-front war along with the effects of Allied strategic bombing became dominant, the Germans never managed to close the gap. All that the Wunderwaffen '''could''' have been agreed upon having accomplished is the initial psychological shock upon deployment (such as the unstoppable V-2 launches), which wasn't much of a big deal after the human mind would adapt to the new threat.

On the negative side, while the German quest for military innovation lead to a number of advances and efficient war machines that did have everyone else scrambling to catch up, most were nothing more than a drain on Germany's already limited resources. Hitler had a documented fascination with anything that screamed "German Supremacy" and was willing to throw money at any such proposal. Thus, for every successful development that led to for instance the Messerschmitt Bf 109 (which was a very good plane and a potential game changer); you had more half-successes like the Tiger/VK3X.XX series/Ferdinand-Elephant/... (which were decent enough machines in the field but were horribly costly and maintenance-intensive) and all the associated waste of time and resources that went into completely hare-brained projects like the ''Ratte''. Later on, once the multi-front war turned against Germany, it turned into an arguable desperation for something-anything to one-shot win-the-war. As you can imagine with four hands strangling Germany, one smelling of vodka, one of bourbon and apple pie, one of tea and gin and the last of white bread and frog legs, these weapons were developed and produced with a shortage of resources and time and the lack of quality only exacerbated their various shortcomings and strained an already breaking economy. They were rather dismissively called "voo-vah" by Allied troops, and they allegedly thanked Hitler for ultimately shortening the war by authorizing the waste of resources on them. Perhaps ironically, the Wunderwaffen did help to shorten the war, since those resources may have been better used on propping up a failing wartime economy, or building "boring but effective" war materiel. As with anything on this wiki, YMMV and you're encouraged to do your own research (and find a lot of really interesting stories in the process; did you know that at point-blank range, the standard 88mm AP round could rip a furrow through the entire length of the roof of a M4 turret, peeling open the steel like a centre-parting in hair? SCIENCE!)

It's worth noting here that the Germans and the Allies (particularly the Americans) devoted equally insane amounts of resources to developing crazy sci-fi weapons during the war; the course of post-war history shows which side bet on the winning horses. While the Germans farted around with jets and giant cannons, the Americans were conducting the Manhattan Project and creating nuclear weapons, (and building the B-29 Superfortress, a plane so advanced that it cost just as much as the bombs it would deliver to Japan). Ultimately, the Germans' wide-reaching experimentation was a classic example of crippling overspecialization, developing dozens of potentially war-winning technologies and giving none of them the attention they needed.

* '''V1 flying bomb:''' The V1 is considered as an early version of the cruise missile and was used in the bombing of England, since a city was pretty much all they COULD accurately hit (and even then). The V1's used an early version of a Pulse jet and they were quickly called "buzz bombs," "doodlebugs," or "farting furies" to discourage people from calling them "robot bombs," which gives the impression that they were unstoppable. Fun fact about the V1: it uses the same fuel as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombardier_beetle type of beetle] uses to defend itself. It was infamously known for cutting its engine as it dived (due to a fuel flow error), leading to it suddenly becoming silent just before it smashed into the ground. Its entire "guidance computer" was nothing more than a simple gyroscope system to keep it level and flying, plus a small spinning propeller in the nose that would set the flaps to dive the V1 into the ground once it revolved a certain amount of times (calculated to have covered the distance to the target city). Far too inaccurate to be used against a military target, the V1 was ultimately a gigantic waste. After the war though, with American and Soviet resources and improved controls, it founded the basis of modern tactical bombardment. Strategic? See right below.
*'''V2 rocket:''' The V2 was the world's first ballistic missile and spacefaring craft. The scientists that developed it, including Werner von Braun, went on to work for NASA and developed the booster rockets on the Saturn V launch vehicle (Nazi science really did put a man on the Moon in the end). Unlike its brother the V1, it was utterly unstoppable by AA; not a single inbound V2 was ever shot down by anti-aircraft fire, owing to it moving at 3 times the speed of sound. As detailed in Thomas Pynchon's novel ''Gravity's Rainbow'' (the book's name referring to the ballistic trajectory of the rockets), the V2 brought a new terror to late-war London: as the rockets impacted well beyond the speed of sound, the first sign of an attack was an explosion on the ground, ''followed'' by "a screaming across the sky." It was the first vehicle to ever reach space (but not the first object, that honor falls to Imperial German artillery in WW1, specifically the Paris Gun), from a vertical test launch in 1943, and after the war it was very frequently reused by the Americans (with extra shit often strapped on top) as an early spacecraft, with grainy images returned from suborbital flights in space as early as 1946. Less of a waste than the V1 but even so, without a decent guidance system it had a hard time hitting England as well as the dubious distinction of being the only weapon which killed more people in its manufacture than it did enemies. (It achievieved this distinction by being constructed in concentration camps, where prisoners' lives were freely exchanged for productivity. It's worth remembering that many of the "good" Germans that came to the US and NASA had to ''literally'' step over corpses to get to their Nazi rocket factories during the war.)
*''' Ruhrstahl X-4 and Panzerabwehrrakete X-7 Rotkäppchen rocket:''' The X-4 and X-7 were the first Wire-Guided missiles (by which they were guided by electrical signals sent down guidance wires spooled out behind the rocket in flight) to be developed, and an example that in some cases Wunderwaffen really did point the way to the future.
* '''Horten 229 and Horten 18:''' While technically Nazi aircraft, they really deserves to be here, not up in Aircraft. Commonly known as the "Nazi stealth fighter," this twin-turbojet flying-wing fighter was found in a secret workshop hangar by invading American forces. Nobody knows for certain if the Horten 229 was originally built for stealth, but it's all-wood construction and smooth radar-fouling shape, coupled with what was claimed to be radar-absorbing paint on the outer shell makes a fairly clear case for a stealth aircraft (Though [[Wikipedia:de Havilland Mosquito|the allies had already been fielding wooden aircraft for years]] and the Germans knew Radar worked poorly on them, as well as the "radar absorbing paint" being tested by Lockheed and being found to have no appreciable effect on radar returns). The concept that the 229 was build around was the "3x1000": 1000kph, 1000km range, 1000kg bomb payload. This, in 1943. During test flights, it outperformed the Me. 262 while using exactly the same engines. It was probably going to be used to fly through or knock out the British radar array in a second, never-realized "Battle of Britain 2: Electromagnetic Boogaloo." The Horten 18 was an even bigger flying wing, with a huge wingspan and 6 jet engines. This one was designed to be an intercontinental bomber, intending to hit American cities as the western front made Hitler [[rage|angrier and angrier]]. The Horten 18 was never built, but the 229 was rather successfully test flown. Both planes looks quite a bit like the modern B2 stealth bomber, which isn't much of a surprise considering the Americans hauled the Horten 229 prototype back home to be studied in a secret airforce base (where it is today). The designs failed for several reasons: lack of funds and insufficient stabilizing hard/software for flying wing aircrafts in 1940's.
[[File:Maus_Trials_1944.png|350px|thumb|right|[[Approved_anime#Gaming_anime|Panzer vor]], motherfuckers.]]
* '''''Maus'':''' The ''Panzerkampfwagen VIII Maus'' ("mouse") is the largest tank ever built. A 200 metric ton monster with a 128mm (5 inch) main gun, and a 75mm co-axial gun in the turret, it crept along at a blistering 13 kph and sucked down liters of gas per kilometer. The most amazing thing is that (beyond not cancelling the project on sight like anyone withing hailing distance of sanity would) ''they actually managed to build this tank''. Five were ordered, but only two prototypes and one turret were built. It was originally going to be called the ''Mäuschen'' (Little Mouse), but because the Germans liked schadenfreude more than irony, just ''Maus'' stuck. Realistically, neither front's tanks would have had the firepower to penetrate the Maus, only extreme-caliber anti-tank guns and artillery fire would have done the job, however it was so big that there was no road or bridge big enough to take it so it had to have special snorkling gear to get past river. Its extremely slow speed and massive size, however, likely would have made it prime bait for bombers (which is one of the reasons why modern militaries don't use heavy tanks anymore). While neither side had anti-tank weapons strong enough to penetrate its armor, it's more then likely it would never get there even if it was built. It's not quite a [[Baneblade]], but they were getting there. The Nazi's really didn't want anyone to get this monster, so they blew up the complete first model. The second Maus, armed with the first one's turret, was towed back to Russia by invading forces, and currently resides in the Kubinka Tank museum for all to see.
* '''''Ratte'':''' The ''Landkreuzer P. 1000 Ratte'' ("rat") was an even larger tank, or "land cruiser", since it was essentially a naval warship on tracks. Never actually built, despite being ordered by Hitler. [[Wat|The Rat was to be a 1000 metric ton tank, mounting a naval turret with two 280mm guns, a 128mm anti tank gun, eight 20mm FlaK cannons, and two 15mm aircraft cannons]], surpassing even the Eleven Barrels Of Hell of the Baneblade. It would have been so heavy that it would have destroyed every road it used, capable of wrecking a town just by running through it, and it would have collapsed every bridge it crossed. It needed two U-BOAT motors to get around, or maybe EIGHT 20 CYLINDER ENGINES. Not surprisingly, Albert Speer canned the project (mostly because a single bomber dropping a 500kg bomb on top of the thing would fuck its day up immensely), which is a great shame because A- Building and maintaining such a monster would have posed a noticeable strain on Germany's logistics, thus accelerating their defeat (it would have required about six months worth of the Reichs ENTIRE STEEL PRODUCTION just to build the damm thing) and B- It would have made the most [[awesome]] museum piece in the known universe.
*'''''Karl-Gerät''''' The ''Karl-Gerät'' is one of the very few real world weapon ever built that is BIGGER then its 40k equivalent. Karl weighs 124 tons, is armed with a 60cm (24 inch) gun that fires a shell that weights more than a ton, that can hit a target between four and ten kilometers away depending on the size of its shell. This thing was the largest self-propelled gun ever made and it could give even a (admittedly small) Titan pause for thought. These things were actually used in combat to decent effect in Warsaw, but had mixed results in other deployments. It fucked up any target royally when it hit like famously the Prudential in Warsaw, but the Gerät was so big and slow that it had to be disassembled and put on special tractor trailers to move around (one hell of a logistic operation) and and was moved any real distance by train. Its shells were carried by special turret-less Panzer IIIs. Surprisingly one of these things survived the war and was captured by the Russians. It's currently in the Kubinka Tank Museum along side the only Maus heavy tank in the world and assorted other war trophies.
[[File:Hitler-gustav-railway-gun.jpg|350px|thumb|right|If there was a fine line between [[Dakka]], [[Titan|massive overcompensation]], and [[Rape|"Holy shit, Greg! Is that a fucking landship on rails!?",]] then the Gustav sure hits the spot.]]
*'''''Schwerer Gustav'':''' An excellent example of the brilliance and impracticality of Wunderwaffen, ''Schwerer Gustav'' was a railway gun that resembled a cruiser fucking a freight train and an artillery piece, built in the late 30's to defeat the Maginot Line. Two were built, the other called "Dora." It is a descendant of the German Empire's 1918 "Paris gun," a smaller gun ("only" 238mm's) built in World War One to shell Paris from Germany, 120 kilometers away (a range so far they had to account for the curvature of the Earth when firing the damn thing). Gustav was designed to defeat any fortifications in existence; as such, it was the largest-calibre rifled weapon ever used in combat, the heaviest mobile artillery piece ever built in terms of overall weight, and fired the heaviest shells of any artillery piece. It fired 80cm (31 inch) shells, weighing 4,800kg to 7,100kg up to 48km. The AP shells could penetrate 7m of reinforced concrete. It completely succeeded in its job of defeating any existing fortification, but at the same time was completely impractical: it required two specially-laid parallel railway tracks to move (yes, it was a railway gun too big for the railway), took 54 hours to set up for firing, and had a rate of fire of 14 rounds per day as charges had to be heated up in a special device for roughly 1 day before firing. Since building a gun that fired shells that wouldn't fit through the front door to your house wasn't excessive enough for the Nazis, plans were made to mount the Schwerer Gustav 80cm gun on a 1,500t self propelled artillery platform (the ''Landkreuzer P.1500 Monster'') with two 15cm howitzers and multiple 15mm autocannons as secondary weapons. Unfortunately, both guns were scrapped near the end of the war. The Schwerer Gustav, overall, was the biggest (if the strange rocket exhaust powered V3 listed bellow is not counted) motherfucking gun on the planet. The weapon likely could have blown a Titan away if its shields were down, and much science-fiction set in WW2 features the gun (notably, in Harry Turtledove's Worldwar series, the gun is used to blow up two landed alien spacecraft from sixty kilometers away).The fucking thing was hilariously impractical as there is no recorded cases it of successfully hitting the target (and with the accuracy of that thing it's a miracle no German forces were harmed). There is an urban legend about one AP shot detonating an ammo dump through 15 meters of water and 7 meters of concrete during the Siege of Sevastapol, but no hard proof supports it.
*'''V3''': If you thought Gustav up there was nutty wait to you here about the V3, a gun that's as big as a 40k titan. The V3 was an attempt to make a gun that could shoot across the English channel, and there were a number of sane guns that could do this including railway guns and big bunkers built with battleship battery's. but they could only shoot between the narrowest point between England and continental Europe. The V3 was built to shell London from France. I said early it was as big as a titan, and I was not being sarcastic, (though it would only be as big as a knight, which despite being the smallest titan is still bloody big) from breach to muzzle the gun was 130 meters or 430 feet long with a bore of 150mm or 5.9 inches across. Rather then use a single big explosion to propel the shells, the V3 used rocket motors mounted in pairs, set so there exhaust would thrust a 140kg shell out of the barrel like a reverse bolter. This set up allowed it to fire a shell out to 165km and put London well in range. Of course like all of the Nazi Wunderwaffen, in practice it sounded good but was actually kinda shit. the gun was so big, remember 130meters that it had to be built in a hill meaning it was impossible for it to change target after being built, and after all the time you spent building the damn thing, by the time you were done it might no longer be useful to have, such as what happened during the Nazi Operation Nordwind. Further even if you ignore the logistical issues compared to other period artillery the V3 was just plain shit. The 16"/50 caliber Mark 7 guns of the USS Iowa class battleship, had a caliber of 16 inch or 406mm, and fired a shell that weighed 1,225 kg, so over twice as big around and almost exactly nine times as heavy, and the Iowa had nine of them, and it could move. and to put the cherry on the HMS sound plan, by the time the first five guns were finally built to shell London, the British airforce destroyed them with Tallboy Earthquake bombs. If anything proves how silly the idea of Nazi Super Science is, let the fate of the V3 super gun stand testament to how many times Hitler's scientists, and Hitler himself, had been hit with the stupid stick growing up. Hitler in particular, [[Meme|who was punished by his enraged father severely]].
*'''''[https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/sand-won-t-save-you-time N-Stoff]:''''' Someday, somewhere in the ''Kaiser Wilhelm Institute'' there was an Evil Overlord that was unhappy about the quantity of flammen his flammenwerfer could werf - so he got around and took two guys named Ruff and Krug to play around with some flourine and some chlorine. Now, if you studied something about chemistry, you may realize that using "flourine" and "chlorine" in the same sentence does not spell good news for anybody, but you know, ''Nazi Evil Overlords..''. What they discovered made their commissioners - yes, the same ol' boys who thought gassing millions was cool - go '''NOPE!''', and when you discover something that's too crazy even for Crazy Nazi Science standards you know you're in for a treat. Indeed, Chlorine Trifluoride (as the compound is called) proved to be pretty good in burning bunkers to the ground - and by "burning bunkers" we mean the ''whole'' bunker, as in ''it reacts with the motherfucking concrete'' - plus it doubled as a chemical warfare agent, giving off corrosive and toxic fumes. N-Stoff (translating to Substance-N; yeah, they kinda failed the naming here) burns at a raging 2400 degrees Celsius - twice the temperature of lava and almost enough to BOIL steel - and can set fire to things that shouldn't burn like glass, wet sand (or asbestos (the same substance that they used to make fireproof stuff out of)) and things that have already been burnt. In fact fighting the fire with water is counterproductive, the water is just more fuel and it reacts to create deadly acids and gasses. In the 1950's a ton of the stuff was spilled on a warehouse: the chemical then burned through a foot of Concrete and three feet gravel, while releasing a deadly gas that corroding everything it came into contact with. If there ever was something like [[Dakka|Enuff Dakka]] for flamethrowers, Substance N came close to delivering it. The Nazis planned to use it in war, but were never able to produce enough of it (only a few dozen kg total), presumably because it kept incinerating everyone who tried to make it. It later found its use in the semiconductor and nuclear industry - after being dubbed a bit too violent to use as rocket fuel, one rocket scientist famously said that the best way to deal with a Chlorine Trifluoride accident was "a good pair of running shoes". Also, [[Sly Marbo]] uses Substance N to spice up his Catachan Take Away.
*'''E-Series''': A very obscure piece of German tank engineering history, that was brought to mainstream attention by being featured in World of Tanks. The ''Entwicklung'' series of tanks were pure design studies, never produced or even properly conceptualized as an attempt in streamlining tank production and as replacements for the entire tank pool of the Wehrmacht. It consisted of 5 tanks in total (E-10, E-25, E-50, E-75, E-100) with different purposes and their name corresponded with their weight class. By the time these design studies were made (around late 44 to early 45) producing an entirely new series of tanks was way beyond the capabilities of the by that time disintegrating remainder of the German heavy industry, so it's best not to read too much into these tanks other than them being interesting curiosities. From what was left of reserve steel, the Germans managed to scramble together one incomplete E-100 chassis that was found by the Americans and handed over to the British, which used it for target practive and ultimately scrapped it in 1950.
*'''''Uranprojekt''''': The Uranprojekt (Uraniumproject as the most literal translation) was the attempt of German scientists to create a nuclear bomb, or at least to create a sustainable chain reaction. It found its way into popular fiction as the German attempt in creating an atomic bomb, often claiming they almost had one, but when taking a closer look, this isn't exactly the truth. It didn't exactly go all that well. Germany suffered a major brain drain when it expelled all its Jewish scientists and it had next to no access to Uranium or materials that could be used as a moderator (like highly pure graphite or heavy water). The material problems were sorta solved when France and Norway fell into their hands, but the problems only increased from then on. The scientists were unsure what to use as fuel for the bomb as both proposed elements (Uranium-235 and Plutonium-239) are extremely rare and need to be created artificially in breeding reactors. To put it in perspective: Plutonium wasn't believed to be a natural occuring element at all until the 1990s and common Uranium ore contains usually 2% Uranium in its most stable form (U-238) and generally only 0,7% of all Uranium is of the 235 variety (U-238 is much more stable than U-235 and therefore harder to split). One must also take into consideration that nuclear technology in general was in its infancy and just at the very onset of leaving the purely theoretical stage, which adds to the problems in procuring enough viable fission material outlined above. The lead scientist of the project, Werner Heisenberg, (yes, that's where the name Heisenberg comes from) also had a crisis of conscience and reduced his work on the project significantly. After the Invasion of the Soviet Union, the project was abandoned by the Wehrmacht and handed over to the civilian Reichsforschungsrat (Council of Science of the Reich) because of the material expenses and the lack of results. The project experienced a significant number of setbacks, the most important of which was an explosion of a globe filled with Uranium powder in 1942, which destroyed a substantial amount of Germanys Uranium reserves (The accident in question actually bears a striking resemblance to what happened in Chernobyl in 1986, thankfully only on a much smaller scale). But it didn't stop there. The Allies caught wind of the project and feared that the Germans could succeed in developing a nuclear bomb and sent Commandos in a series of daring operations that make for excellent reading material. In short, all German facilities that could produce materials, together with practically any Uranium and heavy water for use in the Uranprojekt were destroyed by early 1944 either through sabotage or air raids and the project worked off remaining reserves from then on. One last experiment in Haigerloch, South Germany was conducted in Febuary 1945 and failed in producing a nuclear chain reaction. The leading scientists were taken into custody by the Americans, others from the rank-and-file by the Soviets, where they continued their work on the Soviet Unions nuclear weapons project. The effect the Uranprojekt was more to found in the looming paranoia of the Allies, particularly the Americans, about a possible German nuclear bomb that drove a lot of the reasearch in the Manhattan-Project, with the irony being that the Germans never even came close to create a critical nuclear chain reaction, let alone a bomb. In hindsight, the project was in fact a complete failure. All that needs to be said is that around ten different organizations were all running their own programs, one of which was the German Postal Service.
*'''Die Glocke (The Bell)''': Okay, so you know the Nazi Zombie craze that got started back in 1941 (seriously the first Nazi Zombie film was made during WWII), and the purported occult obssession several higher-ups in the party had? This is one of the end results of that branch of PseudoScience & Conspiracy level crazy. Much like the US's Philadelphia Experiment, or MK-Ultra; Die Glocke was supossed to be "something" that would break the laws of reality, bring back the dead, power all the factories, and mind control the enemies of the Reich. It's also complete horseshit, potentially made up by a Polish Author/Journalist (I. Witkowski), and then later popularised by a British Author/Military Journalist (N. Cook). Still as it has helped shape the more fantasical view of the Nazi Wunderwaffen, especially in the realm of /v/idya, and the "factual" books are a good laugh, is worth a mention.
*'''Sonnengewehr (Sun Gun)''': Slightly less fantastical than the Bell above (as in theoretically feasible but just as impossible to realize with the tech available at the time) was the Sonnengewehr, or the Sun Gun. Orginally proposed in 1929 by Hermann Oberth, the Sonnengewehr was a hypothesised space station that would orbit around the planet roughly five thousand miles up, and focus the Sun's rays into a ray capable of burning down cities, or boiling dry the oceans using a fuckhueg reflector made of metallic sodium. While the numbers involved are probably fairly wooly given just how batshit crazy the Nazi science machine was, the scientists involved claimed that the Sun Gun could be completed within 50 to 100 years, and if you consider that we landed on the moon roughly 40 years after the first purposeful of the 'sun gun', that number does check out. The "designers" at least had some sense of reality when they realized that the platform could also make for a weather satellite since it might as well have such facilities on board due to size. On an amusing sidenote, the Russians eventually demonstrated the concept was sound (if stupidly impractical for any intended purpose) with their ''Znamaya'' solar mirror prototype in the nineties. Though of course in terms of a 'super weapon' any kind of 'sun gun' fails when compared to atomic weapons, which is why Despite being sound in concept nobody has actually bothered to even consider such a weapon. (though as weather manipulator? that's a different kettle of fish)

===Misc===
[[File:Stalhelm.jpg|200px|thumb|left|The Distinctive Stahlhelm. The Germans lucked out helmet design during WWI]]
* '''''Stahlhelm'':''' The many variants of the iconic German helmet were derived from the medieval sallet during the Great War. The purpose of these helmets was to keep shrapnel out of one's head. It was better than it's contemporaries by better protecting the sides and back of the head as well. Not to be confused with the spiked Prussian ''Pickelhaube''. Used by all kinds of German troops but the Fallschirmsjäger (paratroopers) as it is impractical to jump with it. Paratroopers had a special version of the helmet that removed the front and back flanges, giving it a much more streamlined appearance. The basic shape of the helmet would go on to become the basis for most modern helmets, especially as the shape was well suited to wearing a headset under it.

*'''''Stielhandgranate'':''' Often called "stick grenades" or "potato mashers," these are those grenades on sticks you see the Germans always using. Used by popping off the metal cap at the end of the stick, giving the cord which doubled as a fuse a good yank, and throwing it to your target (of course, before the fuse went off). The Stielhandgranate is what is called a "offensive" grenade known now as a "concussive" grenade. The difference is an offensive grenade uses explosive pressure waves to kill an enemy, thus allowing you to use it while advancing without getting a face full of shrapnel, while a defensive grenade (like the US "pineapple" grenade) uses shrapnel to kill an enemy, affecting a much larger area but also putting you in the blast radius, hence they were designed to be thrown over the wall of a fox hole or trench line at advancing enemy troops while you keep your head down. The reason the Stielhandgranate has the stick is to give you more leverage when throwing it as compared to a round grenade, which worked but nonetheless history moved past the concept and grenades on sticks didn't keep.
**'''''Geballte Ladung'':''' Take your grenades off of their sticks, wrap them all up around one stick grenade, and tie them up around it with something. You see, as the Stielhandgranate was basically just a head of TNT lit up after the fuse at the end of the stick reached the explosive filler in the head, cramming more of these explosive heads around one will lead to a bigger boom when that one goes off like planting more TNT on the same detonation location will, though the added weight would reduce the range advantage of hurling it by the stick and made it harder to carry them en masse (regular Stielhandgranates were only barely harder to attach to someone than actual sticks and soldiers could easily cram them just about anywhere on their person). This "bundled charge" was improvised for use against harder targets, like armored vehicles (though it didn't take long in World War 2 for this to become useless against tanks) and buildings. Six/Nine explosive heads fit nicely when tied around one stick grenade's head on the horizontal plane parallel to the head's circular ends, which was the usual upper limit for this improvisation, though logically it would be quite possible to tie even more around the grenade while making it even more difficult to throw and making it more resemble an explosive charge that you can't expect to throw very far with a stick in it.

*'''''Nebelwerfer'':''' A family of weapons whose very name means "Fog/Mist Thrower"; they were listed as smoke screen launchers before the war (to get around the Treaty of Versailles), but in truth were rather deadly artillery pieces designed to deploy chemical munitions; though barring a few isolated instances on the Eastern Front, chemical weapons were never used in any meaningful capacity during the war, likely because Hitler had survived gas attacks in the last war and drew the line at using them himself, along with the fact that using chemical weapons would invite retaliation. These types of weapons included some mortars, but more importantly, rocket artillery. Between the wars, there was a fair bit of interest in new rocket designs; as conventional artillery was either strictly regulated or forbidden by the Treaty of Versailles; and the Nazis knew they had a use for that. These rockets were inaccurate, but you could easily fire a whole bunch of the things off at once for a good saturation bombing, though thanks to the smoke you had to scoot away afterwards or the other side would drop their own artillery right on top of you. The rocket based system made a very distinctive sound. The Germans nicknamed the thing "Heulende Kuh" (Bellowing Cow) and US troops would come to call them "Screaming Mimi" and "Moaning Minnie".
**In the later phases of the war, the Germans would also mount the launcher onto a half-track and designate it a "Panzerwerfer" (Armored Thrower). In many ways a German analogue to the BM-21, the Panzerwerfer saw intensive use during the Battle of the Bulge.

*'''Goliath:''' A remotely controlled mini-vehicle on treads, stuffed full of explosives. They were driven up to an enemy tank or a bunker and then blown up. (Games Workshop stole the idea and design for the Imperial Guard [[Cyclops Demolition Vehicle|Cyclops]].) Good idea, but the execution was lacking since Radio Control wasn't good enough yet. They had a cable like some sort of bargain remote-controlled car which limited their range dramatically, and cutting this would utterly defeat the weapon. (At least it's not as bad as the Russians and their kamikaze dogs which they trained to run under tanks, that is, THEIR OWN TANKS, but I digress...) On the flip side, American soldiers often made great fun with captured Goliaths by riding them around as the tiny thing could carry quite a load.

*'''Flammenwerfer:''' A werfer zat werfs flammen. Your standard flamethrower in both name and function, though there wasn't much use for it - There were no real line wars like in WW1 where people sat in <s>comfy</s> little (hell) holes and took potshots at each other. not to say they weren't used. but unlike the trench wars of WW1 most of the fighting was mobile rather than static. For added nastiness, some bigger ones were mounted in Flammpanzers, able to shoot hundreds of liters of sticky, burning fuck you over distances exceeding 50 meters. Getting issued one was generally regarded one of the least desirable jobs on all sides of the war, Flamethrower operators were prime targets for reasons that should be obvious but also because everyone shot them on the spot when they surrendered. It also bears mentioning that actually firing a flamethrower is a ''very'' unpleasant sensation.

*'''8.8cm flak gun:''' Known as the "Acht-Acht", this is THE German gun of world war two, and it sums up the German experience in the first part of the war; of never being truly ready but by being very clever and doctrinally flexible. The 88mm was designed as an anti-air weapon (Flak standing for ''Fliegerabwehrkanöne'', or AA gun) built to throw a high explosive shell as high into the air as it could so that it could explode somewhere in the same ballpark as the enemy plane and put one piece of shrapnel into something important and bring it down, which is a role it preformed throughout the war. However against the heavy allied tanks such as the British Matilda 1 and French B1, the German tanks of the time had no ability to penetrate their frontal armor The the 8.8 cm flak guns however, thanks to the high muzzle speed required to fire their explosive shell so high into the air, were able to deal with enemy tanks at unparalleled ranges at the time. So the guns were pulled to the front by a certain Erwin Rommel during the battle of Arras, the barrels lowered, a French-British tank-heavy counterattack stopped; and it snowballed from there. In case your wondering, the reason why the 88's had anti-tank rounds was because while not designed to deal with enemy tanks, they had a secondary role in busting enemy bunkers and fortifications, hence why an ANTI-AIR gun had an AP round. Germany quickly pushed to have both a proper PaK version of the 88 (Pak standing for ''Panzerabwehrkanöne'', or AT gun) that had a lower profile, was easier to move around and had a shield to stop stray bullets from decimating the crew; and a tank armed with the 88 as it became clear that against the soviet union, tanks were only going to get stronger. Which is why the Tiger I is a metal slab with a huge gun: its job was to get an 88mm gun into the battlefield as fast as possible. Using AA guns as AT guns was such a good idea that the US did the same thing with their 90mm AA gun converting it into a anti-tank weapon for the M36 tank destroyer and the Pershing tank; and so did the Russians with their 85 mm gun for the upgunned versions of the T-34 and KV-1. The Imperial Guard Basilisk cannon looks almost exactly like the Flak 88.

*'''2 cm Flak 30/38/Flakvierling:''' Remember the "Acht-Acht"? Now add two of these smaller guns to each flak 88 site, hill, hedge, ditch and rooftop in Europe and watch the fireworks. The German answer to the question of "enuff dakka" in a more reasonable package than MG42 which went through metal reserves was this little bastard, which was like an American 30.cal [[Bolter|firing explosive ''and'' armor piercing rounds]]. Obviously devastating to infantry and aircraft, it even rained sufficient hailstorms of rounds that damaged and threw off approaching lightly armored vehicles enough to make a difference, and given luck, it could rip through tank tracks too. And the Germans made 150.000 of these fuckers. And those 150.000 Bolter-Expies, these unsung weapons, did more damage and inflict casualties than any other weapon during the Normandy landing and the push inland. [https://www.quora.com/In-WW2-why-did-the-Germans-never-develop-heavy-machine-guns-like-M2-Browning-for-their-half-tracks-SP-guns-and-tanks/answer/Allyson-Kliff As explained here.]

*'''Kooky Coal Chemistry:''' Germany lacked a lot of strategic resources, but if there was one thing they did have in bulk was coal and by gum the nazis did their best to make the most of it. German was a leader in Industrial Chemistry specifically of this well before Hitler came to power, but the prospect of independence from foreign imports was like Catnip to Ultranationalist wack-a-doodles such as the Nazis. German companies worked out ways of making Gasoline from Coal, rubber from Coal, lubricants were made from Coal and even freakin' Margarine from coal. However a fair number of these methods were also rather expensive and needed a lot of resources to work (using 4.5 tonnes of coal to make 1 tonne of gasoline), with only Synthetic Rubber really catching on Post-War (so much so that Standard Oil of New Jersey, who had the exclusive rights to make the synthetic rubber in the US stemming from an odd business deal struck in the 20s was basically forced via presidential decree to make the process common knowledge).

*'''The S-mine:''' The Sprengmine (jumping mine), or, to use the name US soldiers gave it, "Bouncing Betty", was one of the most widely used and most effective, weapons of its class. It was a mine that when triggered 'bounced' about three feet into the air before exploding at about waist height in an 'air burst', able to inflict casualities (The military definition of the word meaning more then just dead) at up to 140 feet. And it had a tendency to not kill you, but maim you. [[Grimdark|A deliberate decision, as the Nazis estimated that a wounded soldier takes up a lot more resources than a dead one.]] Later in the war, some were made out of glass and even pottery, with minimal metal parts, to make them even harder to find. Suffice to say, they still havent found all of them... 1.93 million S-mines were made and it was widely copied after the war, these things are still killing people to this day as old mines forgot about are stepped on and the explosive proves itself still good. While the S-mine is hardly unique in that regard (Unexploded US aircraft bombs and shells make up the bulk of what they still find in Germany, around 2,000 pounds year according to the Smithsonian) land mines, like the S-mine, are still dug up by the truck load in North Africa.

*'''Pervitin:''' Not a traditional weapon as such, but a key element in how the Nazis blitzkrieg tactics were so effective, Pervitin was a methamphetamine drug that provided the base recipe for today's crystal meth and which was distributed to all members of the Nazi military. Its powerful stimulatory effect enabled them to fight harder for longer, and was essential in the breakneck races from the border to the battlefield. With all of the Nazi troopers hopped up on this drug, which later incorporated cocaine for increased effectiveness, Nazi forces could keep fighting effectively well after their enemies were worn out. At least until their supply lines were cut and addiction/withdrawal symptoms crippled them all, that is. The use of pervitin was cut drastically after the France campaign for that reason (and for fear of long-term side effects, especially when discipline issues started mounting), though many pilots and tank crew members still used it readily, especially during Stalingrad (with the hilarious side effect of turning into an on-the-spot popsicle when the crash came). It could also be issued for important operations. The idea that all Wehrmacht soldiers were drooling junkies is however wrong, funny, but wrong. It has a fascinating legacy that lasted much longer than the Third Reich did: The Bundeswehr and NVA (Armed forces of Communist East Germany) kept stockpiles of it well into the 70s for emergency use and for paratroopers, as did the US Army in Vietnam. The first climb of Mount Everest in 1953 also saw extensive use of Pervitin and President John F. Kennedy used it to treat his chronic back pain.

*'''''Hs 293 & Fritz-X'':''' Another German WWII oddity, the Hs 293 and Fritz-X were basically remote-controlled bombs and the grand-parents of modern precision-guided ammo. In an effort to improve bombing accuracy without having to dive at the target, they came up with this idea: take a huge bomb, add small wings with control surfaces, actuators, a radio receiver and a big flare up the bomb's arse so the bombardier can see where it's going (and a rocket booster in the case of the Hs 293); and then add a radio transmitter with a joystick in the airplane so the bombardier can correct its descent. There you go, highly precise steerable bomb. It actually worked really well, but not without drawbacks: drop altitude was limited, since the bombardier needed to keep a line of sight on the flare, like all radio transmission it could be jammed and lastly the bomber had to remain in level flight during the bomb's entire descent to allow the bombardier to steer it. Ultimately the bombs only saw limited anti-ship use, the combination of limited drop altitude and level flight made the bomber a way too easy prey for any fighter defending its target. Still, they were pretty efficient weapons in the right circumstances as the ''Roma'', the ''Littorio'' and the ''Warspite'' can attest to.

*'''Kettenkrad (Sd. Kfz 2)''': Those stylish tracked motor cycles, build as a light general-purpose platform that could do basically anything, from reconnaissance to lying down telephone and radio cables and towing light AT-guns and artillery pieces. A very solid design in general, it was very manuverable for its weight, had great off-road capabilities and was very easy to drive; if you knew how to drive a motor cycle you could drive a Kettenkrad. This was achieved by a rather complex steering gear that used the front wheel to steer it when making turns of about 8°, when making sharper turns a mechanism slowed down one of the tracks. It remained in production and use throughout the entire war and even after it, as its engine was about on par with that of a small tractor and decommissioned Kettenkrads quickly proved a popular and cheap asset for farmers, forresters and even firefighters in Germany after the war. So popular, that production of new Kettenkrads was only ceased in 1951, making it, the Gewehr 98, and a version of the MG-42 the only pieces of german military engineering whose production run outlived the Nazi regime.

*'''Kübelwagen''': In the 1930s, there were not many cars in Germany with domestic production being pretty low, the Nazis thought that it would be a big propaganda boom if they could fix that. As such they gathered up a bunch of German Engineers to try to design a car that was A: reasonably comfortable, B: got good fuel economy and C: cheap and easy to mass produce so that the Average Aryan Arbeiter could afford one and began building a factory to mass produce them. This People's Car was the Volkswagon Beetle, with production beginning in 1938 to much fanfare. But in truth only a small number of them were made as Civie Cars by the Reich and those that were made were given away to Nazi-Party members as presents. More of them however were converted into Kübelwagens, the Nazi's equivalent to the Jeep.

*'''''Zimmerit''''': Ever wondered why so many German Tanks had such a patchy look? and why German WW2 tanks are such a bitch to model? This stuff is the reason. ''Zimmerit'' was a thick paste consisting of Barium Sulfate, Polyvinyl acetate, Zinc Sulfide and some filling material that was applied at the end of tank production in thick layers with spatulas, giving it its distict look. ''Zimmerit'' served as a reliable protection against magnetic anti-tank grenades like the German ''Hafthohlladung'' or . . . nothing. No other nation other then Germany deployed a magnetic anti-tank mine during the war, though concerns that the Hafthohlladung could be easily copied made the idea of Zimmerit a decent idea at the start of the war. However rumours about it igniting after sustaining hits lead to an order to cease production and application of the stuff on tanks. The rumours were never proven, but applying the stuff took days at best and by 1944 the German High Command didn't really want to bother with it anymore, especially since rocket propelled AT-weaponry like the Bazooka made magnetic mines obsolete anyway.

*'''Jerrycans''': Yes, the instantly recognizable jerrycan is in fact a German invention, which given that the Germans in WW1 and 2 were derogatory known as 'jerrys' does make a lot of sense in hindsight. Designed by Wehrmacht Engineers in the late 30s as an improvement over predecessors, which required special tools and funnels to fill, a task that was tedious and took up a lot of time, not to mention how bulky they were. The perfection of the jerrycan design cannot be understated; it's easy to stack, fill, takes up fairly little space and you can carry around a lot of them. The Germans were aware they had struck logistical-design gold and troops were under orders to destroy theirs cans rather than risk their capture, but unfortunately for them the design was brought to the Allies' attention when the American Paul Weiss traveled with a German friend through the entirety of India and realized that his modified car had no storage for reserve water, said German friend who had access to the German reserve stockpile of jerrycans brought them with him on the tour (though also fortunately for the Germans, it wouldn't be until 1943 that any of their enemies would mass-produce the can). After the tour, Weiss shared the design with the American military, who reverse engineered the thing and issued it to every motorized company in the US Army.

*'''The Gas Chambers''': One of the darkest inventions of the Nazis, the Gas Chambers were used to facilitate mass genocide on an industrial scale, human sacrifice on the level of factory farming. Anyone the Nazis deemed "undesirable" were sent to be executed regardless of age, although those capable of sustained labor were worked ragged first in camps before being sent to their deaths. Jews and Romani, Unenslaved Africans, educated Slavs and the Physically Deformed, the Mentally Handicapped and the Crippled, if you didn't fit into Adolf Hitler's insane dream of an All-Aryan Ubermensch World, you were sent to die a horrid death as the Zyklon-B gas choked you to death. The Gas Chambers were the result of a concerted effort to find the most efficient way to kill large numbers of humans covertly and with minimal involvement. At first, the victims of the holocaust were simply lined up and shot by ''Einsatzgruppen'' death squads but that was too messy and was deemed to hard on the men doing the butchery. Vans with the exhaust funneled into the rear compartment were used next, but these were seen as too costly in terms of fuel and machines before stationary extermination facilities using rat poison were worked out as the most effective way to go about it. A cold and chilly logical methodology of planning to achieve the goals of rampant hatred.

== C3i Waffen ==

Not exactly their strongest area...

*'''Enigma:''' Enigma was a communications scheme based on a sophisticated but easy to use electromechanical encryption/decryption device resembling a cross between a typewriter and an odometer. When used with proper procedures it was the one of the most secure means of communication available in the world for its time, offering effectively 76 bit encryption with 1920's technology in a device that was superior to anything the allies had. SIGABA was comparably secure but far heavier and fragile, and the M-209 was far inferior in both ease of use and encryption strength (although it was still adequate). However the combination of lax discipline, reuse of settings, and notes from a polish customs inspection of an enigma device resulted in the technology being reverse engineered and cryptographic attacks being discovered. Only Kriegsmarine communications remained difficult to decrypt by the end of the war, due to their practice of using secret codebooks to further compress their messages prior to encryption. Has become known for being completely cracked by a British team led by a gay man, only for him to be arrested and almost chemically neutered before committing suicide. Because yes, back then potentially saving the lives of hundreds of thousands did not make up for liking the dick.

*'''Bombing Beams:''' Wouldn't you know it, the Instrument Landing System used today at pretty much every major airport was originally invented to 'land' bombs on London in the middle of the night when the lights are out. By using narrow radio beams the Nazis could steer bombers to a precalculated drop point. All the pilots had to do was maintain a certain speed and altitude, and then drop their bombs when the signal detector said they should... except when the British were fucking with them. Towards the end they were fucking with them so hard German bomber pilots were landing at RAF bases believing they were in France. When it actually worked, such as at Coventry, it was more accurate than daytime saturation bombing, with most bombs falling within 90 meters of the beam centerline. This system is why Nazi bombing raids tended to less of a brief swarm like the allies used and more of a continuous bomb conveyor belt lasting most of the night; they would line up single file along the approach beam, and then after they hit the drop beam they'd change altitude, turn around, follow the beam back across the channel; no visibility needed. The British figured this out and started using their television antennas (which had far greater power output) to mess with the system. If the Nazis had continued to improve this technology with ECCM and built a lot more bombers instead of squandering money on Wunderwaffen, they probably would have won the Battle of Britain (even then, Göring would have found a way to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory).

*'''Tank Radios:''' While today we take it for granted that any trooper anywhere in the galaxy could get a call from the emperor himself to execute order 66, this wasn't always the case. Throughout the 1930's, all German armored vehicles had radios, while their opponents would typically only have a radio for the unit commander. This was an enormous advantage for Nazi tank units that remained the case basically until America showed up. The Nazis also had the Torn.Fu.d2, a backpack portable infantry radio comparable to the American SCR-300, although they didn't distribute them as widely as the Americans did. This was an organizational thing; Germany dealt with communications by assigning a signals battalion to each division and delegating resources as needed, while the Americans always had radios at company level and sometimes had SCR-536 handy-talkies for individual platoons, the ideal being that every American officer's best ''weapon'' was their radioman. The main problem the Germans had with radios was that lots of American soldiers were fluent in German (and German isn't that different from English to begin with).

*'''Zuse Z3''': Lo and behold, for you look at the very first freely programmable digital computer in the world. Completed by Mathematician and Electronics Engineer Conrad Zuse in 1941, it was kept in extreme secrecy, so much so that it was rarely put into use. The rare times it was used, its purpose was to calculate trajectories for V2 rockets. Zuse advocated for its use in the war effort, but the original (and at the time only) device was destroyed in an allied bombing raid in 1943. Zuse built an improved successor, the Z4, just before the war came to a close. Although conditionally Turing complete, physically the Z3 was less advanced in implementation than its peers. Zuse was not able to procure thermionic components (vacuum tubes were in critically short supply for radios and radars in Germany) and so had to rely on electromechanical relays from phone switching gear; in practical terms this meant that the Z3 ran much slower than even purpose built non-Turing complete calculators such as the Atanasoff-Berry or the Colossus. The Z3 itself received little immediate recognition outside of Germany partly because of the American ENIAC computer; the strict secrecy Zuse worked under lead to the Z3 falling into relative obscurity, until the invalidation of the Sperry Rand patents in the 1970's, which hinged partly on Zuse's own patents which had been licensed to IBM as early as 1946 (FYI: you're reading this page on a computer today partly because those Sperry patents died; a year later the Altair 8800 began the long road of upstart Davids bringing down industry Goliaths). Today, a replica of the Z3, built in the 70s (which the by then over 80 year old Zuse himself built alone and [[awesome|from memory]]) can be found in the German Museum in Munich. The only surviving (and probably only completed) Z4 computer was used as the main computer of the Mathematical Devision of the University of Zürich, Switzerland, until 1958, when it was sold to the German Museum in Munich where it remains to this day. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUXnhVrT4CI An example of the Z3 working can be viewed here. (Video in German, good automatic translated English subtitles are available)]

[[Category:History]]